Chip Kelly says Eagles wanted Jeremy Maclin but couldn't go as high as Chiefs did

On the day the Kansas City Chiefs officially signed WR Jeremy Maclin to a five-year deal, Eagles coach Chip Kelly held a press conference to discuss the unbelievable moves going on in Philadelphia. The most interesting part of Kelly's press conference is when he said the Eagles were offered a first round pick for Sam Bradford just this morning but he also briefly touched on the loss of Maclin.

"With Mac, we did not want to lose him," Kelly said. "He had a tremendous year for us. We couldn't go as high as Kansas City went is really what it came down to. But we definitely wanted Mac back. I had a lot of discussions with Mac over the weekend. I know it was a very difficult decision for him but I understood the decision. We definitely wanted Mac back. We've got some alternative plans. You always have to have contingency plans. The ultimate plan is that we wanted to have Mac back. It just didn't work out."

The Chiefs deal with Maclin is reportedly $55 million over five years. I'm not sure where the Eagles were but as Andrew Brandt said here, Maclin really had no bad options.

Maclin truly had no bad option: liked Philly at lot but had chance to be with guy who drafted him (traded up), WR-needy team.

— Andrew Brandt (@adbrandt) March 11, 2015

...He was going to be a very rich man either way.