Phil Sheridan, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Chip Kelly putting his stamp on Eagles after two 10-win seasons

PHOENIX -- Chip Kelly's hyperactive March makes more sense when you look at it as a product of lessons learned during his first two years in the NFL.

Kelly tried to win as much as possible with the Philadelphia Eagles team he inherited from Andy Reid in 2013. He won 10 games and the NFC East title in his first season. He won 10 games in his second season. Meanwhile, he looked around, saw how other teams were constructed and decided he was ready to put his stamp on the Eagles.

They had about $65 million committed to offensive players in 2014. They had about $55 million committed to defensive players. According to current salary-cap figures, the team has $74 million of cap commitments on the offensive side of the ball. But the defensive players account for about $64 million.

“You can’t pay everybody,” Kelly said Wednesday during the NFL owners meetings. “Everybody has the same amount of money. You’ve got to divvy it up however you’re going to divvy it up. We were inadequate in terms of the money allocated defensively to offensively, and we’re trying to balance that out. I think it showed in our play.”

That’s why Byron Maxwell’s $63 million contract isn’t the same problem that LeSean McCoy’s $12 million cap hit was. The Eagles now have three running backs -- DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles -- taking up as much cap space as McCoy would have by himself.

That was the driving force behind the McCoy trade. As long as he was making the correction, Kelly figured he might as well acquire running backs whose style better fit his offense.

“I was very fond of LeSean McCoy,” Kelly said. “I think we all are. When you look at moving forward, that was just a really big number. They [McCoy and his agent] weren’t moving off the number so that was where the decision was made. You’re talking about the all-time leading running back for the Philadelphia Eagles. He led the league in rushing two years ago. It was a real difficult decision. But it was a decision we felt we had to make. We had too much money at the running back spot so we had to move in a different direction.”

Meanwhile, Kelly found that his specific requirements for players were not being met. There was a disconnect between the coaching and scouting staffs. That came up in his end-of-season meeting with owner Jeff Lurie. And that led to Lurie’s decision to give Kelly final say on personnel decisions. General manager Howie Roseman was out of the decision-making process.

“I didn’t go in with a plan and say we need to make all these maneuvers,” Kelly said. “I just said this is how I see my vision of how this organization should be, but it’s Mr. Lurie’s decision on what he wants to do. If he came back and said this, this and this and I just want you to just concentrate on that, then that’s what I would have done.”

Kelly also believed the Eagles needed another option at quarterback. He said the trade talks for Sam Bradford originally involved the Eagles sending draft picks to the St. Louis Rams. But the Rams decided they wanted to get a quarterback in return, and they insisted on Nick Foles.

“It went on for a couple weeks,” Kelly said. “We were trying to keep Nick if we could. It was just at the last second, they wanted players. We were trying to get it done with draft picks, but it didn’t work out that way.”

For two years, Kelly was content to do the best he could with the team he had. Starting with this offseason, he is going to see what he can do with a team built according to his own blueprint.

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