The whole thing remains curious. It will probably stay that way. No one seems to know what Chip Kelly is doing and thinking, except Chip Kelly, and even then it depends on the variables.
Money. It was about money and cap space and you just can’t keep everyone. That was the company line last Wednesday. At that point, LeSean McCoy and Jeremy Maclin and Nick Foles were gone. Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell and Sam Bradford were in. Kelly said the Eagles would have loved to “keep everybody” and “pay everybody,” but he reminded us that it’s not baseball and they’re “limited by a cap number.” He said the “biggest factor” with McCoy was the money.
“The way we looked at it,” Kelly said, "is we got (LB) Kiko Alonso and (CB) Byron Maxwell for LeSean McCoy and the bottom line is almost every decision that you have to make is governed by money."
Cool. Makes total sense.
The next day they signed DeMarco Murray. They gave Murray $21 million guaranteed (contract breakdown here), then tossed another $5 million guaranteed at Ryan Mathews. Between what they owe Murray, Mathews and Darren Sproles, the Eagles figure to have more money invested in running backs this upcoming season than any other team in the league, and it probably won’t be close.
Not so cool. Makes far less sense.
If the McCoy move was about money — as it first appeared when they courted, and were later spurned by, Frank Gore — then why suddenly juke and shift direction like a running back that won’t just hit the hole? Why free up all that money, then dump it back into the same position when there are still so many other needs? Why not toss more of it at the offensive line — since they cut Todd Herremans and might be shopping Evan Mathis — or the secondary? Why not sprinkle some among the wideouts or pass rushers?
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And if it was about money, if the plan, such as it is, was initially rooted in fiscal prudence, why flip Foles (and picks) for Bradford when Bradford is currently scheduled to make north of $12 million more than Foles this season? Yes, they might restructure Bradford’s deal, but until they do the cap hit is significant. The problem with saying it’s about money is that people get confused when you make a neat little pile of it for yourself and then immediately take a match to it. At present, when you account for the cost of the projected roster/draft pool, the Eagles have very little cap space left. They had a lot for a second, and now they don’t. Poof. That’s a strange magic trick.
If the plan was about money in the beginning, it felt like it stopped being about money — or, for that matter, stopped being a plan — when Gore changed his mind. The Eagles suddenly seemed less proactive than reactionary. That happens. But the position that they had to clean up their cap sheet and be smart with their money — which was a good impulse — was thrown overboard for reasons that still surpass understanding.
Even if you don’t believe in the curse of 370 — and there are good arguments against it — it’s hard to ignore Murray’s massive workload last year. He carried the ball 392 times. That’s the seventh-most in NFL history and the most since 2006. And that was just his regular-season carries. He had 44 more in the playoffs. That’s a lot for a guy with a long injury history.
But, hey, they brought in Mathews — a guy with his own injury issues — to do some of the heavy lifting. Lighten the load a little for Murray, right? That’s part of the current narrative, along with the now-reflexive (and shaky) opinion that Murray is somehow a better fit for Kelly’s system because he’ll hit the hole rather than dance as McCoy sometimes did. Here’s the trouble with the Mathews-will-keep-Murray fresh argument: If they can’t lean on Murray whenever they need, if they can’t lean on him a lot because they’re worried he might warp, why give him all that money? And if they are going to lean on him, why give Mathews $5 million when Polk could give Murray a breather now and then for a smaller price tag?
The money thing doesn’t make sense. Not with Murray. Not with Bradford, either. Even if Kelly really believes that Bradford, who has blown out two knees, is significantly better than Foles, is Bradford $12 million better? It’s hard to imagine they couldn’t have put that money to better use.
It was about money — until it was about something else. Whatever this is really about, Kelly is under a lot more pressure now than before, and it’s his doing.