Eagles Flying South

It looks like the Eagles are trying to distance themselves far away from any player acquired during the Chip Kelly era.

On Monday, it was reported that the Philadephia Eagles will be shipping out Byron Maxwell, Kiko Alonso, and DeMarco Murray. All of these players were acquired during the Chip Kelly reign and did not pan out very well on the field.

Courtesy of CSNPhilly.com

During this Maxwell experience, the Eagles found out Maxwell is not a shutdown corner. In Maxwell’s first four years in the NFL he played with the Seattle Seahawks and didn’t really start playing on a solid level until 2013. He had his best season in 2013, where he had 12 pass breakups, 4 interceptions, and 1 forced fumble. In 2014, he had another good season with 2 interceptions and tied his career high 12 pass breakups again. Going into the 2015 free agency, he was seen as one of the best DB’s, but the question Maxwell had was could he be an elite DB and the Eagles found out he was not.

Courtesy of AP Images

Kiko Alonso was a player maker at Oregon (played for Kelly) and in his rookie year in 2013 for the Bills. He had 159 combined tackles, 2 sacks and 4 interceptions. He had the third most tackles in 2013. But, in 2014 he tore his ACL and could not play for the Buffalo Bills. In the summer of 2015,  the Eagles traded LeSean McCoy to the Bills for Alonso. In 2015, he did not have a great season. He only had 43 combined tackles, no sacks, and 1 interception. His 43 tackles are almost a 75% drop off of his 2013 year, where he had 159 combined tackles.

Alonso was Kelly’s guy and McCoy was not. The way 2015 ended, made this trade look horrible. LeSean McCoy had 895 rushing yards, while no RB on the Eagles had more than 702 rushing yards. Both of those RB’s, Ryan Matthews and DeMarco Murray, were acquired because Kelly shipped off McCoy. But Chip had to trade McCoy to get one of his former college players because he believed the trade would make his team better, this did not happen.

The last Kelly player they are giving up on is DeMarco Murray. Murray had a horrible season in a system that did not really match his playing style. Murray loved his downhill runs in Dallas, but in the Eagles’ east and west system he looked lost. Murray was the NFL rushing leader in Dallas in 2014. He rushed for 1,845 rushing yards and 13 TDs. While in Philly in 2014, he only had 702 yards and 6 TDs. His 2015 rushing yards are only 38% of his rushing yards from 2014.

Ashley Landis/ The Dallas Morning News

The Eagles now are trying to ship Byron Maxwell and Alonso to Miami Dolphins for picks to try and clean up Kelly’s mess. The Eagles decided to trade Murray to the Titans to try and right the wrongs Kelly had in Philly. They are cleaning house of all of the “Kelly guys” that did not produce on the field last year. The draft picks will help the Eagles get better for years to come and will help them be able to have some salary cap flexibility over the next few years.