Chip Kelly: You have to give something up to get something

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly summed up the recent moves by the team by saying "you have to give something up to get something" during a Wednesday afternoon press conference.

The head coach touched on the quarterback swap between Nick Foles and Sam Bradford as well as the departures of LeSean McCoy and Jeremy Maclin.

"I feel we have an understanding, a vision of what we want from football players here and I think we can articulate that and I think that's what we're trying to go out and get," Kelly said.

The press conference was originally scheduled for linebacker Brandon Graham, but in a surprise - another one - Kelly instead fielded questions from the media.

Kelly said he is fully backing Bradford as quarterback, as well Mark Sanchez.

"I think we have two. It's essential for us to get Mark back here. Then when the opportunity came up for us to get Sam - do you want to lose Nick Foles? No, you don't want to lose Nick Foles - but you have to give something up to get something," Kelly said.

Kelly believes the former St. Louis Rams quarterback would not have been available had he never been injured.

"The deal with Sam Bradford, if he never tore his ACL, he'd never be traded," Kelly said. "We wouldn't have traded for him if we didn't think he had a tremendous upside for a quarterback."

Kelly is not concerned about Bradford's injuries, as he says there are lot of injuries in football and it's very rare that you have a quarterback who hasn't been hit.

In fact, Kelly revealed he was offered a first round pick for Bradford Wednesday morning from another team.

Kelly also took the time to dismiss the rumors that the Eagles would be trading Bradford to move up in the NFL Draft to get a better chance of acquiring University of Oregon's Marcus Mariota.

"Let's dispel that right now. I think that stuff's crazy. You guys have been going with that stuff all along. I think Marcus is the best quarterback in the draft. We would never mortgage our future to go all the way up to go get somebody like that because we have too many other holes we're going to take care of," Kelly said.

As for losing running back LeSean McCoy, Kelly said it came down to holes in the roster and money.

"The result of it is the money that was freed up. The way we look at it is we got Kiko Alonso and Byron Maxwell for LeSean McCoy. The bottom line is almost every decision you have to make is governed by money. You'd love to keep everybody if you can pay everybody, but it's not baseball. We're all limited by a cap number and you have to give something up to get something," Kelly said.

Kelly understood the facts that McCoy is the all-time best running back in Philadelphia, but he said the team had to bolster their inside linebacker depth.

"Did we want to lose LeSean? Certainly not," Kelly said.

The Eagles head coach says he is aware that McCoy was upset about the communication surrounding the trade and says he would have liked it to go down differently.

Kelly says, at the time, he didn't even know if the trade was going to go through, but then he received a phone call saying the news was out, McCoy had been traded.

Kelly says he tried to contact McCoy on the phone, but got his voicemail.

"He found out because Buffalo jumped the gun and called someone else. We told Buffalo we weren't happy with that, but there's nothing you can do about getting it back," Kelly said.

Kelly is still hoping to speak with McCoy.

"I've tried to call him. I reached out to his agent Drew Rosenhaus. I really would like to speak to him. I have all the respect in the world," Kelly said.

Kelly gave similar reasoning for wide receiver Jeremy Maclin heading to Andy Reid's Kansas City Chiefs - money.

"Jeremy Maclin, we didn't want to lose him, but we couldn't go as high as Kansas City went. We definitely wanted Mac back. I know it was a very difficult decision for him, but I understood the decision," Kelly said.

According to ESPN, Maclin will be making $11 million per year on a five-year contract.

The Eagles head coach said he was not blindsided when running back Frank Gore did not sign with the Birds and instead agreed to a contract with the Indianapolis Colts.

"Blindsided? No, because we weren't allowed to talk to Frank. The first opportunity I got to talk to Frank was yesterday at 4:00 p.m. He told me he wanted to take a visit to Indianapolis and see what their opportunity was. I tried to talk to Frank about after he gets done with Indianapolis would he come to Philadelphia. Was I blindsided? No, not at all," Kelly said.

The team's recent moves have certainly surprised Eagles fans, but as for Kelly, himself, "I'm not surprised by anything."