Is Shady McCoy a Hall of Famer?

Three weeks into the 2021 season and it’s clear that this is going to be a long season for the Eagles. As impressive as they looked in Week 1 against the Falcons, the growing pains and inferior talent are clear when competing against better teams in the NFL. So it’s going to be a very long 17 game season.

Thankfully, LeSean “Shady” McCoy is doing us a favor this week as he’s decided to sign a one day contract to retire as a Philadelphia Eagle. This is good timing since everyone knows the Birds are going to get wrecked on their home field by the Kansas City Chiefs. Not only are the Chiefs insanely talented and coached by Andy Reid, but they are ticked off after losing back-to-back games and will probably take out their frustrations on the Eagles. But with Shady McCoy’s career being celebrated during the week, it’s at least a distraction and gets fans nostalgic about the good times we had with him.

McCoy’s place in Eagles history is an interesting one. He’s the most talented running back the franchise has ever had and is probably the best since Steve Van Buren in the 1940s. Unfortunately his time in Philly was sandwiched between the two most significant eras in team history. By the time he arrived as a 2nd round pick out of Pittsburgh, the Donovan McNabb/Brian Westbrook Era was coming to an end and he didn’t get much playing time in the 2009 season.

In 2010 he ran for over 1,000 yards during the wildly entertaining Michael Vick experiment that restored hope in the fanbase. 2011 was the year Shady became a star earning 1st Team All-Pro honors and scored 20 touchdowns, unfortunately that performance was overshadowed by the Dream Team disaster. Then he missed time in 2012 and had a down year along with the team in Andy Reid’s miserable last season with the Birds.

But 2013 was peak Shady with the arrival of Chip Kelly. He won the rushing title with 1607 yards on the ground and a career high 314 rushing attempts. The highlight being his iconic performance in the snow against the Detroit Lions. Add 500 receiving yards and that’s 2000 yards from scrimmage, a season that would make Brian Westbrook proud. He was the best running back in football and had the belt to prove it.

Despite tremendous success, little did we know that behind-the-scenes the Shady McCoy Era in Philly was nearing the end despite being at the peak. In 2014 McCoy wasn’t as good as the previous year but still had over 1300 yards rushing and became the franchises’ all-time leading rusher in just six seasons. But his style of play just didn’t fit coach Chip Kelly, who took over team operations are the 2014 season.

Suddenly, Kelly traded McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for Kiko Alonso. It was a shocking trade at the time and in retrospect was one of the worst trades the Eagles ever made. Yet…the Eagles might not have won the Super Bowl if that didn’t happen. Chip Kelly’s sabotaging of his team was what cause Jeffrey Lurie to have enough and fire him before the 2015 season ended. If McCoy had been there the Eagles definitely would have been better and may have saved his job.

Chip Kelly not getting fired means no Doug Pederson, no Howie Roseman being good at his job for 2 years, no Carson Wentz being drafted, no 2017 roster being built around Wentz’s strengths and no Nick Foles 2.0 in Philly.

While Shady had success in Buffalo, he clearly missed Philly and probably felt he should have been with them as they made their 2017 run. Fortunately he got a couple of Super Bowl rings the past two years as a member of the Chiefs and Buccaneers, but even he knew that it would have meant more if he won it with the Eagles.

Although the chain reaction that began with his trade led to the victory in Super Bowl 52, McCoy could have gone down as the definitive Philadelphia Eagle for his generation had he stayed. He showed in Buffalo that he had more juice left in the tank and could have been the franchise tailback for a decade.

And had he stayed with the same team for a decade, it certainly would have motivated the fanbase to campaign for a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Shady’s overall career is certainly impressive: Over 11,000 rushing yards, 89 touchdowns, 6 Pro Bowls, two-time 1st Team All-Pro and two Super Bowl rings albeit not contributing a ton to them.

It’s not easy for a running back to get into Canton, but what Shady has going for him is that he was clearly one of the best and most consistent running backs of the 2010s. The ’10s were a decade not kind to the tailback, as the passing game exploded to the point where running backs were near-obsolete. Take the running backs on the Eagles 2017 team, a trio featuring two veterans in LeGarrette Blount and Jay Ajayi and an undrafted rookie in Corey Clement. If Shady McCoy had been there the Birds probably would have only needed to add tailback to the backfield.

McCoy’s name right now doesn’t scream HALL OF FAMER right away from objective eyes, but in the future his status as one of best backs of his era could lead him to Canton one day.