McCoy: ‘I Thought It Was a Panic Move’

In the days after the Eagles traded him, LeSean McCoy kept an eye on what his former team was doing to fill its hole at the running back spot.

After Frank Gore backed out of his deal, the Birds added both DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews to the mix. Chip Kelly said afterwards that the Eagles were able to essentially get two running backs for the price of one (McCoy). But looking at the numbers closely, that’s not really the case. Murray’s deal for the next three years is almost identical to the one McCoy had with the Eagles.

The only differences are Murray gets $18 million guaranteed, and none of McCoy’s contract was guaranteed. McCoy also had a higher cap number for 2015.

Appearing as a guest on The Rich Eisen Show, McCoy addressed the fact that Kelly was willing to pay for Murray, but not for him.

“I thought about that a little bit,” he said. “I didn’t understand it. I should say that. 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.

“I saw that they originally were trying to get Frank Gore, and he backed out. So then when they got DeMarco and they got Ryan Mathews, I thought it was like a panic move. 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. I can’t really answer it. They took two backs to replace one. I think DeMarco’s a hell of a back. I think he’ll do a good job there. I’m not sure how that went.”

When Kelly addressed the media last week, he explained that he had been trying to contact McCoy, but had been unsuccessful. Kelly said he wasn’t happy that the Bills leaked news of the deal before it was finalized and before he’d had a chance to talk to McCoy.

McCoy explained how he found out about the trade.

“It was just crazy because I had no idea,” he said. “As shocked as the rest of the world was, I was shocked myself. I took a nap and woke up, and I had a million text messages from friends, family talking about I got traded. I’m like, ‘Traded?’ And then my agent called me and told me that they’re trying to trade me for a linebacker in Buffalo.”

As we explained before, the Eagles could have pretty easily restructured McCoy’s deal to lower his cap number in 2015 and guarantee some of his salary. But the bottom line is Kelly preferred other running backs to McCoy.

“I wasn’t sure if I would get traded,” McCoy said. “That was more the last thing I was thinking. But I didn’t know how the numbers game would work out. I know they owed me a big number, $10, $11 million dollars. I didn’t know if they would have to restructure it to get more room for other players. I didn’t know. I just didn’t think that trade would be the final answer.”