All The Right Moves

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Jeffrey Lurie

After three years with Chip Kelly running the show as the head coach and de facto general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, team owner Jeffrey Lurie knew that it was time to make a change. Last December when it became evident that Kelly had lost the Eagles locker room as he tried to run the team as if the players were in college as opposed to being professionals, Lurie fired him with one game left in the 2015 National Football League season. Lurie then decided to get back to basics which meant that Howie Roseman would once again be running things as the Eagles general manager. Roseman had served as the Eagles general manager from 2010-2014 until a power struggle between he and Kelly led to him changing roles within the organization. However with Kelly being fired, Roseman is once again Lurie’s right hand man. Roseman’s first order of business would be to hire former Eagles quarterback and assistant coach Doug Pederson to be the team’s new head coach and together these two men have been working together over the past few weeks to remove the stench that was left behind in Philadelphia from Kelly’s tenure.

When Kelly was fired, he didn’t leave Roseman and Pederson a championship team to work with and thus the Eagles are now in rebuilding mode.

DeMarco Murray

Last year the Eagles signed running back DeMarco Murray to a five-year deal that was worth $42 million. Murray’s signing with the Eagles came on the heels of Kelly trading running back LeSean McCoy who was the franchise’s all-time leading rusher to the Buffalo Bills. Murray is a downhill runner who’s style was never a match for Kelly’s spread offense system as he was a fish out of water who was brought to Philadelphia simply to be kept away from his former employer in the Dallas Cowboys. And as Roseman along with Pederson are starting over from scratch, they shipped Murray to the Tennessee Titans while the clubs will also swap fourth-round picks in next month’s National Football League Draft.

In exchange for sending McCoy to the Bills last year, the Eagles received linebacker Kiko Alonso who was brought to Philadelphia due to his familiarity with Kelly from their time together at the University of Oregon when Kelly was the head football coach there. Another one of Kelly’s moves last off-season was to sign cornerback Byron Maxwell to a six-year, $63 million contract. Maxwell received that hefty payday due to the potential that he had shown while playing for the Seattle Seahawks alongside a trio of All-Pros in the Seahawks secondary in cornerback Richard Sherman, strong safety Kam Chancellor, and free safety Earl Thomas. Maxwell was unable to live up to his contract with the Eagles last season as he didn’t bring Sherman, Thomas, or Chancellor to Philadelphia with him. And now Maxwell, along with Alonso will have a new home in 2016 as they were traded by the Eagles to the Miami Dolphins. As well as shedding salary, the Eagles will also swap first-round picks with the Dolphins as Philadelphia will be picking eighth overall as opposed to 13th.

Two years ago quarterback Mark Sanchez was signed by the Eagles with the intention of him being a backup. Sanchez had a prior life to joining the Eagles as he helped the New York Jets reach a pair of AFC Championship Games, but he was never able to rekindle that magic in Philadelphia. And after two years with the Eagles, Sanchez was traded last week to the Denver Broncos in exchange for a conditional pick in next year’s draft.

Sam Bradford

This off-season the Eagles did re-sign quarterback Sam Bradford to a two-year deal that is worth $35 million. Bradford has a base salary for the upcoming season of $7 million which is team friendly; especially for a guy that has not proven that he can stay healthy or be a franchise quarterback in the National Football League which includes his time with the St. Louis Rams. And Bradford’s contract along with his inconsistent play means that the Eagles don’t have to commit to him long-term which gives the team the opening to go into full rebuilding mode as that could lead to Philadelphia drafting a quarterback next month.

There will be quarterbacks that have a first-round tag attached to them in the 2016 National Football League Draft such as North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz, California quarterback Jared Goff, and Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch. And as of right now there is a pretty good chance that the Eagles will select a quarterback in the first round being that their second round pick in now property of the Los Angeles Rams.

Doug Pederson

Pederson who was a disciple of former Eagles and current Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid wants to get the ball rolling with a new quarterback, but it doesn’t mean that he has to start him right away in the mode of his former employer. In 1999, Reid’s first ever draft selection as the Eagles head coach was used on quarterback Donovan McNabb which was not initially popular among the fans in Philadelphia. As a rookie, McNabb only started six games, but by 2001, the Eagles would reach their first of four consecutive appearances in the NFC Championship Games. By re-signing Bradford, it now gives the Eagles that buffer to select a quarterback early while allowing him to sit back and assess the game from the sideline for a bit.

Make no mistake about it that the Eagles weren’t going to win anytime soon with the likes of Murray, Alonso, Maxwell, or Sanchez on the roster and it was extremely wise for Roseman to ship them out of town while getting some draft picks back in return.  And although that the folks in Philadelphia want to see the Eagles be able to immediately compete in the NFC East, Roseman and Pederson’s moves are not are not about the short-term as they are attempting to set this team up to compete for the long-term which hearkens back to Reid’s time with the club.

The NFC East hasn’t been a dominant division for quite some time and if the Eagles can lay the proper groundwork at next month’s National Football League Draft, they could set themselves up to run roughshod over the division just like they did from 2000-2010 when they made nine playoff appearances while winning the division on six occasions.

When Lurie fired Reid in 2012, he cited the need for a change and he believed that Kelly had fresh ideas that would take the Eagles to the next level. But as it became evident that this wouldn’t be the case, Lurie went back to the basics with Roseman and Pederson which could put the Eagles on the fast track to success; especially if they’re able to handle their business at next month’s National Football League Draft.

Source: Overthecap.com

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By | 2016-03-15T12:36:27+00:00 March 15th, 2016|Categories: National Football League|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

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