When word came from Adam Schefter on Tuesday night that the Eagles had a deal in place to trade RB LeSean McCoy to Buffalo for linebacker Kiko Alonso, the axis of the world tilted, as is customary when NFL teams make player-for-player trades. The last straight-up player swap of note took place nearly two years ago when the Bills got Jerry Hughes from the Colts for Kelvin Sheppard.
McCoy-for-Alonso needless to say, is bigger than both those deals: even in an era where 30-year-old running backs are considered antiques with nitroglycerin for spinal fluid, it’s hard to fathom Kelly moving on from a 26-year-old who compiled more than 2000 yards from scrimmage for the Eagles two years ago. McCoy’s production did dip in 2014 (coinciding with the arrival of Darren Sproles) and there were questions about whether the Eagles would ask him to rework the remaining two years on his contract — he would have counted $11.95 million against the team’s salary cap in 2015.
Alonso was the Pro Football Writers Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2013. He is also a player still recovering from a torn ACL, his second serious knee injury. He has two years left on his initial rookie contract, which will be nice for the newly empowered Kelly, who now has nearly $50 million in cap space to spend in free agency. (If only there was a big prize out there worth spending it on…)
Alonso also played for Kelly at the University of Oregon. This is of vital importance. Presumably, he will understand why Kelly makes the team wear matching white jump suits to and from games. And why his coach prefers white socks on everyone. The always sharp Seth Wickersham detailed these sartorial clashes last August in a lengthy ESPN The Magazine piece that, read in retrospect, makes it pretty clear these two were fated not to work together much longer. The throughline is how McCoy came to trust his kooky and exacting coach and the kooky and exacting coach makes the back better at his craft– this kind of happens: McCoy has a thoughtful-but-determined look in the accompanying photo that suggests he understands this man from the west who has strong views on post-practice smoothies. Kelly isn’t interviewed, but he did keep feeding McCoy the ball in a December game on a snowpacked field, resulting in a career high 217 yards.
For the most part, they snipe and fight and just seem not to get each other. They literally don’t see things the same way on the field. A problem, as Wickersham explains:
Nothing angers Kelly like throttled speed, and it boils to the surface against the Bucs on Oct. 13 when McCoy is slow to an opening.
On the sideline, Kelly unloads: “Hit the damn hole, Shady!”
“There was no damn hole!
“Shut up!”
McCoy heads to the bench. But he can’t let it go. He brings Kelly a photo of the play and says, “Do you see a hole?”
Kelly returns to the game, and McCoy returns to wondering whether he can coexist with his coach.
But in the team meeting the next day, Kelly says something the players have never heard so explicitly from a head coach: “Shady and I got into it, and I was wrong.”
From there it’s largely just your typical Chip Kelly, sport science Svengali stuff. He doesn’t think Shady is getting enough sleep. The smoothie thing. He has an expert come in to teach everyone how to cleanse alcohol from their body — an extension of the smoothie thing. He makes Shady lose 10 pounds and pumps iron with the players. Nobody parties anymore in Atlantic City after games, though you can’t really blame Kelly for Al Harris retiring. Shady’s clearly primed for another great season and not even considering the possibility the Cowboys might be good or Mark Sanchez might have to take over at quarterback midway through the year. Yet he seems sad about something– truly, he seems like somebody who would enjoy himself more on a team coached by Rex Ryan where he gets 400 touches. Now it’s going to happen.
Kelly didn’t talk for the Wickersham piece, but he aired various grievances about Shady to the media during their time together — pressing too much for the big play, taking himself out of games at crucial times. Standard. During a year-end radio interview with WIP-FM, Kelly refused to guarantee McCoy would be back with the team in 2015, citing a highly unlikely scenario in which “someone gives us 17 first-round picks for LeSean.”
Nope. Just Kiko Alonso. But you never know, so Kelly always is going to listen. It’s what makes him dangerous.
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