Section 215
Fansided

LeSean McCoy Admits He Isn’t Completely Sure He’ll Be Back With The Eagles in 2015

By Tim Kelly

facebooktwitterreddit

When Chip Kelly and the Eagles made the decision to release DeSean Jackson this past off-season, among other speculated reasons, most feel that Kelly felt he was subtracting Jackson’s talent to help improve the locker-room culture. But one of the by-products of the move may be that no player ever feels like he has year-to-year stability in Kelly’s locker-room again. Depending on how you look at things, that may or may not be a good thing.

After today’s Eagles season-closing win, LeSean McCoy didn’t hide the fact that he knows it isn’t a lock that he returns to the Eagles in 2015.

Via Sheil Kapadia Birds 24/7

"“I don’t know how they think,” McCoy said. “I just know that as a player, they know what I can do, what I’m willing to do. They know what type of production I’m gonna bring, so we’ll see. I really can’t control it. I can’t. [Drew] Rosenhaus can’t. The only thing I just think is honesty, that’s all. It’s hard to get in this business, but just honesty. We’ve got great people upstairs, from Howie [Roseman] to Coach Kelly and Mr. [Jeffrey] Lurie for sure. So I’m just waiting to see how it plays out. I’d be lying if I said it never flashed in my mind cause it happened to Jacc [DeSean Jackson] off his best year, so you never know. But then he went somewhere and got paid.”"

After winning the rushing title in 2013, McCoy struggled behind a makeshift offensive-line early in the season, only to finish with 1,220 rushing yards, which allowed him to finish in the top five NFL rushing leaders.

Courtesy of Spotrac, LeSean McCoy’s salary cap hit will jump from $9.7 million this year to $11.95 million next year. That said, he’s still one of the better running-backs in the NFL and you have to pay for great players. Especially when the player will only be 27 years old next and you don’t have a franchise Quarterback.

When asked about whether he would be willing to restructure his deal, McCoy didn’t seem against the idea.

"“It depends how they want to do it,” said McCoy. “It depends. I love this team. I’ll do whatever it takes. There’s things that I can get better at. I feel good. I feel young. I’m still productive. So it depends how they want to restructure it. We’ve got some time for that. It’s one thing to try and overlook it, but it is a business. I know that. You can’t get any way round it.”"

That said, McCoy has been arguably the best running-back in the NFL over the course of the last two seasons, so he would be well within his rights to be against restructuring his deal privately.

More from Section 215

The only running-back scheduled to have a higher cap-hit than McCoy next year is Adrian Peterson, who is scheduled to have a cap-hit of $15.4 million. Given Peterson’s off-the-field issues and that he will be 30 next year, he has zero chance of returning to the Vikings at that price. He may have zero chance of returning to the Vikings next year under any scenario, but that’s another story.

As for McCoy, it seems likely he will return to the Eagles with the highest cap hit in the league in 2015. McCoy’s cap-hit goes back down to $8.85 million in 2016. That price may be too steep for the Eagles in 2016, but McCoy will likely have a year to answer that question. Chris Polk may also have an increased role next year, perhaps giving him the chance to prove that he could eventually be the Eagles starter.

LeSean McCoy will likely cement himself as the greatest running-back in Eagles history in 2015. But given the way that the salary cap works in modern sports, if the Eagles don’t make a deep playoff run and feel the need to be aggressive in the off-season that follows, they may move on from a then 28 year-old McCoy. Or they may not. The way that his contract is structured, McCoy is basically going to be operating on a year-to-year basis for the remainder of his Eagles career.

Home/Philadelphia Eagles