Eagles' Mychael Kendricks glad to be part of 'D' plan

MYCHAL KENDRICKS is a talented, confident linebacker. But like most professional athletes, he also is a bit insecure.

He needs to be loved, and Chip Kelly didn't give him much of that during the offseason.

It started with the head-turning, early-March trade of LeSean McCoy to Buffalo for linebacker Kiko Alonso.

Then, a couple of weeks later at the NFL meetings in Phoenix, Kelly damned him with faint praise, telling reporters, "I thought when he was healthy he played really well for us [last season]. But we missed him for four games. The health aspect was a difficult thing."

The between-the-lines message: Sometimes, you gotta play hurt, dude.

A week after that, the Eagles restructured and extended veteran linebacker DeMeco Ryans' contract, even though he still was recovering from his second Achilles' injury in five years.

All of that triggered speculation that Kelly was looking to trade Kendricks, even if it seemed to make little sense for him to get rid of the one of the league's most athletic inside linebackers.

"I don't know if it was real," Kendricks said of the trade rumors. "I don't know. I had questions, but it didn't matter.

"Because this is my team. I knew my capabilities. I knew what I was capable of doing. Kiko and I were both from the Bay area. I knew him. I was supposed to go to Oregon with him, but ended up going to Cal instead.

"It was never, 'Why did they trade for Kiko?' It was, 'Yeah, they traded for him. Cool.' "

When the Eagles opened training camp earlier this month, Kelly told reporters something he finally got around to telling Kendricks a couple of days earlier; that the kid wasn't going anywhere. "You can write that down in ink," the Eagles coach said.

On Monday, Kendricks wrote something else down in ink: his signature on a four-year, $29 million contract extension.

He was entering the final year of his rookie contract and could've become a free agent after the season.

If he has the kind of year I believe he's capable of having, he probably could have commanded much more than the $7.25 million a year the Eagles are giving him.

But there is a 16-game minefield standing between now and the 2016 free-agency signing period. Sixteen potential opportunities to suffer a career-threatening injury.

Which is why Kendricks decided to take a good contract now, one that includes $16.4 million in guaranteed money, rather than gamble on getting a better one later.

"Business 101," Kendricks said after practice yesterday. "Risk-reward. For my security, for my family's security, everything says do it now.

"This is one of the biggest moments of my life. It was a really big decision. It's just about security. This game is 100-percent injury approved. It's guaranteed that you're going to get an injury or two during the season. I just wasn't willing to take that risk."

Kendricks clearly is relieved to get his contract situation resolved. Now there will be no distractions. Now he can focus on football.

"It's a great move," defensive coordinator Bill Davis said. "Mychal, like most guys who get their second contract, it gives you peace of mind and an ability to relax your mind a little bit and not worry about lifelong security. Now he has that and he can really focus on his craft and getting great at it.

"He's the kind of guy that really will probably flourish because he has that contract done."

Kendricks missed four games and parts of two others with a calf injury last season, but flourished in the other 10. He finished second on the team in tackles and had four sacks and three forced fumbles.

He is a three-down, can-do-it-all linebacker who did a solid job on opposing tight ends. The Eagles gave up just 59 receptions and one touchdown to opposing tight ends last season.

At 5-11 1/8, he isn't the tallest inside 'backer in the league. But as more and more NFL teams turn to spread offenses, speed has become a much more important requirement at the position than size.

"With all of the spread-out offenses that are out there, you need speed and athleticism," Davis said. "In the old days, especially in a 3-4, we used to find big guys like the Levon Kirklands, who could butt heads with a guard. But you don't need that quite as much anymore. At least in our style [of defense] we don't need that."

"Mychal is the most explosive guy on this team and one of the most explosive athletes in the entire league," said Rick Minter, who coaches the Eagles' inside linebackers. "His ability to rush, cover, press the run, run guys down . . . he's got a really good package of tools to play with.

"He's a tremendous athlete. With the game becoming more and more a space game, you're glad you have a guy like him because DeMeco [Ryans] can't do some of those things [that he can do] athletically.

"Mychal might be shorter than some, but he's not small. I mean, Mychal's thick. You've got to look at his extremities. Look at his rear. Look at his upper legs. He's very thick and powerful and explosive."

The addition of Alonso and the recovery of Ryans from his Achilles' injury gives the Eagles three starting inside linebackers and just two positions.

But it remains to be seen how many snaps the 31-year-old Ryans is going to be able to play early on. Even when he's back to 100 percent, which he isn't, his days of playing 1,000-plus snaps are over.

"We have three good inside 'backers that we have a lot of options with," Davis said. "They'll all get a lot of reps. Hopefully, I can put them in the right situations and let them do what they do best the most amount of times."

If Davis has trouble finding adequate backups for his two starting outside linebackers, Connor Barwin and Brandon Graham, both Kendricks and Alonso have the versatility to slide outside and play there, though Kendricks' lack of height might be a bigger disadvantage on the edge than it is inside.

"As fast as we go and the way we play football, there will be plenty of snaps [for all of us], trust me," Kendricks said.

He is feeling the love again.

He is happy to know that he is going to be here for a while, happy to know that Kelly is counting on him to be one of the key pieces in his good-to-great plan.

"I truly believe in what we're doing here," Kendricks said. "I feel like I'm a part of something special. And I feel we're doing things that no other entity in the league is doing. There's no other team doing the things we're doing, and I'm happy to be a part of it.

"I really believe in this team. I just feel we're on a path to greatness. I can feel it."

Blog: eagletarian.com