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Kelce: Late-Season Collapse 'Almost Good,' Allowed For Key Roster Changes

By Andrew Porter

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The Eagles were 9-3 with four games remaining in the 2014 season. The playoffs seemed imminent, almost definite, but somehow never formed into a reality. The Birds collapsed down the stretch losing three of their final four games, finishing 10-6, and devastatingly missing the postseason.

Eagles center Jason Kelce, who along with guard Evan Mathis missed a stretch of games during the season due to injury, says the collapse could actually be a positive in terms of the future of the franchise.

"Evan Mathis and I were in there down the stretch," Kelce told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Wednesday. "Even though I don't think either of us were fully healthy, we're in there playing, and quite frankly we didn't get it done down the stretch.

Listen: Jason Kelce on the 94WIP Morning Show

 

"In some respects, it's almost good when that happens to you," Kelce explained. "If we go 12-4, if we end the season we'll make the playoffs and we're out in the second round, this roster doesn't change at all. All of the sudden we go 10-6, your weaknesses are a little bit amplified. The guys that you weren't so sure about, or on the fence, now all of the sudden you know for sure that this is something you want to fix."

And that's exactly what Chip Kelly did.

In his first free-agency period with complete control of personnel decisions, Kelly made significant roster moves, trading the franchise's leading rusher in LeSean McCoy and the starting quarterback in Nick Foles.

"No, I wasn't as surprised as you guys are," Kelce said of the roster changes. "There were some things that surprised me, but we knew ending the season the way we did and kind of the way some of the guys were aging, and kind of where some of the contracts were at, that there was going to be a lot of change this offseason. We just didn't know it was going to be quite this much."

McCoy, who Kelce helped rack up 5,075 rushing yards over his last four seasons, had an $11.9 million 2015 cap-hit and was traded for former Buffalo Bills young linebacker Kiko Alonso.

Kelce said he realized that McCoy's cap figure was going to be a problem heading into the offseason.

"That trade had a lot to do with salary cap numbers, had a lot to do with the player that we were getting in return, and the salary cap space we were getting on the back end," Kelce said of the McCoy trade. "We knew that something was going to happen with LeSean McCoy, whether it was a restructure or something, they weren't going to pay him that much money."

Thanks to the plethora of moves, Kelly has quickly become one of the most polarizing figures in sports. Even Eagles fans are starting to question whether Kelly knows what he's doing.

Kelce remains confident in his coach, explaining that he believes the Eagles are better now than they were last year.

"Oh, I'm very optimistic," Kelce said when asked about the direction of the franchise. "It seems like we should be a better team on defense. Our special teams was outstanding last year and offensively, depending on how everything transpires, I think we can be an outstanding team on offense as well. It's going to be hard to slow our offense when you got Chip Kelly at the helm, I think. So, I think that we're probably a better team right now than we were last year."

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