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King: Eagles Got A Good Deal With LeSean McCoy

By JasonB
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Peter King led off his weekly MMQB column this morning with some talk about LeSean McCoy's new contract. He notes that with all big, long term deals with running backs, there's risk. There's countless of examples of really good backs who failed to live up to their big deals.

However, as King notes, really none of these guys got their big deal at 23 years old.

The most amazing thing about McCoy is not how precocious he's been in his first three seasons, averaging 1,414 yards from scrimmage a season. It's that he's 23. The Eagles signed him to a five-year deal Thursday, and five-year deals for running backs are always dangerous. But Steven Jackson will take his first carry of this season for St. Louis at age 29, and Michael Turner is 30, and both could easily finish in the top five in the league in rushing this year. McCoy will take the last carry of this contract at age 28.

McCoy's age offered the Eagles a unique opportunity to give McCoy a market deal (very similar to Arian Foster's deal) without really having to worry about what he'll be like later in the contract. As King said, he'll be 28 in the last year of the deal. Even for a RB, that's not old.

King spoke with Eagles GM Howie Roseman about the deal who said that you don't win championships by letting your best young players walk because you're scared of the risk.

"Obviously there's an inherent risk in paying any player,'' Roseman said. "But if you're worried, and you're constantly conservative, you won't be able to build the kind of team that you hope can win a championship.''

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