LeSean McCoy is a Buffalo Bill.
Wow.
That still feels weird to type.
The long-time Philadelphia Eagles running back and franchise rushing yards leader has reportedly been dealt to Buffalo in exchange for young, Pro Bowl-caliber linebacker Kiko Alonso.
The stunning trade has far-reaching implications for both teams, but the matter of how and why the star running back was dealt continues to linger (at least for me).
Most of the reasons tossed out by media members in their endless efforts to "make sense of it all" focus on money - specifically that McCoy's contract meant he was slated to make way too much of it and count for too weighty a cap figure.
These reasons would be correct, at least partially.
Dianna Marie Russini of NBC4 in Washington reported Friday that the Eagles chose to part ways with McCoy due to the fact that the young runner wanted a raise.
That's right, a raise.
McCoy, set to make $9.75 million in salary this year, wanted the value on his deal increased.
As Russini quipped, "that's Buffalo's problem" now.
While it's in no way surprising or out of the ordinary for a player who performs well above expectations to seek a raise, it is odd for McCoy to voice his desire for one after a season in which his, admittedly still high, production dipped.
Yes, he was still incredibly effective and yes he finished the year with 1,319 yards rushing and five touchdowns on 312 carries.
But he also has a propensity to dance in the backfield and bounce runs outside - tendencies that fly directly in the face of the main tenets of Kelly's offensive style.
This is where the other, perhaps more important portion of the media's assumed reasoning behind the deal comes into play - McCoy, though an incredible talent, who could fit into and roll up numbers in just about any offensive scheme, does not fit Kelly's scheme well enough to warrant such a high cap figure.
Perhaps Kelly, known to view his scheme as the real nexus of point production for his offense, will never value any running back the way McCoy's contract showed the Eagles once did.
