Reid's defensive plan comes into focus
Andy Reid's plan on defense came into much clearer focus when his assistants spoke to the media Wednesday.
Reid's defensive plan comes into focus
Jonathan Tamari
Andy Reid told us he had a plan. But on the night he promoted his offensive line coach to defensive coordinator, many fans and reporters, including myself, were quite skeptical.
His vision, though, came into much clearer focus Wednesday when we got our first chance to talk to Reid’s new cast of assistants on defense and the offensive line.
As many reporters noted today, much of what Reid and Juan Castillo hope to do on defense centers on simplifying the game plan and building around what defensive line coach Jim Washburn does up front. Castillo told us the night his hire was announced that his plan was to have the linebackers and secondary “complement” Washburn’s attacking philosophy on the line. That point was underscored Wednesday when nearly every assistant talked in the same terms and talked about simplifying the scheme. Here’s Jeff McLane’s full report from the Inquirer.
The addition of Johnnie Lynn to coach cornerbacks is worth noting too. Put it all together, as Reid said he was doing, and you have veteran coaches on the defensive line and in the secondary to go along with Castillo, who played linebacker. Lynn has been a defensive coordinator and can be a resource. Washburn might be too, though he said he doesn’t see himself as a coordinator.
I spent most of the media session yesterday talking to Howard Mudd, the new offensive line coach who replaces Castillo and whose hiring was largely overlooked, since it was announced on the same night as the DC move. But it should not be dismissed as part of Reid’s puzzle (his word). Mudd’s track record in 12 years with the Colts, which we reported on today, is outstanding. In eight of his years in Indy the Colts finished first or second in fewest sacks allowed. Even accounting for the help Peyton Manning provides, that’s a fantastic record.
(An aside here: we could feel the years of experience pouring from Mudd and Washburn when we spoke to them. Washburn has been in the NFL since 1998, Mudd since 1974. They make an odd couple of close friends, but they seemed like grizzled sides of the same coin, well versed in football and confident in their own tested and proven systems. While Washburn was salty and politically incorrect, and Mudd was professorial and used phrases like “junction point” to describe his plans, both had this in common: each said they plan to make things simpler for their men. Here’s a guess that it’s a lot easier to do that when you’ve seen as much football as these two have and know what works and what doesn’t. )
(One more aside: we don’t know when we’ll next get to talk to these two, since the Eagles generally keep assistants off limits. Here’s a hope (plea) that the policy changes, because they provided great insight and color.)
OK, so here’s where we add caveats, despite the enthralling interviews:
-- We’ve heard much of this before. It’s nice to talk about attacking with the front four and Washburn has a great track record in that regard, but Sean McDermott also said he planned to get after the quarterback with just four men and it didn’t work last season. It remains to be seen whether things change this year. Also, there was a secondary coach by the name of Dick Jauron around last year. He was supposed to bring a veteran presence to help an inexperienced coordinator. Instead, Jauron and the coordinator are both gone. Bottom line: it’ll be a long time before we can say with certainty whether all the puzzle pieces fit together to make a pretty picture, or if Reid has just re-arranged a jumble.
-- The defense is still Castillo’s to lead. He’ll have get advice from Washburn and Lynn, but the big in-game decisions still come down to him, and – and this is worth repeating – he has not coached defense since coordinating a high school squad in 1989.
-- Ray Horton’s hiring by the Cardinals Wednesday reminds us that the Eagles could have had other options. Horton coached the Steelers’ defensive backs. Packers linebackers coach Winston Moss is rumored to be a consideration for the Raiders. These are experienced defensive coaches who had hands in the two best defenses in the NFL last season. As I wrote in Sunday’s Inquirer, it’s still odd to me that the Eagles didn’t bother to at least talk to any of them to see if they could fit with the staff Reid has assembled. If Castillo was still more impressive, then he was still around to promote. Obviously, the Eagles believed so deeply in Castillo that they didn’t think it was worth even checking out. We’ll see if they were right.
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woo hoo!! missanelli not on the air today!— jk19129- he's not on the air?? WTF??— burlywood66
- This article still doesnt explain why Reid was so quick to hire a guy that has no experience on defense whatsoever, rather than wait a lousy 2 weeks to interview a couple of super bowl caliber coaches. And even if these coaching moves turn out to be good ones, the coaching can only make so much of a difference before you realize you have hardly any talented players on defense. And unfortunately this organization does not have a reputation or track record of being good talent evaluators. Yeah you can throw out names like mccoy, d jackson, maclin and i can throw out way more who were absolute busts. Yes draft picks are hit or miss but Reids have been mostly misses and bad misses at that. Steelers, Packers, they know how to evaluate players like none other. 10+ years with the same coach, same philosophy, same west coast offense, same results. When is enough enough. I mean seriously, now the blame to shift to Lurie for not knowing when you cut your losses and go in a difference direction. How many times do a guy have to fail before someone realizes he's just not the guy to get it done.— philliekev04
- You obviously have done your home work on Juan Castillo. Do that then respond, even JJ went to him for advise that says alot about a man. Fly Eagles Fly!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 — BirdBob
- What has a JJ accomplished as soon as we got to a 3-4 and get rid of JJ's D we will take the next step. He had a fatal flaw his linebackers the sorriest bunch in the NFL 12 years in a row. How you make a mediocre offensive line coach the leader of your sorry D is mind blowing! — Sam 52
- You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear......Talent talks and everything else is BS and there is not a pro-ball player on the defense with the exception of Asante....so remember you cannot coach 2nd and 3rd tier players into All Pros no matter who is coaching....Duh...Talent selection is in Andy's pocket and we know it is not his strong suit and he gets no help from two non-football guys (JoeB, the money counter and Howie, the office boy promoted) It is great that all these guys are seasoned and nice men, but who gives a dam.......Winning it all is the only thing that counts.......Andy got lucky with Michael and DeShawn but after that there are no threats to anyone........— nuggett
- I'm not sure why Castillo is regarded as such a great OL coach. In his 12 years, his only pro bowlers were Tra Thomas, Jermane Mayberry, Shawn Andrews and John Runyan (I'm not including Peters b/c he was a pro bowler before the Eagles). The OL has been a problem for many years. Actually, since Rhodes' draft picks aged and were replaced by Reid's draft picks, the OL has become a problem. How has Castillo earned a promotion and not a firing???— hoyaray
- This is exactly what the Eagles needed. Players come and go with too much frequency these days for complex schemes. The Eagles have athletes on defense. Let them take advantage of that instead of worrying about what their assignments are. It's nice to know that both of these very experienced line coaches obviously think that the Eagles had pretty good talent or they wouldn't have been interested. Juan will be an excellent coordinator and it will all that much better with an experienced staff with proven track records. They are far better off than they were last year.— MikeP
- If you guys hate the Eagles so much, cheer for a different team. Stop complaining about every decision that they make.— whatsittoyou
- Because this is our team, we were here b4 Lurie, Reid, and Banner and will be here long after. We can voice our displeasure about how they run it here and still be fans. Why don;t you go to another website
- Castillo = Ramon the Pool Guy— justwondering
- People can say many things about Andy Reid. All have to admit he has proven to be a coach who can build and maintain a winner. I have no reason to believe this entire coaching staff overhaul hasn't been carefully calculated. Can he build a super bowl winning team. Of course that remains to be seen.— hawk18
- Was there any insight as to why Reid chose to drag this out, in order to be "thorough" and interview some candidates...But then felt they couldn't wait another 5 days to interview a couple coaches on the super bowl teams? One would think that would go along with being thorough, right?— ericyshel
- A few days ago I said "wait and see what happens, Andy always comes back strong every year. " Now look what he has done. And more surprizing is the radar its been under. Wait till people really realize what happened. It will be like "Shake~Bake"— BirdBob
