PHILADELPHIA -- Chip Kelly joked about the perception he avoids the media, then spent 25 minutes demonstrating the value of explaining himself and his actions.

The Philadelphia Eagles coach wasn’t supposed to talk Wednesday. The plan was for several players -- Sam Bradford, Byron Maxwell, Brandon Graham -- to talk to reporters. But as the media was expecting Graham, Kelly walked down the aisle of the NovaCare Complex auditorium.

“When there’s news, I’ll talk,” Kelly said. “Fire away. You’re going to fire away anyway.”

In the absence of access to Kelly, speculation ran rampant the Eagles were working behind the scenes to draft his Oregon quarterback, Marcus Mariota. But Kelly put an end to such talk, saying basically the Eagles are “philosophically” opposed to paying the draft-choice ransom it would take to move up from the No. 20 spot in the first round.

“I think that stuff’s crazy,” Kelly said of the speculation. “You guys have been going with that stuff all along.”

True, but that’s largely because there hasn’t been a quotable word from Kelly since 2014.

“We’re not mortgaging our future for any particular player,” Kelly said. “That’s just not philosophically what we think is the right thing to do, that you’re going to package 20 picks to move up from 20 to some other spot.”

When the news broke Tuesday that the Eagles had traded Nick Foles to the St. Louis Rams for injury riddled Bradford, the speculation was slow to die. The immediate reaction was Kelly had obtained Bradford as a chip to turn around and use in a Mariota deal.

“We didn’t bring Sam in here to be a chip,” Kelly said. “I’m the only Chip here.”

OK, so maybe we just missed his jokes. But seriously, Kelly did a fine job of explaining the thinking behind the frenzy of moves he has made over the past week.

Out the door went Foles, LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin, Trent Cole, Todd Herremans and Cary Williams. Right past the door went running back Frank Gore, who agreed to contract terms with the Eagles but then changed his mind before free agency officially began.

Into the door walked Bradford, Byron Maxwell, Kiko Alonso, Walter Thurmond and, as of Wednesday afternoon, Ryan Mathews.

“I like having really good football players,” Kelly said. “We’re trying to accumulate as many good football players as we can.”

That meant giving up some that he liked. Kelly said McCoy’s $12 million salary-cap number was the primary trigger for trading McCoy to Buffalo for Alonso.

“The result of it is the money that was freed up.” Kelly said. “The way we looked at it, we got Alonso and Byron Maxwell for LeSean McCoy. You’d love to keep everybody if you could pay everybody. It’s not baseball. You’ve got to give something up to get something. Did we want to lose LeSean? Certainly not.”

Kelly didn’t do as well when explaining how he came to win control of personnel decisions. He denied there was a power struggle with ousted general manager Howie Roseman.

“I didn’t think I needed control of personnel,” Kelly said. “That’s a decision our owner made.”

The Bradford deal was hard to analyze. The Rams were ready to move on from the No. 1 pick of the 2010 draft. They still owed him $12.9 million for 2015. There had been speculation that he might get released, having missed the 2014 season with his second ACL injury in a year.

So it seemed odd the Eagles would part with Foles -- whose 2013 season was better than anything Bradford has done in four years in St. Louis -- plus a second-round draft pick in 2016.

After hearing Kelly, the whole deal makes a bit more sense. It is still a risk, but not as big a risk as gutting two drafts for a college player.

Bradford was the first pick in 2010 for a reason. If he’d had a chance to play in an offense such as Kelly’s, maybe he would have had a career like Andrew Luck’s. Bradford’s college experience in a spread offense convinced Kelly he could thrive in the Eagles’ offense.

“It’s more talking to the coaches that coached him,” Kelly said. “It’s not that I need to see him run a certain type of offense or do a certain thing. We’re not dissimilar to everyone else in the NFL in terms of what we do. As much as people think it’s different, it’s not different.

“I think he’s got an outstanding skill set. He’s a big, strong, physical quarterback. He’s over 6-4, he’s 240 pounds, he’s smart, he’s intelligent. He’s one of the most accurate throwers when you see him throw the football.”

Considering that Kelly has said “repetitive accuracy” is one of the keys for a quarterback, it’s easier to understand why he traded Foles for Bradford.