The LeSean McCoy deal came as a surprise to most of us when the news broke Tuesday night.
But Cardinals coach Bruce Arians saw it coming, because of course he did.
"I had some inklings that there might be something happening," he said Wednesday on NFL AM.
On the trade, he added: "(It's) a great move for Buffalo not that Alonso is not a great player ... I think he is going to be coming off surgery. When you have LeSean's resume, it speaks for itself."
There's no word on whether Arians' intel came from the Eagles, who, according to FOX Sports, reached out to at least one other team first. McCoy would certainly look good in that offense.
Interestingly enough, Arians did touch on some other Chip Kelly-related matters. Arians was perceived to have been criticizing former Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota at the combine when he talked about spread system passers, which led to a rebuttal from current Oregon coach Mark Helfrich. Helfrich said Arians was just down playing Mariota because he might secretly be interested in drafting him.
Arians put that all to bed on NFL Network, so we can all rest easy.
"I never made a comment about Marcus," Arians said. "People asked me about spread quarterbacks vs. conventional, and when I've had spread quarterbacks come into my system, they've struggled getting into a huddle and calling a play, losing the confidence of the other 10 guys. They stammered, they couldn't get the call, they had to come back out. When I meet with these kinds of guys at the combine, I tell them to get in front of a mirror and start doing this. Start calling plays. They're great athletes, but I think they've been shortchanged in those offenses."
So there you have it: Arians might have known about the McCoy trade ahead of time, but saying so was not part of his master plot to somehow confuse Chip Kelly and steal Mariota. Or something like that.
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