What is Chip Kelly doing?

In the off season there is a mood of desperation to find stuff to talk about. The big news of course is the draft but before that is the free agency and trade circus.

To say that Chip Kelly, coach of the Eagles, has been raising some eyebrows with the moves he's been making would be a drastic understatement.

First he traded LeSean McCoy to Buffalo for LB Kiko Alonso. This trade also freed up a lot of cap space for the Eagles.

Then he sent Nick Foles plus a 4th round pick in 2015 and a 2nd round 2016 draft pick to the Rams for Sam Bradford and a 5th round pick in 2015. The kicker in this deal is that if Bradford doesn't start eight games for Philadelphia they'll get a 4th round pick in 2016. If he gets injured, they'll get a 3rd round pick in 2016.

The Eagles also have Mark Sanchez and Matt Barkley at QB and are rumored to be looking to move up in the draft for Marcus Mariota. The latest rumor is the Eagles would like to trade Barkley for a low round draft pick and sign Tim Tebow.

Finally he signed Demarco Murray from the Cowboys for the same amount of money that LeSean McCoy had been making and eliminated any cap space the first trade may have gained.

So, so far, we have McCoy, Foles, a 4th round 2015 pick and a second round 2016 pick gone and Alonso, Bradford, Murray and a 4th round pick in 2016 replacing them.

Kiko Alonso is a great pick-up that's going to cause NFC East rivals headaches for years to come and Murray is at least as good as McCoy. As for Bradford rather than Foles, we'll have to see.

Other possible moves would be Barkley replaced by Tebow and some low round pick from an unknown team and a trade to move up for Mariota.

Any team which would trade for Barkley would have to be really desperate at QB because Barkley hasn't exactly shown a lot in the way of potential. Any trade to move up for Mariota would cost a small fortune including at least 1st round picks for 2015 and 2016 and perhaps even a 1st or 2nd rounder for 2017.

Some football "pundits" have questioned Kelly's sanity but I suspect Kelly knows precisely what he wants and is simply going about getting it.

Watch the Eagles go for the Ttian's 2nd round pick in order to get Mariota. I don't think he's going to fall lower than that.