Eagles trade LeSean McCoy, and Chip Kelly divides city

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What a day. It can be argued that it was a good day or a bad day or a shocking day or the kind of day that makes your head feel heavy and fogged over, but it was a day that won’t soon be forgotten around here.

It started off just fine. The Eagles released cornerback Cary Williams. No one seemed overly broken up or surprised about it (except maybe Cary Williams).

Then there were reports that Trent Cole is on his way out, and so is Brandon Graham. That created a bit of a stir.

And then the Eagles agreed to trade LeSean McCoy to Buffalo for linebacker Kiko Alonso and suddenly everyone was spitting at each other about what it all meant and hurling cats out of windows.

For a while, it felt like Sam Hinkie won control of the Eagles in a high-stakes poker game and then doubled down on his strategy to the sheer shock of everyone watching. Those are the kinds of major, franchise-altering decisions that were made — the sort that have an unknowable number of football-related ripple effects while simultaneously fracturing the fanbase and the media. What the Sixers did to divide the city was small-time compared to how The Great Eagles Civil War threatens to tear everyone apart.

There will be a group that thinks Chip Kelly is brilliant and McCoy is expendable and Alonso represents an excellent return. And then there will be a different group that screams at the first group. Lots of screaming in our future. Very loud. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on, but sides will certainly be taken.

The day Kelly traded McCoy and cut a bunch of other guys and freed up many tens of millions in cap space. We will tell future generations about that day. That is the day a line was drawn and people claimed ground on either side in the name of opposing hot takes. After this, there will be nothing left but ash.

McCoy was traded to Buffalo. They still have a team there and everything. That is the good news for McCoy. He will play for Rex Ryan. Maybe the Buddy holdovers are somehow happy about that. And maybe Alonso, who had a fantastic rookie year before tearing his ACL and missing all of last season, will be as good or better than he was to start his career. And maybe the Eagles will find a top-tier running back to replace McCoy, either in the draft or free agency, or maybe they’ll move away from the alpha-back approach, follow the flow of the league, and employ a rotating back system. Maybe the Eagles' offense won’t slow at all. Maybe it will work. Or maybe it won’t. And then, you know, cats hurled through windows.

The fascinating part will be finding out. That will be a long process. Kelly’s personnel department has quite a lot of work to do. They have lots of cap space now, which is good because they also have lots of self-made gaps to plug. It will be interesting to see how Kelly chooses to allocate those funds in free agency. You might remember the last time the Eagles threw a bunch of money at their problems in the hopes of a quick free-agent fix.

It is a dangerous time to be Kelly. He will get all of the praise or all of the blame. There will be no in between. That was probably true already, but it’s certainly the case now after the moves that were just made. And there are more to come. The Eagles must decide what to do about Jeremy Maclin. Meanwhile, Maclin is no doubt wondering what to make of all the Eagles' upheaval. And what about the quarterback situation? Nick Foles might be the guy going forward, or the rumors and reports could prove true and the Eagles could move up with the hope of landing a certain Oregon quarterback. So much uncertainty. Nothing should surprise you now. Not after Tuesday. 

The Eagles got rid of Cary Williams and Trent Cole and Brandon Graham and LeSean McCoy. And then Chip Kelly went to the JCC in Cherry Hill and gave a long speech while addressing none of the moves but mentioning, among other things, tuna sandwiches, John Lennon and John Rockefeller.

What a day. Imagine all the days to follow.

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