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Eagles' DeMeco Ryans was 'shocked' by LeSean McCoy trade

Jeffrey G. Pittenger / Reuters

The Philadelphia Eagles started their turbulent offseason by trading their star running back LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for promising inside linebacker Kiko Alonso. 

McCoy, the 2013 rushing champion, was considered by many to be the fulcrum of the Eagles' offense. Philadelphia filled McCoy's void by signing both DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews.

For McCoy's former teammate DeMeco Ryans, however, the trade came as a surprise. 

"I was shocked," Ryans told CSN Philly's Geoff Mosher. "I was shocked to see Shady go. Shady was such a great teammate, such a fun guy in the locker room to be around. He kept the energy going in the locker room. He's a really good guy, man, so to see him leave was definitely shocking - and it hurt.

"But things like that happen. So once the news hits, you're like, 'OK, it’s the NFL. Another move, another big-time player being moved to a different team. It's happened year after year after year. After that initial shock, I just understood what we're doing."

McCoy rushed for 1,319 yards and five touchdowns last season, the second-highest yardage total of his career. 

Ryans also commented on the Eagles' other surprising trade of the offseason - shipping quarterback Nick Foles to the St. Louis Rams in exchange for Sam Bradford. 

"That was a very interesting one,” Ryans said. "I was really close with Nick Foles, so again it was tough seeing a good friend leave. But you look at a guy like Sam, he was the number one guy taken in the draft class, so that tells you a lot about Sam and a lot about his ability to quarterback a team, to lead a team. I'm excited to see Sam out there, see how he works under our offense."

Philadelphia made the series of bold player transactions after missing out on the playoffs in 2014. 

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