With Chip Kelly Maybe it's Better to Just Love Him Than Understand Him

     Ok, I give up. With this latest move to sign DeMarco Murray, I have no idea what he's doing. None. 

     "DeMarco Murray was determined to get a big-time deal in free agency. He just had to leave Dallas to get it."

   "According to Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen of ESPN (sharing is good), the Eagles are giving the league’s leading rusher a five-year deal worth $42 million, with $21 million guaranteed."

     "The structure will show how good of a deal it was, but it’s clear the Cowboys weren't approaching those kind of numbers, as Murray hinted at a hometown discount."

     "So now he has a new hometown."

     http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/03/12/eagles-to-give-demarco-murray-five-year-42-million-deal/

     Don't get me wrong. I see things a little different now that I heard his news conference yesterday. 

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/03/with-chip-kellys-foles-for-bradford.html

    http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/article-1/Kellys-Press-Conference-Six-Takeaways/f448eb00-f1ac-4bdd-9451-67e6c130985e

    I wrote the top link before his news conference but actually thought he came across pretty well there. As President Obama once said of Hillary, Chip Kelly based on that conference is 'likable enough' and he did dispel one thing in my mind. He has no intention of giving up 20 draft picks for Mariotta because as he rightly says the team has too many holes to focus on just one player even though clearly he holds Mariotta in high esteem. 

   He made the logical point that in this day of the salary cap NFL you can't keep everyone you'd like to keep. Mike Francesca pointed out on his radio show at WFAN today that with a hard cap you can only really pay 3 guys on your team. Elsewhere you have to try to find bargains.

     I can understand why the players don't appreciate this but then the answer for them is they need a stronger union like they have in baseball. One of the biggest jokes is that having a salary cap increases something called 'compeititve balance.' 

   http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24350073/no-baseball-still-doesnt-need-a-salary-cap

   What a cap does is place a cap not on profits but salaires-which is why they call it a salary cap, not a profits cap. Meanwhile, 'competitive balance' is also totally overstated in its importance. 

   http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/56193798

   This piece actually gives us an interesting history lesson. 

   "There once was a time, back when there was no need to specify which world war you were referring to, when the fullback was the most important position in football. Owners actually bid against each other for fullbacks. I like to imagine everyone present at these bidding wars looking more or less like the Monopoly Man, disputing the preponderance of the forward pass the way present-day offensive coordinators debate the viability of the read-option."

    "During this time, two teams decided they desperately wanted a specific fullback with a boxer's physique and a nickname to match: Stanislaus "Stockyard Stan" Kostka of Fargo, N.D. The football Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Eagles engaged in a bidding war for the fullback's services. The owner of the Eagles at the time was Bert Bell, who lost out to the Dodgers and their $5,000 bid. In an effort to promote competitive balance, Bell worked feverishly the following season to institute the reverse draft known to American sports today."

     "Bell wouldn't need to bother with any bidding war to get the top talent the following year: Due to the Eagles owning the worst record, combined with the first-ever reverse order NFL draft, he would have his pick of the country's collegiate stars in 1936."

   Speaking of the Eagles, DeMarco Murray can only wish RBs were so highly regarded today. So the Eagles take him now but it was hard. RBs just don't get no love anymore. 

   http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-todays-nfl-running-backs-get-no.html

   Again, to me Chip doesn't come across as a jerk in the interview.  He's right that the salary cap hamstrings you-I still wonder if we'd be better without the hard cap; then again the NFL is more popular than any of the other big sports leagues-MLB, NBA, NHL-so why argue with success?

   He argued that yes he had to give up LeSean McCoy but he got Kiki Alonso and Byron Maxwell-thanks to the cap space. He admitted that Nick Foles is a great QB and is going to have a great career in St. Louis. 

   I guess he rightly or wrongly thinks that for what he wants at least Bradford is preferable to Foles. For me, I don't get it, I'd rather have Foles, I think the Rams made a great move; everyone agrees that in today's NFL you simply must have a franchise QB and that's what I believe Foles is. If you look at the trade, both sides seemed to assume that Chip got a great deal-how else do you explain that the Rams got better draft picks even with the Eagles giving up $12 million in cap space?

   So maybe Kelly's not crazy or super arrogant, but just made a value judgment on how to go from 10-6 to the Super Bowl. It comes down to whether or not Bradford straight up for Foles is a good trade-I tend to think Foles is the better of the two but Bradford seems better within the system Kelly wants to run. 

   Now he opens his wallet to pay big for DeMarco Murray? So we basically exchange McCory for DeMarco and Foles for Bradford. Are these winning moves? It's not clear. It might seem that at best he has run in place depending on how you evaluate the 4 players. 

   It might lead you from thinking that Kelly is a 'genius' doing everything to get Mariotta to a guy who's making all these big moves with no discernible end in sight. 

   "And if Murray does sign in Philly, it only confirms the speculation that Chip Kelly has no plan in place. Two weeks ago, he didn’t need a high-priced running back. Now he’s about to sign the highest-priced running back on the market? If he does sign, you have to wonder: Does Philadelphia have any strategy in place or are they just throwing a bunch of stuff at a wall and hoping something sticks?"

   http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/03/demarco-murray-eagles-lesean-mccoy-free-agency-nfl-chip-kelly-philadelphia

   I'm not sure if this is a net plus for Philly when you throw in salary cap and injury considerations. On the other hand you also have some improvements to a defense-that needs to improve a lot -particularly with Maxwell. 

   So with the Eagles maybe they went sideways or maybe their somewhat better or worse depending on whether I'm right about my concerns with Bradford. 

   However, as a Giants fan I think it's all a net plus as losing Murray is a net loss for Dallas no matter how great an offensive line they have. Who's going to run 1800 yards for them next year? 

   UPDATE: One alternative to the salary cap: a performance based salary cap:

    "This paper provides an alternative method to the standard salary caps in most professional sports in the United States. It shows how a performance-based salary cap would be the most efficient and effective method of compensation for the athletes. The paper looks at the positives and negatives of the effects on salary caps in the National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball. After reviewing all the possible options, a performance-based salary cap would be the best choice because it provides a competitive atmosphere for each individual professional sport."

     http://www.nccscougar.org/rhunter/sports_management/chapter_4/salary_cap_debate.pdf

    UPDATE: As a Yankee fan I've always seen the salary cap in baseball as the Yankee cap:

    "When most people think of Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees and other higher market teams come to mind. People think of these higher market teams because they have the biggest names in the game, are the most marketable teams, and have typically been the best year in and year out. Due to the appeared dominance of the powerful teams, many people want more parity in baseball and feel like a salary cap in baseball would be the solution to this problem."