In just two trades, Eagles Vice President of Player Personnel Howie Roseman all but eradicated the remaining vestiges of Chip Kelly's lone season with final say over football operations.
After dealing DeMarco Murray to the Tennessee Titans and shipping Byron Maxwell along with Kiko Alonso to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for draft pick compensation, only running back Ryan Mathews and quarterback Sam Bradford remain from Kelly's 2015 offseason additions.
Many were quick to point to Roseman attempting to undo Kelly's moves as motivation for the pair of trades just prior to the NFL league year opening Wednesday. However, former Washington Redskins and Houston Texans executive Charley Casserly thinks there was a much different motive in play for Roseman and the Eagles.
"No, I don't think this is a personal attack on Chip Kelly," Casserly said Tuesday on the NFL Network. "I think it's them looking at the players that Chip Kelly brought in and saying 'We don't like the money, we don't like the fit.'
"Just look at DeMarco Murray. He's a little bit of an older back. He has over $20 million guaranteed going forward. His stats were down. The system probably wasn't a great fit for him, but they're probably saying 'let's not bet all of that money on him. We can get a better back, cheaper, maybe in the draft.'"
The Eagles signed Murray to a $45 million contract last offseason, but the 2014 NFL Offensive Player of The Year failed to live up to expectations, rushing for just 702 yards and six touchdowns while averaging only 3.6 yards per carry, a whole yard below his career average.
"With Alonso, he has an injury history," Casserly said. "They didn't want to gamble on that. With Maxwell, I don't think he fits in Jim Schwartz's system. He's a press corner, but he's really a No. 2 corner, being played No. 1 money. Miami's probably thinking they're getting two young guys, they can coach Maxwell better than he was coached in Philly and Kiko Alonso is still young and was the rookie of the year."
All told, Roseman opened up $10 million in additional 2016 cap space with Monday's trades and cleared upwards of $110 million in total payroll by trading away Maxwell and Murray's deals.
Given that the Eagles only had $17.5 million to spend this offseason prior to Monday's moves, the return on these two trades is almost secondary.
"There are always two sides to deals like this differently," Casserly said. "But in this case I don't think this is personal. I think it's business."
Matt Lombardo may be reached at MDLombardo@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattLombardo975. Find NJ.com Eagles on Facebook.