Orchard Park, N.Y. — This doesn't happen often in the NFL.

On Tuesday night, as most people in both Buffalo and Philadelphia were settling down to enjoy dinner, the Bills agreed to trade linebacker Kiko Alonso to the Eagles for 2013 rushing champion LeSean McCoy. No draft picks involved, big-name for big-name. A rarity in the NFL.

The move had phone screens lighting up across the country, and ESPN and NFL Network cut directly to reaction about the deal. Immediately it was labeled a "blockbuster," and debates raged over the winner of the deal.

But if you strip away the names and forget for a second that Alonso was named as defensive rookie of the year by the Pro Football Writers of America in 2013, the same year McCoy led the NFL in rushing, the on-field impact of this trade has the potential to be anti-climactic for both sides.

Yes, Alonso had an impressive rookie season. He picked off four passes and had 159 tackles, flashy stats that don't tell the entire story about how he faded toward the end of the season and was less than adequate in run defense, earning a -1.9 grade in that department from Pro Football Focus.

Alonso showed plenty of promise, but he was also coming off a hip injury that required surgery and a torn ACL that cost him the entire 2014 season. In his absence, linebackers Nigel Bradham and Preston Brown had breakout seasons in Buffalo. With Rex Ryan in town, there were already questions about how all the linebackers would fit into his scheme and how a linebacker who plays a freelancing style like Alonso would adapt to Ryan's defense.

Alonso is, in essence, an imperfect linebacker with plenty of promise who was made expendable by a new scheme and the existing talent on the roster.

That brings us to McCoy, who has back-to-back seasons of at least 1,300 rushing yards. He's a fantasy football darling, a name-brand at a position people recognize. But running back is also a position that has unquestionably declined in value over the years, and McCoy is nearing the end of the typical shelf life for the position. He'll be 27 years old by the time training camp rolls around and has 626 carries over the last two season, more than any other back in the NFL.

There's also the issue of McCoy's contract, which comes with a $10.25 million cap hit for 2015 and two additional years of $6.9 million and $7.6 million cap hits. That's a significant amount of salary cap space for a running back that has taken the type of beating McCoy has over the last few years, especially when the 2015 NFL Draft is loaded with running backs who would come cheaper and with less mileage.

While both of these players come with more questions than answers on the field, there's no debating the impact this type of trade has off the field. In Buffalo, Rex gets to puff his chest out and show the NFL that the Bills are going for it. They may not have a quarterback, but he's going to make sure there's so much talent around the quarterback that it doesn't matter. The Bills will have to beef up the offensive line in front of McCoy, but it's obvious Ryan and general manager Doug Whaley are committed to snapping the 15-year playoff drought in Western New York.

For Chip Kelly, this serves as another chance to show he's not going to cater to his stars. He cut Desean Jackson last offseason, and after reportedly butting heads with McCoy in 2014, showed that he, too, can be expendable and got to add one of his defensive stars from Oregon in the process.

What we have here is Rex Ryan, a defensive mastermind who thinks his defense can survive without a player like Alonso, trading with Chip Kelly, an offensive mastermind who thinks his fast-paced attack can thrive with or without McCoy. Both are probably right, too, but this trade will come down to Buffalo's offense and Philadelphia's defense, both of which are more than one player away.

That's easy to forget when big names are flashing across the screen on an evening in early March.