LeSean McCoy: DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews signings were panic moves
LeSean McCoy respects Chip Kelly as a football coach, but he doesn’t think the Eagles head man completely knows what he is doing as a front office. In fact, McCoy thinks Kelly signing not one but TWO running backs in free agency was a panic move.
The Eagles shocked everyone by trading McCoy to the Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso. There were reports that they were going to sign Frank Gore, but that fell through, likely because of what McCoy told Gore. After that the Eagles signed DeMarco Murray AND Ryan Mathews.
“I saw that they originally were trying to get Frank Gore, and he backed out,” McCoy said on The Rich Eisen Show. “So then when they got DeMarco and they got Ryan Mathews, I thought it was like a panic move.”
Philly will be paying its running backs $12.6 million next season, which is the second-highest amount in the league. That’s a departure from the trend across the league where running backs have been devalued, but Kelly obviously thinks the pair will help his offense.
“I didn’t understand it. I should say that,” McCoy said. “And Chip I think is a really good coach. I think this is something different for him kind of managing both, from being a coach to now kind of managing the team as far as the players that they get and they pay.”
McCoy even told Eisen he thinks the coach signed two backs to make up for the media criticism.
“With that media in Philadelphia, they can get tough on you. So I guess that was just the way to make it right. I don’t know.”
If McCoy really thinks Kelly is acting in response to what the media or fans say, then he is obviously clueless. If Kelly were concerned with the opinion of the media and fans, McCoy would still be with the Eagles because that was the sensible thing to do. I’m pretty sure Kelly has a plan in place, which is why one of his first big moves was to deal Shady.
