On March 3rd, Philadelphia and Buffalo agreed on a trade for LeSean McCoy for Kiko Alonso. McCoy, arguably the better player remains glued to a contract worth over 25 million over the next three years. Alonso still on his rookie contract is good for less than a tenth of that in the next two seasons.
McCoy’s a great running back. He really is. But going out and spending 7-9 million a year on a running back is like buying a ten dollar bottle of water. Sure it’s nice water. But you could buy water that hydrates just as well for pennies on the dollar elsewhere. Buffalo just sold the farm to buy a 26 year old running back. Now they’re committed to getting tackles and guards that can run block for him. When instead they should focus on solving the quarterback problem and mining the most gold out of the NFL draft.
Philadelphia on the other hand just freed up a ton of cap space. They can now cut DeMeco Ryans (a good but now unnecessary) linebacker and can pick up a talented running back on the cheap in free agency or in the draft. Or both. Their offense doesn’t need a power runner like McCoy to operate. It needs a fleet-footed passer and talented pass-catchers. The Eagles machine should still roll smoothly with tons of money to spend on free agency.
The Eagles won the battle but the outcome of the war of the offseason is to be determined. It’s hard to say what Chip Kelly’s game plan is. In two seasons he’s willingly thrown to the wind the Eagles’ two most exciting players. DeSean Jackson’s attention grabbing play hasn’t been replaced by Riley Cooper or Jeremy Maclin. And now the team cannot lean on a top-shelf runner when their QB struggles, which Foles and Sanchez both did last season. Whatever Coach Kelly’s got up his sleeve, he’s going to look awful silly after bleeding two of the team’s most electric players if the Eagles don’t take the NFL by storm this season.
Gridiron Seasonal 