Lesean McCoy traded to Bills

Submitted by ChampionsofThe… on
Sort of surprised no one posted this, but lesean McCoy has been traded to the Bills for Kiko Alonso, as per Adam "Oakland is still in play" Schefter. Very surprising that Chip Kelly would trade the Eagles' franchise player for a linebacker who had just torn his acl. This would be like trading Calvin Johnson for Reggie Wayne just because Jom Caldwell coached him in Indianapolis.

Space Coyote

March 4th, 2015 at 8:58 AM ^

RBs in the NFL have a limited shelf life, and often times are not the most difficult position to replace. Alonso had a great first year (third in the NFL in tackles, played every defensive snap I believe) and then got hurt. Alonso is on his rookie contract, McCoy is owed a lot more money.

I actually think this is a pretty fair trade, it just trades an established player for a player with high upside and potential. Of course, these are typically the trades where one team looks stupid, but that's the risk you take with trading high ceiling for high floor.

Space Coyote

March 4th, 2015 at 11:37 AM ^

Rex Ryan likes to run the football, and the Bills have nothing. Fred Jackson is done. Spiller is gone (and was always hurt). Dixon has never handled the load and has been meh in his time on the field. Brown didn't produce like they expected.

I think McCoy gives them a lead guy and good depth to last a couple more years. This is a short term thing. I think they are happy with their defense (their defense is really good) and see potential in the near-term to make use of that defense. But they want someone that can handle the work load at RB for a couple years. And oddly enough, Rex Ryan loves past their prime RBs, so yeah.

bronxblue

March 4th, 2015 at 1:40 PM ^

I get that Ryan loves to run the ball - I had to watch him trot out LDT, Shonn Greene, etc. every year with the Jets (a team I kinda liked before I moved to NYC, but now hate with the fire of a thousand suns).  And the best part of the Bills is that defense, especially the line with Williams and Dareus.  I guess I don't know enough about Alonso to know if this is a reasonable trade, but McCoy just seems like a guy you are going to have to pay quite a bit to keep in Buffalo, and I'm not sure if he's going to be able to duplicate those numbers behind a worse Bills line.  It's probably going to be a bigger deal now than during the season simply because of McCoy's name value, as neither team is looking like a SB contender either way.  

Gerbzilla88

March 4th, 2015 at 11:06 AM ^

Shady is a game-changing running back, especially since his strengths (breaking tackles in the backfield, catching passes) will help conceal a lot of the Bills' weaknesses (poor run blocking, QB who can't throw downfield). In addition to other threats like Sammy, Robert Woods, and a TE added in the draft, the Bills have a lot of players who can catch easy passes and turn them into big gains.

Meanwhile, Kiko had a good rookie season, but most of that came in the first half (and especially first four weeks) of the season - one sack, no picks, no passes defended after week 4. He's also suffered two ACL injuries since 2010, and had hip surgery this year. The Bills have good depth at linebacker with Nigel Bradham and Preston Brown, so they can absorb losing a player of Kiko's caliber.

Overall, I think it turned a position of weakness into a position of strength, and a position of incredible depth into a position of slightly less depth, but still high quality. The Bills ran for 65 first downs last year - that won't happen again. Meanwhile, the Bills had the 4th ranked defense in the NFL without Kiko (and at times it seemed like they were the best). This seems like a trade that makes sense for both sides, but I especially like it as a Bills fan because we got a game-changer at RB during his prime (only 3 years left on his deal, we'll be out of it when he turns 28) in return for a possible game-changer at linebacker.

Now if we can just sign a damn guard (Iupati?) and a pass rusher to replace Hughes (Brandon Graham?), I think this squad can make the playoffs.

(Sorry for the novel - too long to text.)

74polSKA

March 4th, 2015 at 8:48 AM ^

I'm not sure how to feel about this as a Bills fan. I really liked Alonso and assume he would be able to make a full recovery from an ACL at his age. This pretty much assures that CJ Spiller won't be back. I like Spiller a lot but he can't seem to stay healthy. McCoy is good, but how much does he have left in this era of short RB careers? Plus Sexy Rexy hasn't ever shown the ability to develop an efficient offense, much less an explosive one that could feature McCoy's abilities.

Jehu the Damaja

March 4th, 2015 at 8:54 AM ^

Chip Kelly's trying to collect all his former Oregon players so he can lose another championship game with them. He's already got 9 former Ducks, plus however many of them they'll draft.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

not TOM BRADY

March 4th, 2015 at 8:57 AM ^

Nothing like a Calvin reggie Wayne trade. This is a good trade for both teams. Clears up a ton of cap for the Eagles and get a good player also. Bills get a good RB. Would not be surprised if the Eagles traded up for Mariota and took a Tevin Coleman in the 2-3 round.

mGrowOld

March 4th, 2015 at 9:06 AM ^

Brian Hoyer will sign with the Bills and will do well.  Mark it down - they have a team perfectly built for his skill sets.  Heavy run now that they have McCoy - then PA deep to Watkins.  That was the basic gameplan for the Browns that got them to 7-4 before Mack got hurt and wheels came offf the wagon.

Le sigh.....

Le fuckme......

Sauce Castillo

March 4th, 2015 at 9:19 AM ^

I think it's a huge win for the eagles.  Free up a bunch of cap space with that trade, and it seems like Chip Kelly knows he is going to get it done on offense with whoever he has and wants to acquire as many defensive parts as possible. 

carlos spicywiener

March 4th, 2015 at 9:27 AM ^

Chip Kelly is making quite a few controversial decisions. I'll give him that. The narrative might shift soon from "scientist genius" to "out of touch" and "players dislike playing for him".

kb

March 4th, 2015 at 9:29 AM ^

is on the downside of his career, is getting old, and has been injury prone. Not a bad move to get rid of him.

Space Coyote

March 4th, 2015 at 11:33 AM ^

It's the amount of carries he's had. More than likely, he's on the downward slope of his career. He could very well be productive for another two or three years, but it certainly isn't long term. And typically the downward slope for RBs is fine.

FWIW, he's played 6 seasons in the NFL, the last two of which he had over 300 carries. Only in his first season did he have fewer than 200 carries (155 carries). In all games in his career, he's averaged over 16 carries per game. In the last four seasons he's average 18.6 carries a game. In the last two he's averaged 19.6 per game. He's also tacked on 300 receptions to that.

On top of that, he was not lightly used in college. He had 276 attempts and 308 attempts in his two seasons playing at Pitt (and 65 catches). In 8 seasons he has over 2400 touches, and has averaged over 300 touches a year. His age isn't old, but the tire wear is there.

LBSS

March 4th, 2015 at 9:31 AM ^

As a Washington NFL franchise fan, I must say that this trade saddens me because it will make the Eagles better. Even if McCoy is productive this year, he's a RB. RB careers are nasty, brutish, and short. Kiko Alonso could be a beast for the next 7-8 years.

RobM_24

March 4th, 2015 at 10:06 AM ^

Kiko was like 3rd in the NFL in tackles his rookie year. Kelly knows his scheme will create lanes for any RB. They did just fine with Sproles or Polk in the game. Bold move, but probably a good one. You can get a top5 rated RB in the 2nd or 3rd round of the draft. Most top5 LBs and DEs will be off the board in Round 1.

CaliforniaNobody

March 4th, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^

The analogy you proposed is awful. It's like reading Megatron at age 40 who is making 12 million per year for Reggie Wayne at age like 25 maybe. I think the Eagles won the trade honestly, but it's a win-win.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

Perkis-Size Me

March 4th, 2015 at 11:20 AM ^

I'm starting to wonder, now that Kelly is in full control of his personnel, if he's trying to give himself as much leverage as possible to go out and grab Mariota in the draft. Seemed crazy and unthinkable a few weeks ago, and to some extent it still is. But if he wants Mariota, he's going to have to mortgage Philly's soul and a whole lot more to climb up and get him.

Seems like he's trying to give himself every available resource and ounce of cash that he'll have to trade in order to go up and do it. If I was a Philly fan I'd be incredibly nervous.

OccaM

March 4th, 2015 at 12:00 PM ^

At first I was like wtf. But now I realize that we have 50 million in cap room to bolster the defense. I'm sure kelly has a plan.

turtleboy

March 4th, 2015 at 4:24 PM ^

Strange to picture a Philly offense without McCoy or Jackson, but then you look at the business side of it and it's hard to picture either of them staying.