One day after a brutal loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles were busy on the transaction wire.
The team placed starting running back Jay Ajayi on injured reserve with a torn ACL on Monday while restructuring the contract of Pro Bowl defensive tackle Fletcher Cox to create more room under this year’s salary cap.
Needless to say, these two moves led people to believe Philadelphia might be targeting disgruntled Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell ahead of the Oct. 30 trade deadline. In reporting Cox’ restructure, ESPN’s Adam Schefter noted that the Eagles were not interested in Bell.
Now comes this report from Josh Reed of WIVB News in Buffalo indicating that Philadelphia has called up the Bills about star running back LeSean McCoy.
The #Eagles have reached out to the #Bills about a possible trade for LeSean McCoy, per source. Philly just lost RB Jay Ajayi for the season due to a torn ACL. McCoy spent the first 6 seasons of his career with the Eagles and is the franchise all-time leading rusher.
— Josh Reed (@4JoshReed) October 9, 2018
With north of $11 million to spend under the cap, Philadelphia could theoretically afford the remainder of McCoy’s $8.95 million hit for this season.
It would also be a reunion for the two. An original second-round pick of the Eagles back in 2009, Shady spent six seasons with the team. He earned two All-Pro nods and led the NFL in rushing with Philadelphia back in 2013.
There’s no word yet on whether Buffalo has any interest in trading McCoy. At 2-3 on the season, Sean McDermott’s squad has won two of the past three games. It might want to play this out a while and see what happens over the past two weeks.
McCoy, 30, has put up just 170 rushing yards in four games this season and is averaging what would be a career-low 3.8 yards per attempt. A change of scenery for the six-time Pro Bowler might be his best option.