Steelers coach: Reid's job on the line
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Eagles
Steelers coach: Reid's job on the line
Jeff McLane, Inquirer Staff Writer
FORT WORTH, Tex. -- News travels fast in the NFL and when one head coach makes a bold, stunning, some may say crazy decision to promote his offensive line coach to defensive coordinator, it ricochets to the game's biggest stage.
In case you woke up thinking that Andy Reid's decision to name Juan Castillo as his new defensive coordinator was a bad dream, it was not. It was as real as the assessment Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians made about the potential fallout from such a decision.
"Andy's job is probably on the line," Arians said Thursday. "But I know this -- he replaced [Castillo] with a good offensive line. Howard Mudd is the absolute best. The quality of the staff is there. Now it's just a matter of game day and how they're going to handle it."
Arians has to gotten know Castillo through coaching channels and is familiar with his legendary work ethic.
"Nobody's going to work harder because Juan is one of the hardest-working coaches that I know," Arians said. "When you block as many things as Juan has blocked you kind of know what's sound on defense and what's not."
Still, there are very legitimate questions about how Castillo will handle some of the chores of the job he is not accustomed to.
"Now matching wits with an offensive coordinator -- the scheme's going to be sound. He knows what's sound," Arians said. "It's having the gut calls, when to blitz, when not to blitz, when to play this, when to play that. That would be the only question I would have."
Steelers linebackers coach Keith Butler was rumored to be one of the candidates for the opening.
"I think Andy's sitting there thinking, 'How can I beat protections?'" Butler said. "And he's got a guy that's trying to figure out how to protect against every team in the league. So this guy has probably seen every blitz known to man. So I can see Andy's point of view."
No one seems to recall such a move ever taking place in the NFL.
"No, I haven't," Butler said. "But he's not doing it to get fired I will tell you that."
Steelers offensive line coach Sean Kugler actually played under Reid in Texas El-Paso when Reid was his position coach. Kugler laughed when he was asked if he had any desire to one day be a defensive coordinator.
"I have no aspirations to do that," Kugler said. "If I was asked to do it, I don't know if I would refuse. I enjoy coaching the offensive line. But people are up for different challenges."
Asked for his best Reid story, Kugler obliged.
"Most of them involve food," Kugler said. "The whole time in college all the other coaches used to bring doughnuts and he never brought doughnuts. We used to just kill him on it, 'When are you going to bring the doughnuts?' We used to kid him that he ate them on the way to work."
Poll: Was hiring Juan Castillo a good move by the Eagles?
hahaa!... he ate the doughnuts on the way to work.. good stuff.— AlonzoMoselyFBI
"andy reid's job is on the line". i couldnt have said it any better- not as long as Andy keeps the pictures of Lurie, Banner, and the barn yard animals safely locked away in his safe deposit box! — jwatson
- His job is on the line alright. He just won the division "again" with a roster that was supposed to battle the redskins to keep out of last place. Like Andy or not, he wins! — dapmman
- He wins everything, but the Superbowl. In other words, he has yet to do his job. — Voytas
- meme,good to see you agree with what i said three weeks ago...my man. — wolf 4
When has a head coach's job ever not been on the line the year after the team fails to make the super bowl? Argh.— Leegles- Andy has lifetime tenure. He's not worried one bit.— Dan Blocker
- Cheap as a College Coach and cheap as an NFL coach! I guess he low-balled all the other Candidates for the DC job so his daily supply of doughnuts wasn't cut off by Banner.— younged
- duh...it is not on the line for just last year...it is on the line for failure to win a Supper Bowl in 12 years.....NOTE::: There have been 26 Super Bowl wining coaches.....21 of them have won the Super Bowl in an average time of 4.7 years.....check it out fools and stepfords....the numbers don't lie....Andy has failed to deliver in a sport where the only thing that is important is "winning it all"......and don't worry about Jeff and his money....He borrowed 180 million from his mom to buy the team and since then the sport (TV Contracts etc )have made the franchise worth a billion dollars.....business accumen my foot.....a sport on the rise, america's love for football, city and state aid on stadiums the sprot as a gambling vehicle, have made Jeffery very very rich.....and it did not take brains to do it.....It started with the idea that the NFL is monoploy and Jeffery bought one of the franchises and has just gone a long for the ride.....— nuggett
- "No one seems to recall such a move ever taking place in the NFL." seems Andy's smarter than anyone else, yet again. clock's ticking.— birdfannnj
Comment removed.- Arians is a jerk, shut your mouth! Andy is still viewed in the highest regard by Mr. Lure as well he should be. Andy will never be fired, he will leave at the end of the 2012-3 pr 2013-4 season on his own accord, or possibly sooner if he wins a SB.— JBP
- Andy Reid can eat a whole box of doughnuts..... In a van down by the river! FIRE ANDY!!! FIRE THE FAT MAN!!!— Barroid Bonds
