McCoy for Alonso

[12intheBox]

Eagles cut 9.4 million with this move according to Peter King

 

[LACHAMP46]

Eagles cut 9.4 million with this move according to Peter King

Cut a lot more than that, team leader, top 3 rusher last 3 years, good community guy....strange. Trent Cole, Cary Williams, Shady, who next....all in one off season....

 

[12intheBox]

In a salary cap league - you need RBs on their rookie deals - not their big $$ deals.

Fresher legs and you spend the $$ where experience the really matters.

If there were no cap, this move makes no sense at all - but as it is .....

 

[LesBaker]

Maybe. But plenty of guys worse than him have lasted far longer. If he gets Mariota, honestly, without giving up everything, I wouldn't be surprised to see him stay for quite some time in Philly.

Mariota is one very, very slender dude and the NFL is of course way different than college ball.

He's seems like one of those good college guys who aren't good enough for Sundays.

 

[LosAngelesRams]

Eagles are crazy. They'll probably trade all their draft picks for Mariota too.

yup

 

[Zombie Slayer]

This surprised me for sure. Especially since Alonso coming off an injury. If the Eagles get a decent replacement and Alonso comes back from injury then it'll be a great deal for them. Really all depends on that for me. Eagles better hope he comes back healthy.

 

[Afro Ram]

Oh dear god NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I don't know, Foles could be one of the better short term plans I can think of.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

I think the Eagles won this trade despite Alonso's knee. If Kiko can pull off a Thomas Davis like recovery, playing him with Kendrick's in the middle is a big upgrade for the defense. Alonso had 159 tackles in his rookie year, albeit behind a very good DLine.

One rumor was that Chip Kelly thought that McCoy was too much of an East West runner and he prefers a more downhill type. Plus he and LeSean weren't all that chummy.


The Eagles win just by dumping that contract alone. Paying a RB that much in a year that has so many good ones in the draft didn't make sense. I could see Ameer Abdullah playing for chip next year, or Jeremy Langford, Duke Johnson, David Johnson.....lots to choose from.

 

[ausmurp]

Oh dear god NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

You mean YESSSSSSS! Foles is a good QB. We will make the playoffs with him as our starter. He is just like Flacco and that is exactly what this team needs.

 

[ausmurp]

I don't know. McCoy is the closest thing to Marshall Faulk in todays game. I think the bills got the better of this deal just like did with Faulk. Theyre a QB away seriously.

 

[Prime Time]

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/03/04/lesean-mccoy-kiko-alonso-bills-eagles-trade-nfl/

Drew Hallowell/Getty Images

The Trade That Rocked (or Will Rock) the NFL
LeSean McCoy for Kiko Alonso?! The Eagles and Bills reportedly are poised to pull off a stunning deal that shows how serious Rex Ryan is about winning now in Buffalo and how little Chip Kelly values the RB position in Philly. Plus, reader mail
By Peter King

In what will be one of the most interesting trades in recent NFL history, the Eagles have agreed to send 2013 NFL rushing champion LeSean McCoy to Buffalo for middle linebacker Kiko Alonso when the league year opens for business next week.

Adam Schefter of ESPN first reported the news Tuesday night. It’s a fascinating deal, and it comes out of left field. No one saw this coming. No one.

Alonso, the 46th pick in the 2013 draft, had a terrific rookie season anchoring the middle of the Buffalo defense, but he suffered a knee injury last summer and was forced to miss all of 2014. So, assuming he passes his Philadelphia physical, he’ll enter camp with the Eagles this summer—under his former Oregon coach, Chip Kelly—as a rehabbing player.

McCoy has rushed for 2,926 yards over the past two years as the Eagles’ prime runner; only DeMarco Murray of Dallas, with 2,966, has more yards over the past two years. In Buffalo, McCoy immediately becomes the centerpiece of new coach Rex Ryan’s ground-loving offense. Ryan, without a quarterback he trusts, now has three backs (and he will not enter camp with three prime backs, to be sure) to choose from, at least for the moment.

C.J. Spiller and Fred Jackson become available immediately—Spiller as an unrestricted free agent and Jackson as an aging back with limited value. This is now McCoy’s offense, and you can expect him to run it 350 times if healthy. Ryan won’t worry about McCoy’s future. With the Buffalo defense being so good, there’s no way Ryan is going to trying to “save” McCoy. The future is now in Buffalo.

Kiko Alonso (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

But what is the future in Philadelphia, and why did vaunted coach Chip Kelly deal a back in his prime for a linebacker coming off knee surgery?

How this happened is a developing story. Quoting a Bills’ source, Mike Silver of NFL Media wrote Tuesday night, “This went down in 20 minutes.” But I’m told Kelly had soured on McCoy, feeling he ran too much east-west and not enough north-south. Kelly also is a believer in the quarterback being the most important player on the offense (no surprise there), followed by the five-man offensive line. Not that Kelly thinks the running back can plug and play in his offense, but he certainly feels he can win games without a franchise back. He proved that by making this bold and stunning trade.

There is very likely not a simple answer to the question of why Kelly would trade McCoy. But here is one clue: In 2015, McCoy’s salary-cap charge will be $10.25 million. McCoy is working on his second contract. Alonso, meanwhile, has a 2015 cap charge of $796,000. So part of the Eagles’ decision had to come down to saving $9.4 million and obtaining a player Kelly is familiar with, and admires a lot.

The deal leaves the Eagles relatively barren at the every-down running back position. Darren Sproles is an excellent change-up back and third-down difference maker. Kelly loved him. But Kelly also knows it isn’t smart to overuse Sproles. Entering free agency, undrafted Chris Polk, a fourth-year back from Washington, would be the nominal leader in the depth chart at running back.

But Kelly will certainly add to his depth there, likely in free agency, and certainly with a rookie either in the spring draft or through college free agency. Ironically, Spiller would be a perfect fit for what Kelly does. But it’s likely he would be too expensive for the Eagles, who view running backs as complementary pieces, not franchise players.

Assuming this trade goes through—and there is no reason to expect that it will not—this is what we should take from the event of Tuesday night: Kelly cleared cap room at a position he doesn’t value highly. Rex Ryan, who wants to play a ground-and-pound style of offense, gets one of the five best runners in football. And the Bills suddenly become less fearful of an offense without a franchise quarterback.

For Kelly to come out of this looking smart, his offense is going to have to be explosive. And now without a running back with franchise value, and with no certainty about who can play quarterback for him this season, Kelly has his work cut out in free agency and the draft.

The trade of Alonso also makes an intriguing free-agent situation quite possible, one week before free agency begins March 10. One of Ryan’s favorite players with the Jets, middle linebacker David Harris, is one of the best linebackers on the market. You can be sure Ryan would be thrilled to add, in one fell swoop, the leader of his defense after landing the leader of his offensive attack in McCoy.

For what is supposed to be a pretty dead time in the NFL calendar, early March yielded a fascinating story Tuesday night.

 

[jrry32]

This was a shocker...I'm thinking Philly might regret giving Kelly personnel power. Man, if Buffalo can grab a guy like Mike Glennon or Nick Foles or any starting caliber QB, they're a playoff team.

You mean YESSSSSSS! Foles is a good QB. We will make the playoffs with him as our starter. He is just like Flacco and that is exactly what this team needs.

Foles isn't Flacco. He doesn't have Flacco's arm. And Flacco is just a ridiculous playoff QB. Foles hasn't shown that yet either.

 

[jrry32]

I think the Eagles won this trade despite Alonso's knee. If Kiko can pull off a Thomas Davis like recovery, playing him with Kendrick's in the middle is a big upgrade for the defense. Alonso had 159 tackles in his rookie year, albeit behind a very good DLine.

One rumor was that Chip Kelly thought that McCoy was too much of an East West runner and he prefers a more downhill type. Plus he and LeSean weren't all that chummy.


The Eagles win just by dumping that contract alone. Paying a RB that much in a year that has so many good ones in the draft didn't make sense. I could see Ameer Abdullah playing for chip next year, or Jeremy Langford, Duke Johnson, David Johnson.....lots to choose from.

Eagles have plenty of cap room. There are certain guys worth every penny of a big contract...even HBs. I'd happily pay Adrian Peterson $10+ million a year if we had the cap room.

Only so many great/elite players in this league. You pay them what they're worth and you don't regret it.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

Eagles have plenty of cap room. There are certain guys worth every penny of a big contract...even HBs. I'd happily pay Adrian Peterson $10+ million a year if we had the cap room.

Only so many great/elite players in this league. You pay them what they're worth and you don't regret it.

Well if his coach thinks he runs sideways to much and not downhill enough then Kelly apparently figures he is not worth that kind of money. Kelly should have no problem replacing him with a runningback in this draft. There are a lot that can run straight ahead.

 

[Zaphod]

Steven Jackson maybe?

 

[Athos]

Well if his coach thinks he runs sideways to much and not downhill enough then Kelly apparently figures he is not worth that kind of money. Kelly should have no problem replacing him with a runningback in this draft. There are a lot that can run straight ahead.

That's just a weird criticism though to me for a RB that AVG 4.6 yards/rush and 7 TDs/season.

That said, there are plenty of RBs in this draft, but they'll miss all the goods ones by trading picks for Mariota.

10 mil is a shit load for a RB though.

I think they might be just happy spending some FA bucks shoring up the D or maybe upgrade Cooper or something.

 

[LACHAMP46]

I don't know, Foles could be one of the better short term plans I can think of.

You mean YESSSSSSS! Foles is a good QB. We will make the playoffs with him as our starter. He is just like Flacco and that is exactly what this team needs.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/F/FoleNi00.htm

http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/gamelog/_/id/14877/nick-foles

Look closely at the games vs San Fran, Az, and us....Dude doesn't want to see elite defenses. 2012 was a miracle....

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

That's just a weird criticism though to me for a RB that AVG 4.6 yards/rush and 7 TDs/season.

That said, there are plenty of RBs in this draft, but they'll miss all the goods ones by trading picks for Mariota.

10 mil is a crap load for a RB though.

I think they might be just happy spending some FA bucks shoring up the D or maybe upgrade Cooper or something.

He did not repeat his 2013 season last year. But McCoy still rushed for 1,319 yards, third in the NFL, behind an offensive line riddled with injuries. It was decried as his worst year as a starter, however. And many noticed McCoy occasionally had trouble hitting the hole. After the trade, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King said he heard Kelly found McCoy too much of an east-west runner. McCoy struggled to start the season, even as the Eagles opened the year with a 3-1 record. In the Eagles’ three-game December losing streak that knocked the team out of playoff contention, McCoy rushed 55 times for 204 yards – 3.67 yards a carry. New Bills coach Rex Ryan is still getting a running back who has been one of the best in the league in two of the last four seasons, but it’s also a running back with a lot of mileage on the odometer.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/mar/04/eagles-coach-chip-kelly-doubles-down-with-shock-trade-of-lesean-McCoy

I guess when your the coach you see things differently than the fans.

I agree that 10 mil is a crap load for a RB. It doesn't matter who he is. RBs have short shelf lives and are always replaceable, especially on a pass heavy team. The days of running the ball 60-75 percent of the time are gone and even teams trying to feature the run cannot go back to that old formula and be competitive offensively. So the Feature RB is not as valuable of a commodity as the "Feature Oline"

 

[dieterbrock]

People are quick to put the "system player" label on QB, but why not RB??
Prior to Kelly, Shady averaged around 1,300 total yards from scrimmage a season
Has averaged 1,800 yards from scrimmage in 2 years under Kelly.
Not saying the guy isnt a good to great RB, but the top 5 stuff really came about recently

AP and Demarco Murray out there as FA too, just sayin

 

[Irish]

RB is a fantasy position, not an NFL position. I would never sign a RB to his free agent contract. Guys don't last long enough and demand too much money when they achieve moderate success. Younger, stronger, faster, cheaper guys in the draft every year.

Spend money on the difference makers who last: OT, QB, WR, CB. The rest take too many vicious hits game after game.