Spags Watch: No Birds Move This Week
The Philadelphia Daily News - Eagletarian
Spags Watch: No Birds Move This Week
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
Truth is, nobody in the media knows what's up with the Eagles' defensive coordinator situation. But the four-day getaway former Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo outlined in his one interview, with St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell, ends today or tomorrow.
So Spagnuolo ought to be ready by tomorrow to start evaluating where he goes from here. The widespread assumption is that one of his options is some sort of role with the Eagles -- either replacing Juan Castillo as defensive coordinator or coming in above Castillo as something like assistant head coach/defense.
One thing we do know: Eagles coach Andy Reid hasn't scheduled his season wrapup news conference with reporters, and Reid is out of town all week, until Sunday. So the Eagles won't be hiring or firing any coordinator-level employees this week.
It was made clear last week that Reid wouldn't speak until the coordinator situation was resolved, to avoid a repeat of last year's strong endorsement of Sean McDermott, issued as Reid was negotiating McDermott's departure for Carolina.
Now we're seeing people interpret the long delay as an indication Castillo's role will be unchanged. I don't see that. If Castillo was going to be the coordinator in 2012, the Eagles would want to say so, as soon as possible, and put an end to the speculation. I think it's pretty likely that Castillo's role will change.
One thought I've seen experessed is that the firing of secondary coach Johnnie Lynn gives the Birds a place to stash Castillo. I dunno. An NFL position coach really needs to know a lot of nuance -- more than a coordinator does, really. A guy who coaches cornerbacks, as Lynn did here, needs to be able to refine a professional player's backpedal and hip turn and so on. It's true that Juan worked in the offseason with his son Greg, an Iowa cornerback. But fine-tuning your son and fine-tuning Nnamdi Asomugha are two very different things.
Today, on NFL.com, Jason LaCanfora did a sort of coordinator opening roundup in which he posited that Spagnuolo, a former Jim Johnson assistant, is expected to return to the Eagles by the end of the week. Dunno if that's "expected" as in, "somebody with the Eagles or close to Spagnuolo told me this," or "expected" as in, "this is what everybody seems to be saying."
At any rate, a source close to the situation told your Eagletarian that Reid is out of town until Sunday night, so I'm gonna say that Spagnuolo is NOT going to be back with the Eagles by the end of the week. Not officially, anyway.
hmmmmm, sounds to me like someone is bitter that they didn't post the story first...— CosmoK
Comment removed.- What the heck is your problem with Kool-Aid? The midnight green kind is REAL GOOD.
- I love all of you guys who pine for the Rich Kotite/Ray Rhodes days....
"Why can't we be 5 - 11 again?!?"— c.ley - Agree w/CosmoK. Love the philly.com writer on writer crime. Did you guys bother to check in w/birds eye view?? Or is Domo being his usual curmudgeonly self & immediately dismissing anything he didn't write/investigate b/c he's smarter than everyone else (though his columns don't make him sound smart at all. Ever.)— thomaspfoolery
- 5-11 wouldn’t be good, but we sure got a lot of laughs with Kotite and Rhodes. Especially with the Conklin imitations.— vipers53
- They're waiting till pitchers and catchers report to make a move so they can steal headlines from the Phils.— AEPi71
- Wait, so if last season when Andy strongly endorsed McDermott while negotiating him to go to Carolina was a mistake (which I agree), why automatically does it mean that if Castillo stays Reid should have endorsed him as soon as possible? It's clear that even if Andy did that, there isn't necessarily any truth to it.— awl
- Spags knows this could be a 1 year gig not sure that makes this deal a slam dunk...seriously unless he was assured of 2 years or the HC in waiting why would he come here other than familiarity? They better be high bidder if they want Spags...if Spags comes then you have to fire the remianing guys coaching on D unless Spags feels they are a fit...no more mixing and matching like 2011...that was a fuggin disaster— glove69
- is there a difference between the 5-11 kotite/rhodes (and others) eras and reid's consistently playoff-bound teams? absolutely. it's just as large and the one between reid and dungy, belicheck, cowher, payton, and every other super-bowl-winning coach over the past few years.
I'm really sick of people thinking that a refusal to accept reid's mediocrity equates to a desire for a team that sucks. Just because the eagles have never had a SB winning coach doesn't mean you settle for a guy who isn't as bad as the rest.— vinni - This fixation on Spagnulo is silly. Replacing Castillo is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The real problem for the Eagles is Vick, who is not even in the upper third of NFL QBs. He is no improvement over Kolb (who is also mediocre - they just have different strengths and weaknesses). This is the Eagles' real blunder (and Lurie, Banner and Pee Wee Herman all have a piece of the pie as well as Reid) that led to this year's failure - not Juan Castillo, not Desean Jackson (who should be let go), not the O-line, not the Wide 9, not the run-pass ratio, or the endless other trivialities upon which so many commentators on this site (including the sports writers) obsess like some unarmed version of Jared Lochner (most of whom do not have any training or expertise to qualify them to make such judgments). I don't hate Vick. I don't care about his legal problems or any other deficiences he may have as a person that would make me reject him as a son-in-law. What I do care about is his inablility to read defenses, his poor decision making and his propensity for silly turnovers and injuries. He is a great athlete but a mediocre QB - you have to judge him as a whole, warts and all. Until this elephant in the room is effectively addressed, forget
about going deep into the playoffs, much less a Super Bowl.
— chuck60 - Chuck60, what, pray tell, are the deficiencies that Michael Vick has as a person that would make you reject him as a son-in-law?— kingsolomonsmind
- Reid is content on having marty and juan as his offensive and defensive coordinators. No way he would ever bring spags in...this is a coach that could potentially take his job and the big man would never let that happen. Reid is the biggest control freak in the NFL and has aquired WAY too much power within the organization and it boiled over with the Castillo hire and its only going to get worse.— slovakstud18
- Les Bowen seems like he has a man crush for Spag. Why would we want this proven loser? News flash- Strahan will not be coming with him. Juan led our defense to a TOP 10 ranking. Spag is a pathetic loser.— Dallasrulez
- I WOULDNT ALLOW REID TO MAKE THE DECISION ON WHO THE NEW D/C IS THAT HIRE SHOULD BE THE GM'S JOB OR ONWERS... THE WAY U GET SPAGS IS HAVE THE G/M OR OWNER HIRE HIM AND TELL HIM UR NEXT IN LINE IF REID CAN'T PULL IT TOGETHER END OF STORY!!!!— DJ_Bootleggah
