All you have to do is look at Howie Roseman's progression of offseason moves to see exactly what the Eagles are doing this offseason.
Roseman spent the time surrounding the coaching search re-signing players like Zach Ertz, Brent Celek, Lane Johnson, Malcolm Jenkins and Vinny Curry.
The departures started rolling in on Monday when the Eagles traded Byron Maxwell and Kiko Alonso to the Miami Dolphins, then DeMarco Murray to the Tennessee Titans.
Notice a trend? Howie Roseman is using this offseason to clearly press the undo button on the moves that Chip Kelly made in his one year of total control.
Roseman dropped the hammer on Monday with the two trades that not only sent three of Chip's acquisitions packing, he freed up cap space to give the Eagles flexibility to fill the holes the Eagles have now.
On the surface, it looks like the Eagles are just blowing it all up. And in a sense, they are.
It's a fine line between win and compete now and rebuild for the Eagles. Playing in the NFC East and the overall weak nature of competition within the division can certainly lighten the blow. It's not like the Eagles have no talent, just holes to fill at many positions.
That said, the free agency period does not officially begin until Wednesday and the Draft is coming up in another month. The Eagles will be plenty busy then with their newly formed cap space to try to address several positions.
They already wanted to address the offensive line and safety positions. Now they are down a cornerback, a running back and could still look to add another linebacker, wide receiver and pass rusher on the defensive line.
What the Eagles do this offseason will depend on the urgency of the positional need. In other words, think offensive line first, running back and wide receiver second.
But really, this goes back to erasing the Chip Kelly era. Kelly traded away established running back LeSean McCoy for Kiko Alonso. On one hand, McCoy was approaching the age when running backs start to trend in a downward direction. His performance had suffered one season after he was the NFL's leading rusher, and so that forced the Eagles to consider his long-term future.
However, all the Eagles got in return for McCoy was an injury-prone linebacker, who then didn't perform near expectations.
Then there was Byron Maxwell, signed as a free agent from Seattle for big money — six years, $63 million — to be the savior of the Eagles secondary problems. Coming from Seattle's top-notch defense, it was assumed he could hold his own.
That didn't happen in an underwhelming year from Maxwell. The Eagles saw an opportunity to be free of his contract and took it.
And finally, the DeMarco Murray saga comes to an end. Kelly signed Murray in a move that seemed more like a desperation play than anything else. Murray wasn't the same kind of running back as McCoy, but the Eagles offense needed a name. Enter Murray, who was the offensive splash to the offseason.
Murray had his moments in his only season with the Eagles, but ultimately was unhappy playing for Chip Kelly and unhappy as an Eagle, and the fact that this ongoing drama carried well past Kelly's firing and into the hiring of Doug Pederson just made it more of a necessity to start over there as well.
The Eagles are now free of two massive contracts to players that weren't helping the cause or moving things forward. That's the real victory.
But through it all, it's worth noticing the players that Howie Roseman placed an emphasis on keeping and the ones he has made a point of moving. They are Chip deals that he is undoing for the Eagles. And as a result, he's put his stamp on the 2016 Eagles and what the team will look like when free agency and the Draft is all said and done.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
