I don’t even know how to express an opinion on this one.
The Eagles promoted offensive line coach, Juan Castillo, to defensive coordinator. Yes, you read that right. Offensive line coach promoted to defensive coordinator.
Yesterday, when I got home from work, I loaded up my iTunes and I saw a podcast pop up that was a Mike Missanelli interview with Eagles beat reporter, Tim McManus. The label on the podcast said “Mikey Miss talks with Tim McManus on the Eagles naming Juan Castillo as defensive coordinator.” My first thought was: “Interesting I have heard a lot of different names bandied about – Winston Moss, Darren Perry, even Seth Joyner – but haven’t heard that name out there.” My second thought was: “That is weird I think that our new D-coordinator has the same name as our current O-line coach. I guess it is a popular name in coaching.” Then I thought: “Maybe I am wrong. I thought Juan Castillo was the name of our O-line coach, but maybe it is Julio Castillo or Felix Castillo or Juan Casilla or something like that.” Not for one second did I think that the Eagles promoted the Juan Castillo to DC. And, I am not embarrassed to admit that because, well, HE WAS OUR OFFENSIVE LINE COACH.
Now, for the interesting part of this whole thing: I am not totally sure it is a bad move. I may be the only one left out there (and I am certainly not given a lot of reasons to bolster this opinion), but I trust the Eagles front office, and, in particular, I trust Andy Reid.
Why could it be a good thing, even though it sounds, on the surface, so utterly ridiculous?
- He is, by all accounts, one of the best and brightest assistant coaches in the league. He was always talked about as being one of the best two or three o-line coaches in the league. Granted, that does not necessarily translate into being able to coach anything, but it is nice for the Eagles to be able to keep such a talented young assistant.
- Somehow, they did this without downgrading his old position. One of the things I was worried about here was the loss of Castillo as such a great O-line coach. But, as I said above, Castillo is widely considered one of the best two or three O-line coaches in the league, and the Eagles somehow replaced him with a guy just as highly considered – Howard Mudd from Indianapolis.
- Even though he has not coached defense – at any level – since 1990, Castillo is, at heart, a defensive guy. After all, in his playing days, he was an excellent linebacker at Texas A&M – Kingsville, who went on to play linebacker and then coach linebackers in the USFL.
- The scheme, most likely, will not change. When the Eagles had not moved on this vacancy, it looked more and more like they were targeting one of the assistants in the Super Bowl. The reason that is scary is that both of those teams play the 3-4 scheme, and the Eagles do not seem to have the personnel to play the 3-4. Trent Cole might be the best 4-3 defensive end in the NFL, and it is uncertain as to whether he is big enough to play 3-4 DE or quick enough to play 3-4 OLB. Brandon Graham showed a lot of promise before his injury, but he clearly is not fit for 3-4 DE or OLB. Juqua Parker is exclusively a 4-3 guy. And, aside from that, there are two things you must have to play an effective 3-4: (1) playmaking outside linebackers and (2) a gigantic havoc-creator nose tackle. Look at the Steelers and Packers. Casey Hampton is an absolute beast in the middle for Pittsburgh, and everyone knows now about the dominance of B.J. Raji for Green Bay. And, then you get the OLBs. Ever heard of Cla Matthews or James Harrison? Ya, they are the playmaking OLBs that I was talking about. Do you think either Ernie Sims or Moise Fokou are the next Lawrence Taylors? Me neither. So, I think that if the Eagles were to switch to a 3-4 defense, it could take upwards of two, three, even four years of good drafts and other personnel moves to accumulate the right mix of defensive players. I am not saying that we are stuck in the 4-3 forever, but I think a switch would lead to growing pains that we may not be prepared to go through right now.
Clock management? No. Choosing assistant coaches? Yes.
So, all in all, while this move is absolutely, completely STUNNING, let us not jump off buildings yet. Say what you will about Andy Reid’s clock management or ability to “win the big one,” he has been incredibly successful in many areas over his 11-year coaching career, and one of his most successful areas is evaluating assistant coaches, from Morninwheg to Harbaugh to Spagnuolo to Childress to Jauran and even to guys like Castillo and other positional coaches that have yet to truly be heard from. I have complete trust in his decisions when it comes to choosing assistants, so I give him the benefit of the doubt here.
It is just really strange…
As you know, I’m one of the bigger Andy Reid supporters out there. Despite the flaws, I love having him as my coach. But I just can’t see how this is a good move. I get that he’s a smart guy, well-respected, and played linebacker in college, but all those sound like great reasons to make him the D-line or linebackers coach and groom him for the DC job, if you think he’d make a good DC and that’s what he wants to do. This is a team ready to contend for a title, and our DC is going to be learning as he goes? And even in Castillo’s quotes yesterday, he seems to be implying that he’ll be learning as he goes.
But, I will just say that one of the things I really like about Andy is that he’s willing to take risks and take the heat that comes with those risks. I just can’t see the sense in this one.
Yeah, I just don’t get it. I’ve heard him described as one of the best coaches in any position at any level, but isn’t this a monumental shift from what he’s coached in the past? I mean, if all you want is someone with good coaching skills, hell pull Bobby Knight or John Chaney out of retirement and make them our Defensive Coordinator.
Another point: If we were talking Offensive Coordinator, I’d be much more OK with this on account of Reid being an offensive guy himself. If we Reid were more like a Buddy-Ryan-type head coach, I’d be totally fine with this. But Reid needs an independently knowledgeable Defensive mind like a Jim Johnson on that side of the ball, and Castillo doesn’t bring much of a defensive resume to the table.
I think Andy Reid is trying to re-invent Defense. Think about it… we have 2 QB’s and now both coordinators are from the offensive side. I think he is going to put two offenses out on the field… one against the other teams defense and the other against the other teams offense. I can see him saying in the press conference now “this just gives us twice as many opportunities to get the ball in our playmakers hands.”
As skeptical as I was when I heard the news too, I’m willing to give Andy the benefit of the doubt here and say that he hasn’t gone completely insane. Time will only tell though, and it will absolutely mean Reid’s job if it doesn’t work out. It definitely helps that we were able to bring in Washburn, who for all intensive purposes will be acting as defensive coordinator 1A for the early part of Castillo’s tenure. Washburn will leave a huge imprint on what front four operates do this season, and I guarantee that whoever replaces Dick Jauron as the secondary coach will also be a veteran guy who does much of the same. That lets Castillo make a “smooth” transition back to the defensive side, something that he has apparently been asking for since he came to the birds over a decade ago. I have faith that he will eventually embrace the job, and become one of the best defensive coordinators in the game. The million dollar question is, “how SOON can he turn things around?” as our time to win it all is NOW! With a little luck, maybe we sign both Nnamdi Asomugha and Albert Haynesworth and his learning curve gets that much smoother. Last thing I’ll say about this whole move, I am very excited to see them bring in a superior talent in Howard Mudd out of retirement, who was able to do great things in protecting the immobile Peyton Manning for years with very mediocre talent. Provided that we see a 2011 season, I expect great things this year from the Eagles.
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