Eagles and Bills: Major Trade

[gettlemanjack]

Paul Domowitch's article from January predicting the Eagles wouldn't keep McCoy because they couldn't afford both him and Maclin

"McCoy is only 26, but already has played six NFL seasons. His 1,461 carries rank ninth among active running backs. Most of the eight in front of him - Steven Jackson, Frank Gore, Willis McGahee, Chris Johnson, Maurice Jones-Drew - are on the downside of their careers. While the run game is a key element of Kelly's offense, he, like a growing number of other NFL coaches, might feel he can find a younger, cheaper replacement(s) in the draft.

Take a look at the leading rushers for this year's 12 playoff teams. The Seahawks' Marshawn Lynch is the only back with a salary-cap number above $5 million ($8M). The leading rushers for nine of the 12 playoff teams had a cap number under $2 million. And this year's draft is supposed to be especially rich and deep in running backs."

http://mobile.philly.com/sports/eagles/?wss=/philly/sports/eagles&id=290151411

and another article from March where he predicts it is not likely McCoy will be back:

"McCoy's 2015 cap number is $11.9 million, second highest among NFL running backs to Adrian Peterson ($15.4 million). Throw in Darren Sproles' $4.1 million cap number and have $16 million of the Eagles' 2015 salary cap (expected to be around $140 million) invested at running back. And that will increase even more once the Eagles tender restrict free agent Chris Polk. McCoy is only 26 and is one of the two or three best backs in the league. But he already has nearly 1,800 career touches. If his cap number were, say $5 million to $6 million, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. But it isn't. Chip Kelly has said he wants McCoy back, but at $11.9 million? Not likely."

http://www.goerie.com/PD-Philadelphia-Daily-News-Paul-Domowitch-column-0301

reactions on a Bills forum:

Is LeSean Worth Kiko AND a Ten Million Dollar Free Agent? Thats the question I have . LeSean makes about ten million dollars a year more than Kiko . So we could have had Kiko and whatever free agent you can get for ten million dollars a year . Or we could have LeSean . Personally I would take Kiko and the ten million dollar man .

Is the Eagles 1st round pick involved ? Cause if not , this trade is absurd ! McCoy is set to make $ 10 mill this year ! Kiko was set to be a beast making , what , $ 1 mill ? RB' s are a freaking dime a dozen in today ' s NFL ! Elite LB ' s are not ! Absurd.

Shady is on the downside of his career ; Kiko is a rising star . I don ' t like this trade at all .

I strongly dislike this trade . I live in Philly. Eagles fans are laughing at us . Again .

I work in sports media and everyone is laughing at me / us . SHADY WAS LIKELY GOING TO GET CUT ANYWAY .

We traded a rising star LB for a RB on who ' s on the downside of his career and making $ 11 mil a year in a QB driven league ( still don ' t have one of those , BTW) . Shady has had more carries than anybody in the league over the last 2 seasons. He' s 27 , but been in the league since 20 or 21 and has a lot of mileage. Bad trade .

When you have 30 million to spend and you spend 10 mil of that on a rb on a team that has not had a solid starting qb now in nearly 20 yrs , yea it has been a ongoing joke. Nothing surprises me anymore . I would not be surprised if the bills never again make the playoffs .

terrible move . this team is so much better suited for a 4 - 3 . wish we would have hired hue jackson and kept scwartz . our lbs would be set for 10 years with kiko - preston - nigel . whaley has set this organization back another 5 years.

Bills can' t help themselves but make terrible moves every 3 years in regards to their RBs .

I refuse to believe we did this . Running backs are a dime a dozen and solid linebackers are not .

excuse me , I gotta go vomit

Seriously, if this is legit , then I am livid and move right to the head of the Fire Whaley fanclub .

Really stupid . Dumb to get rid of Alonso but at least understandable if for a QB or high pick but not for a RB. Hope this is fake .

this can' t be real . . . Please dont be real

not fathomable how clueless our management is

This is a joke move . Im sick.

Terrible trade .

This is horrible

I can spit in a crowd of people at wal mart and hit a decent caliber running back , but we have been lackluster at LB for YEARS and now we get rid of a second year STUD for a 26 year old RB who may or may not be any more efficient than CJ ( who most certainly is gone now ) behind our line ??

Terrible. Can ' t believe this .

**** me in the goat *** I can' t believe this ****. **** kkkkkk

Sick to my stomach .

[WhoAmI?]

I'll tell you one thing though. That Eagles offense lost their explosiveness. First Jackson, now McCoy. I think Chip is in over his head, ESPECIALLY if he trades up for Mariota thinking he is going to be their savior. I see this ending badly.

[TheRumGone]

Yea I'm thinking they are going to go cheap on offense and use their cap defense heavy. Chip thinks he can win with lesser talent because of his scheme. Don't know if they trade up for Mariota though, still possible

[DeeJay]

They want Demarco.........

[O-Ther]

I'll tell you one thing though. That Eagles offense lost their explosiveness. First Jackson, now McCoy. I think Chip is in over his head, ESPECIALLY if he trades up for Mariota thinking he is going to be their savior. I see this ending badly.

 

Fine with me. We play the NFC East this year. Let them commit football suicide.

 

[Panthro]

Suh and Hardy to the Eagles

[CelticCat]

I think Buffalo fans are overrating Kiko a bunch. He started off really hot as a rookie (All 4 Ints by week 4) but he tailed off towards the end of the year and didn't even play at all last year. Not to mention the DL he played behind.

 

I get the cap implications favor Philly but the Bills clearly got the better talent IMO.

[gettlemanjack]

reactions on a Bills forum:

Is LeSean Worth Kiko AND a Ten Million Dollar Free Agent? Thats the question I have . LeSean makes about ten million dollars a year more than Kiko . So we could have had Kiko and whatever free agent you can get for ten million dollars a year . Or we could have LeSean . Personally I would take Kiko and the ten million dollar man .

Is the Eagles 1st round pick involved ? Cause if not , this trade is absurd ! McCoy is set to make $ 10 mill this year ! Kiko was set to be a beast making , what , $ 1 mill ? RB' s are a freaking dime a dozen in today ' s NFL ! Elite LB ' s are not ! Absurd.

Shady is on the downside of his career ; Kiko is a rising star . I don ' t like this trade at all .

I strongly dislike this trade . I live in Philly. Eagles fans are laughing at us . Again .

I work in sports media and everyone is laughing at me / us . SHADY WAS LIKELY GOING TO GET CUT ANYWAY .

We traded a rising star LB for a RB on who ' s on the downside of his career and making $ 11 mil a year in a QB driven league ( still don ' t have one of those , BTW) . Shady has had more carries than anybody in the league over the last 2 seasons. He' s 27 , but been in the league since 20 or 21 and has a lot of mileage. Bad trade .

When you have 30 million to spend and you spend 10 mil of that on a rb on a team that has not had a solid starting qb now in nearly 20 yrs , yea it has been a ongoing joke. Nothing surprises me anymore . I would not be surprised if the bills never again make the playoffs .

terrible move . this team is so much better suited for a 4 - 3 . wish we would have hired hue jackson and kept scwartz . our lbs would be set for 10 years with kiko - preston - nigel . whaley has set this organization back another 5 years.

Bills can' t help themselves but make terrible moves every 3 years in regards to their RBs .

I refuse to believe we did this . Running backs are a dime a dozen and solid linebackers are not .

excuse me , I gotta go vomit

Seriously, if this is legit , then I am livid and move right to the head of the Fire Whaley fanclub .

Really stupid . Dumb to get rid of Alonso but at least understandable if for a QB or high pick but not for a RB. Hope this is fake .

this can' t be real . . . Please dont be real

not fathomable how clueless our management is

This is a joke move . Im sick.

Terrible trade .

This is horrible

I can spit in a crowd of people at wal mart and hit a decent caliber running back , but we have been lackluster at LB for YEARS and now we get rid of a second year STUD for a 26 year old RB who may or may not be any more efficient than CJ ( who most certainly is gone now ) behind our line ??

Terrible. Can ' t believe this .

**** me in the goat *** I can' t believe this ****. **** kkkkkk

Sick to my stomach .

more reactions from a Bills forum:

Shady is about to be public enemy number 1 . He better show up to play. Thats for sure .

A 3 down LBer is invaluable in today ' s game . Especially one as skilled as Alonso . RB' s , even as skilled as McCoy , are not difference makers in a passing league . Eagles *** rape the Bills in this deal.

This is a crap move . Trade a great young defensive player for a position that is a dime a dozen all while we have no quarterback . He' s a great back , but I would ' ve been happier with Kiko and a RB in the draft .

Stupid **** ing *****s .

I ' ve been defending Whaley but man this is undefendable

i said it before . . . Whaley is a bad GM

Whaley needs to be gone by midnight

This is the worst move I have ever heard of . All faith in this FO is gone .

I am so **** ing mad right now I could spit ****ing nails.

RB' s are not as valuable as a good LBer . . . especially a LBer that is good in coverage .

like people have been saying a good LB is harder to find than a RB

Who the **** is responsible for this nonsense ?

Why would they do this ?

There ' s a few thing wrong with it but for me the biggest thing is your trading for a HB that has tread on his tires when this is the deepest position in the draft .

This was a stupid move . . . Period . You trade for an 11 million dollar RB?? Why not just sign Spiller ? That eats up a bunch of cap space . . Whaley has completely lost me with this move . Is McCoy a great player, sure he is but we traded away a great LB and paid top dollar to do so . Why not just go get Murray ? He likely would cost less and we would still have Kiko . Whaley got taken to the cleaners last year by the Eagles , they figured they would go to the well again I guess. For the record , McCoy is a heck of a back but this is not smart IMO .

Running back is not the problem . This does not help the bills and now they take a huge cap hit

I ' m not on board with the move . McCoy is a nice upgrade at RB but IMO Alonso will be a franchise linebacker for years. If Buffalo was going to trade him , Try to get a QB like Bradford or a high draft pick . We could have easily addressed the RB need with a 2 nd or 3 rd round pick this year .

If they just traded Kiko straight up for McCoy then Whaley needs to be fired right on the spot . That would be by far the dumbest move by OBD in the entire history of badly run team. Now if Foley is included I might not be so mad even though they are reaching hard and to get rid of Kiko is completely nuts . If this is true , Kiko for McCoy straight up , they better fire Whaley ASAP .

My cousin is dogging me right now , shes an Eagles fan

[SCP]

Yea I'm thinking they are going to go cheap on offense and use their cap defense heavy. Chip thinks he can win with lesser talent because of his scheme. Don't know if they trade up for Mariota though, still possible

It's obvious he can win after all those BCS championships he won at Oregon.

[WUnderhill]

Whaaaat? Stupid move by Bills.

[CelibatePimp]

Jason La Canfora        ✔ @JasonLaCanfora Follow

Can confirm ESPN report Eagles have traded Shady McCoy for Kiko Alonso. One for one trade I'm told. Alonso had wanted out of Buffalo. Wow

 

[gettlemanjack]

and more reactions from a Bills forum:

draft loaded with wrs, trade up . draft loaded with Rb ' s trade one of your best Lbs for one , I am lost with these guys . Better spend money on that Oline now , trading Kiko to run up the middle behind Urbik or Cyril would be hilarious

The only thing that I don ' t like is that we lost 1 / 3 of our cap space on a RB.

McCoy cost us a 3 down LB and about 10 mil more in cap space . Why not just go sign Murray ? It just seems like we paid on both ends . .

Shady is a good player no doubt and the Bills were good without Kiko last year , But why would trade for that contract and get rid of a stud LB . Makes no sense

I can' t say I Like this trade . Rb ' s are a dime a dozen . Look how good fred was and he wasn ' t even drafted .

Draft younger wheels with way less miles and pay them dirt or trade away a stud for a big contract and bring back a guy who has as many miles as anyone the past 5 years. Yeah not good .

I' m going to have to believe the Bills knew something about Kiko' s knee and made the move accordingly. Otherwise , if I have to watch him lead Philly ' s D for the next decade I ' m going to be pissed . One thing I ' m now sure of is we ' re signing a LB ' er and G /T in the opening days of FA. It ' s a virtual lock .

It ' s too bad we gave up an asset for a top running back when we will have a shot at demarco Murray in free agency .

This is the stupidest trade the Buffalo Bills have ever made . We are about to lose Hughes as well . You can get a RB at any time , just ask the Patriots who grab a new one cheap every year .

McCoy is no Barry Sanders or Thurman Thomas . He ' s 27 which is 100 in NFL years for a young prospect LB

Eagles fans are laughing uncontrollably, why didn ' t Whaley give them our 2 nd round pick as well . This has to be a joke .

My team won ' t pay 8 mill for a safety or pass rusher but will pay 11 mill for a running back . . . ***

We have plenty of depth at RB, we have NO depth at LB

Just gave away one killer LB , for a washed up back no better then whats here . . . What a joke, Whaley needs to be fired

screw you front office. . . this trade is *****ic at best and suicidal at worst . . . why trade kiko ( all pro / probowl level talent ) and his reasonable salary for mccoy and his 12 M / year salary ???? nearly 1800 touches not counting preseason for shady . . . this is a horrible trade unless Kiko is going to retire and never play again . . . philly should be giving us mccoy because we are willing to take him with that kind of salary . . . here is a thought save the difference in $ $ between the two and give it to the FA RB of your choice i' m sure for that kind of money we could afford Murray even because running backs can be found in late rounds/ UDFA . . . the one in Denver is a prime example . . . first round RB' s are pointless these days .

If this is real , can we all agree that Whaley has no clue what he ' s doing ?

[TheRumGone]

Alonso wanted out? Yeah right

[CelibatePimp]

That's what the tweet said.