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Something happened? Whaaa? If you haven’t been paying attention to the NFL, the Eagles and Bills have tried their best to suck your attention back in with quite the trade this past Tuesday night. The Philadelphia Eagles have a trade in place to send running back LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for Kiko Alonso. While the trade itself may be labeled as all part of “Chip Kelly’s Plan (which is also trademarked as “Innovative”), the Eagles recent deluge of transactions is more-or-less just building cap space for what is considered a potentially above-average free agent class. Along with LeSean “I’m going…to Buffalo?” McCoy’s departure, Cary Wiliams, Trent Cole, James Casey, and Todd Herremans were all released, clearing 30.275 million in cap, creating roughly 48.6 million in space so Chip Kelly can buy more white players. I’m kidding, of course. What I meant was more gritty players. Though this trade won’t go into affect until March 10th, when the 2015 NFL season officially begins, there are plenty of fantasy ramifications to talk about…

From the Eagles side, you have to think that Chris Polk (meh) now becomes their de facto number one back. I would say that this may not be a necessarily a huge deal, as the system in place can certainly spread the touches around and not rely on an every-down back. There’s also plenty of cap space to find another back (though you’d have to think the chance of a big name such as DeMarco Murray, or other options like Ryan Mathews and C.J. Spiller are low probabilities), and there’s also the upcoming draft which could affect the position. The biggest takeaway here is that the Eagles probably no longer value the running back position as the primary vehicle to their offense. And judging from how Chip Kelly (and you could even add in Andy Reid) ran their offenses with McCoy, you’d have to think that this type of move was inevitable. But hey, maybe it’ll work out. Just probably don’t use the last Eagles “Dream Team” as a reference point, and they should be okay…

For LeSean McCoy, you just have to love him running behind that offensive line. And while the trade itself may guarantee at least a third or fourth place finish for the Bills (cross your fingers Buffalo!), I don’t think that E.J. Manuel Matt Cassel really detracts from McCoy’s value. While he didn’t repeat his 2013, having an underwhelming Nick Foles, which turned into an even more underwhelming Mark Sanchez didn’t really seem to affect McCoy’s output. In fact, the entire Eagles interior line disappearing for half the season probably had a lot more to do with it. Actually, having E.J. Manuel Matt Cassel as a quarterback might actually be a good thing, as I assume the Bills gameplan will consist entirely of: Checkdown to McCoy as much as possible, then pass to Sammy Watkins to mix things up a bit. With Spiller’s departure nearly certain, McCoy’s value ticks up a bit, just as long as he doesn’t also blow out his knee. Which I guess is also entirely possible…

In the end, when you think about it, this deal doesn’t seem as Shady as it would seem…(farts, leaves room.)