Eagles to hire Bowles; Castillo remains DC
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Eagles
Eagles to hire Bowles; Castillo remains DC
Jeff McLane, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Eagles are set to hire former Miami interim head coach Todd Bowles to be their defensive backs coach and Juan Castillo will remain defensive coordinator, an NFL source told The Inquirer on Monday.
The team will meet with Bowles, who remained under contract with the Dolphins until only recently, today and it is expected that he will accept the job. He will be in charge of the entire secondary so safeties coach Mike Zordich will be under Bowles.
The announcement will come later today and Eagles coach Andy Reid will meet with the media on Tuesday.
The Eagles had a vacancy after Johnnie Lynn was fired earlier this month.
The decision to keep Castillo as defensive coordinator ends weeks of uncertainty over his future. Reid obviously decided that the final four games of the season in which the defense showed improvement was enough to keep Castillo in charge of the unit.
There have been reports, since confirmed to The Inquirer, that the Eagles had shown interest in bringing former assistant Steve Spagnuolo back to run the defense. But Spagnuolo chose to take the defensive coordinator job with New Orleans.
Castillo, in Mobile, Ala. last week to scout the Senior Bowl, declined to comment on his status.
"You got to go through Andy,” Castillo said, deferring Reid. "I'm just working."
The 48-year-old Bowles has vast experience as a defensive backs coach in the NFL. He had been Miami's secondary coach since 2005. He was also assistant head coach from 2008-11. Before Miami he worked in Dallas, Cleveland and in New York with the Jets. He has never been a defensive coordinator in the NFL, but held that role at Grambling State in the late 1990s.
Bowles had a hand in developing Miami safety Yeremiah Bell, who represented the AFC in the 2010 Pro Bowl. In his three years in Dallas, three Cowboys defensive backs were chosen to a combined five Pro Bowls, including three by safety Roy Williams. In 2007, three-fourths of Dallas’ backfield cornerback -- cornerback Terence Newman, safety Ken Hamlin and Williams -- was selected to the NFC All-Star squad.
Bowles is a Temple graduate. He played eight seasons in the NFL with the Redskins and 49ers from 1986-93.
Bowles' days in Miami were up when the Dolphins hired Joe Philbin to be their next coach and it was decided that he would not be retained. Bowles had interviewed for that opening along with the Oakland Raiders head coaching job.
The Raiders, who had also interviewed Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, hired Denver defensive coordinator Dennis Allen instead.
I like the decision. Juan had a rough 1st season. He basically got thrown in to in with no off season to teach his scheme. Did we really expect a O-Line coach to have a Top 5 Def his 1st season with no time to teach his scheme? He will get better as the players trust him more you’re not going to have an in-sync Def with a new coordinator every season. They played like a team end of season yeah they were sh!tty teams but comon we lost to the Cardinals so I’ll take those wins as improvement.— mamba710- I'd rather keep Castillo now, since the targeted D Coordinators are already all taken anyway. Keep the same system and scheme instead of having another MAJOR change going into next year...— bjm5028
- Bowles has worked for people like Bill Parcells on defense, and did a great job. He'll be the defacto leader of the defense without embarrassing Castillo.Good hire.— drbob1
- Spags and a 1st round linebacker would have taken some heat off Reid. Now I don't know. Is it the red hair that makes him so arrogant and unlikeable?— dragoon6
- This is a head scratcher. I thought they might hire Bowles as the new DC. There has to be more to this than meets the eye. He (Bowles) has been in charge of various teams secondaries for over a decade so this can't hurt. We all know Juan needs as much help as possible. If Andy actually comes out at his press conference and starts throwing around stats about last years defense and how the defense "improved" in the last four games I am going to scream. Well, then again I usually scream whenever Reid opens his mouth and speaks nonsense.— Honeybadger Dont Care
- Castillo's future was never in doubt. We were being played by both Lurie and Reid. Not that it matters because Castillo should be given a second shot.— drog
- Looks like a good addition. The Eagles could hire Jesus, the Buddha and Confucius and people wouldn't think they hired the right guy.— Elbarad
- Hiring those three would actually be EXACTLY what the Eagles would do! Three great people, hard workers all, with absolutely no football experience! — gdibig
- What an embarrassment! It just show you that Lurie doesn't care about the team. He only wants to make money! Solar panels, green stadium? Great but WIN a Super Bowl!— jtcigar
- Andy will never admit that the Castillo decision was a mistake because Andy never makes mistakes. Just ask him. The picture of Juan above is priceless and pretty much sums up the decision to make him DC. He looks lost and clueless because he is. Lurie doesn't care because his favorite team is in the Super Bowl and they are minting money at the Novacare complex. The next bit of excitement for our supposed NFL franchise will be watching the Lawyer blow the upcoming draft. Get your popcorn ready!— coloradoeagle
- This is Insanity....right Joe, Joe...Joe where are you Joe.— jtcigar
Comment removed.- What 4philly4ever and Phila Fans Said.— eaglesfan
- You have GOT to be kidding me.
- I said about a week ago they were rumored to be interested in Bowles. Good hire.— simplefreedom
