The Philadelphia Eagles pulled what has to be considered the surprise move of the offseason so far when they announced that they have agreed to trade star running back LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso.
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McCoy led the league in rushing in 2013, and although many considered him a disappointment last season, he still finished the year with over 1,300 rushing yards. The team likely wanted to move on because of McCoy's eight-figure salary, as fewer and fewer teams are willing to pay running backs big bucks. But what many are noticing about the trade is that Kiko Alonso played for Chip Kelly at Oregon.
The addition of Alonso gives the Eagles nine players that played under Kelly at Oregon, and the team is reportedly considering trading up in the draft to select Marcus Mariota, another Oregon product that played under Kelly.
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Naturally, people in the sports world are crying out about Kelly's Oregon bias and whether or not it will ultimately ruin the Eagles. Of course, many of the Oregon players on Philadelphia's roster are end-of-the-bench types that only play special teams or as injury fill-ins. Still, that has not stopped the media from having some fun with the issue:
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In all likelihood, Kelly is just trying to fill out his roster with players that know his system, making them more capable backups in theory.
Nobody should be making any such claims about Alonso, who looked like a budding star during his rookie season before tearing his ACL and missing 2014. He should be a force at linebacker for Philadelphia, and the cap room they cleared by moving McCoy should allow them to help fill many other holes on the roster.
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