Tra Thomas: Eagles locker room senses 'a hint of racism' from Chip Kelly

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith insinuated Monday that race may have influenced some of the roster moves made by Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly.

Former Eagles offensive tackle Tra Thomas, who coached for Philadelphia the past two seasons, took the discussion one step further Tuesday during an appearance on FOX.

"One of the things that you're seeing right now, and these are the things that you have heard from the locker room from different players is that ... they feel like there is a hint of racism," Thomas said, according to Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com.

Thomas joined the Eagles' coaching staff in 2013 as an intern. He was never hired as a full-time employee, but stayed on last season to work with the outside linebackers and pass rushers. Kelly informed Thomas at the end of the season that the Eagles were eliminating his position and would not be bringing him back in 2015.

"Yeah, you have seven assistant black coaches but only one black coach is over the segment. The other guys are assistants to the assistant coaches," Thomas said. "(Running backs coach) Duce Staley is the only guy that's head over his segment who is gonna be in charge of his group. The other guys are just assistants to an assistant coach."

At the center of Smith's argument was that Kelly has parted ways with DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy and Jeremy Maclin, but has elected to keep Riley Cooper on the roster. In 2013, video was released of Cooper using a racial slur at a concert.

"Coach Kelly bagged him and he sent him off to have some coaching on how to handle race, I don't know," Thomas said. "But my question with that when you look at a Riley Cooper is ... if he was black and at a Trey Songz concert or something and he was talking to a white person or a homosexual like that, and he was gay bashing, would he still be on the team?"