Chip Kelly On Trading LeSean McCoy: 'Money Too High'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Maybe he was fed up. Maybe he was just sick and tired of saying the same thing, or answering the same questions. Maybe he felt like he needed to stop beating around the bush.
But for whatever, Chip Kelly had one of his most candid press conferences since joining the Eagles on Thursday, explaining the LeSean McCoy situation.
"I understand where he's coming from and if he doesn't want to shake my hand, I understand that," Kelly told reporters of McCoy, who returns to Philadelphia on Sunday with Bills. "But I will always shake his hand. If he extends his hand, I will always shake his hand. I have great respect for him as a player. Everything we asked him to do he did. He was an outstanding football player for two years here. The only reason he wasn't here was because the money was too high. He's still a really good football player. I don't know if I can say anything else besides that, but I do have great respect for LeSean. I think he's a heck of a football player. And I think we're going to have our hands full when we play him this week."
McCoy, who Kelly in traded in early March to Buffalo for Bills linebacker Kiko Alonso, had a 2015 cap-hit of $11.9 million. Alonso, who is under contract through the 2016 season, has a cap-hit of less than $1 million per season.
"It was a tough decision with all those guys we let go last year and in my first two years here," Kelly said. "Those decisions were made by money. Those decisions weren't made because we don't think they were good football players or we don't think they're good people. I think people kind of forget that. We look at it. That's a lot of money. We have three running backs this year who their salary cap hit this year is $11.1 million. We had one guy making $11.9 million."
On a personal note, Kelly admitted should have handled the McCoy trade better.
"It wasn't handled the right way with LeSean and I understand why he's not happy about it," Kelly said. "And he should not be happy about it. That's why I would apologize for that. Because it didn't happen the right way. But from our standpoint, we thought the trade wasn't going to be initiated until the next morning so there was no phone call to be made until the league approves the trade."