As much as the Eagles' offseason has been about systematically ridding the organization of any trace of the Chip Kelly era, those inside the franchise insist it has just been good business.
Maybe it can be both.
"Listen, it's never been about Chip Kelly's guys," Eagles head coach Doug Pederson said on NFL Network's NFL HQ Monday morning. "For me, it's about the Philadelphia Eagles and how we can better our roster and better our football team. I felt with Howie Roseman and myself, we've been able to do that this offseason so far and we're always going to continue to try and better the team. If you're not, you're not moving forward so I don't look at it that way."
By now, we all know that the Eagles traded Byron Maxwell, Kiko Alonso and DeMarco Murray, all centerpieces of Kelly's tenure in Philadelphia. The team is also bringing in some serious heat to back up Sam Bradford. We'll be curious to see what the long-term plans are for early-round Kelly picks like Nelson Agholor, Eric Rowe, Marcus Smith and Jordan Matthews.
But maybe Pederson is right. Overhauls like this are not entirely uncommon when a new coach takes over, though it usually takes them a little bit longer to eliminate the extraneous and ship away bad contracts. Roseman and Pederson were just did it a little quicker, having operated in an Andy Reid-type system for a decade with full knowledge of what personnel they need. Roseman, who was pushed aside in the front office in order for Kelly to have control over the 53-man roster, also could have had some personal motivation.
In any other situation, though, this would not be looked at as a vendetta -- and Roseman probably deserves more credit than he's getting. Murray was a contract the Eagles desperately needed to unload, and did so while also managing to move up to the top of the fourth round. They also moved up to No. 8 in the first round, which could be the difference between landing their next franchise offensive tackle and wasting a mid-round pick on a project that cannot help them right away.
