Eagles coach Chip Kelly hosted a press conference this afternoon and we’ve gathered all the highlights right here. All links to go the Twitter feed of PhiladelphiaEagles.com, unless noted otherwise:
- Kelly told reporters, including the staff of PhiladelphiaEagles.com (on Twitter), that he didn’t think that he needed to control the team’s personnel and said that it was a decision that the team’s owner had made. Of course, Kelly got control over the roster this offseason in a front office reshuffling that saw former GM Howie Roseman change roles. Kelly feels that the biggest difference in the draft this year will be having the final say over matters, something that he didn’t have over the last two years (link).
- The Eagles coach dispelled the notion that the Eagles will try and trade up for Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota (link). The Eagles have been heavily connected to Mariota for months now and speculation has only intensified as Kelly appears more driven than ever to fill the Eagles’ roster with Oregon alum. Kelly feels that Mariota is the best QB in the draft, but he’s unwilling to mortgage the future to land him and the team has too many other needs to address (link).
- Kelly considered the trade of LeSean McCoy for linebacker Kiko Alonso to be important because it allowed the team to go after cornerback Byron Maxwell (link).
- The coach claimed that the Bills leaked the news of the McCoy trade before he could call the running back to notify him, Dan Graziano of ESPN.com tweets.
- Kelly said it was “essential” to get Mark Sanchez back (link) and added that he never would have been able to acquire a quarterback of Sam Bradford‘s caliber had he not torn his ACL. The team has yet to have extension talks with Bradford (link). That’s not a big concern to Kelly, however, who said that everyone is essentially playing year-to-year and believes that Bradford has tremendous upside (link).
- The Eagles coach/exec claims that the Eagles were offered a first-round pick for Bradford on Wednesday morning (link). However, Bradford wasn’t brought in to be a trade chip, Kelly said, according to Geoff Mosher of CSNPhilly.com (on Twitter).
- There were other teams involved in the Bradford sweepstakes, Kelly says (link). Meanwhile, the Eagles only spoke with the Rams about Nick Foles.