Report: Washburn was roadblock to Spagnuolo
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Report: Washburn was roadblock to Spagnuolo
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
Over the weekend, I linked to a National Football Post report that said Steve Spagnuolo's decision came down to the Eagles and the Saints.
And he chose New Orleans in large part because Drew Brees provided a better chance than Michael Vick and the Birds to win the Super Bowl.
But there were other factors involved as well.
SI.com's Peter King says one of them was Jim Washburn:
Someone Who Knows told me a major roadblock to Steve Spagnuolo taking the defensive coordinator job in Philadelphia was the presence of very strong personality Jim Washburn on the defensive line.
King's note is interesting because he mentions Washburn's personality, not his system.
Last offseason, Andy Reid hired Washburn to coach the defensive line before appointing a defensive coordinator. By all accounts, the Eagles' pass rush was among the best in the NFL under Washburn. The Birds finished with 50 sacks (tied for a league-high), and 46 of them came from defensive linemen. If you look at which defensive players met or exceeded expectations, almost all played on the defensive line. (Jason Babin, Trent Cole, Cullen Jenkins, Mike Patterson).
During the past several weeks, there's been a lot of talk about whether the wide-9 could co-exist with a system that relied on blitzing and dropping linemen back into coverage. Paul Domowitch of the Daily News wrote a good piece for SportsWeek saying yes, the two aspects could co-exist.
But apparently, Spagnuolo's reluctance had more to do with Washburn's strong personality than his system. During the Eagles' loss to the Patriots last season, Washburn and Marty Mornhinweg had to be separated after a heated exchange on the sideline.
King also reports that Sean Payton emphasized three things during his pursuit of Spagnuolo: winning, Brees and total autonomy. Obviously, his recruiting pitch worked.
As for the Eagles, Les Bowen of the Daily News and Jeff McLane of the Inquirer are reporting from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., where Juan Castillo isn't saying much.
It seems clear now that the Eagles were interested in Spagnuolo, but no one knows for sure in what capacity. Plan B could either be to fall back on Castillo or pursue another coach.
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Sheil, if the Eagles were really interested in Spagnuolo why didn't he come in for an interview? Why do you take all these rumors and speculation stories at face value? We don't "know" if the Eagles had any interest in Spagnuolo at all.— soulman386- He picked a much better team, with a better coach although I'm no big Payton fan. As was said before they have a QB, Eagles have a guy that makes a few highlight reels here and there but doesn't win.— Sidewinder7
- Sheil- what about Washburn as DC? The line played great. Only area of D that outperformed expectations. LBs mediocre (which we get to see when watching playoff team LBs), DBs underperformed. Maybe Washburn could put a decent coaching staff together. Who cares if he has a strong personality. Defense could use a strong personalty, seems to have none right now.— stopbooing
- Seems like the strong personality in addition to being a fine coach is exactly what the Eagles need...losing him to gain Spags would be no real gain IMO.— tpizza
- Exactly. The Eagles have enough cream puffs as it is beginning with Andy "Pillsbury Dough-Boy" Reid, and Limp-Wrist Lurie to name the main culprits. A strong demanding personality, for a change, would be just the ticket. And I bet the players would respond positively to such discipline instead of the "all is forgiven" treatment they seem to get from the Dough Boy. — essell
- Soulman, you're right. We don't "know" for sure. But since the Eagles don't technically have an opening, it wouldn't make sense for them to hold a publicized interview with Spagnuolo, knowing Castillo could be back.
StopBooing, Washburn has said he has no interest in being a defensive coordinator at this point in his career. -SK— skapadia - Spags was never coming here. Andy is a control freak and would never have given Spags complete control over scheme or defensive personnel even though Reid knows as much about defense as the Tonner knows about sobriety and monogamy. Reid: the "offensive" Buddy Ryan. Whether you like it or whether you don't like it, learn to love it because it's the truth according to the Tonner and it's the best thing going today.— hunglikeaton
- Jim Johnson had control over the defense. Reid was in charge of the team overall but the defense was all Jim Johnson. What are you talking about?
- I don't think Andy Reid realizes that sacks ≠ turnovers. We were great at sacking the QB this year...what did that do for us? A defense is a unit that must work together to be good as a whole. It was pretty apparent to me and I'm sure many others all year that sacking the QB is a glorified stat that didn't translate to winning. Washburn's wide 9 system requires you be solid at LB and Safety to prevent teams from exposing the flaw of that technique which is the lack of pressure in the QB's face up the middle. So unless we're all of a sudden going to start bulking up at LB and Safety with guys who people fear running over the middle on it doesn't really matter what Washburn does.— Fumblersuki20
- Who cares, the guy didnt have any success in the worst division in football for the last 3 years.. the defense will be better if they actually draft or sign a LB or two that can turn those sacks into turnovers and big plays. Regardless, you need a QB playing at a high level to win the SuperBowl.— FABER
- lol @ Andy. good job bringing in a D coach that runs an unorthodox sysmem that you dont have the proper players to run it with, I think leaving a gaping hole in the middle MIGHT aftect YOUR LINEBACKERS ?...and if they are some of the smallest and worst in the entire league, THAT MIGHT BE A BAD IDEA. OR MAYBE BECAUSE YOU DRAFTED THEM THEY WILL DEFY ALL ODDS AND LOGIC AND WIN 4 SUPERBOWLS BY THEMSELVES DESPITE EVERY PIECE OF FOOTBALL LOGIC THAT SAYS OTHERWISE. IF ANDY PICKED THEM THEY MUST BE GREAT.— CharlieGarner25
- It's not the technique that's flawed.. it's the players. When the LB and S did their job correctly last year, the wide 9 worked fine, and when they didn't , it failed. Washburn did exactly what he was asked to do, take a small defensive line and find a way to make it a force. Juan even did his job in the second half of the season by matching the skills of the defenders with the coverages, something he struggled with early. Spagnuolo is not God. When he has had great players ( like in NY) he had success, when he didn't( like in STL), the opposition scored points like there was no tomorrow ( Eagles scored 31 on opening day against Spags) . I'll be generous and say Nate Allen and Brian Rolle will be fine. That means they need 2 LBs and a safety. If they do that they should have more than a top 10 defense this year, and with all the talent they have on offense they should be fine. If Reid can't win next year, it's firing time.— drbob1
- Oh Hindsight how ridiculous you are. Washburn was brought here to get pressure from the front 4 which is exactly what he did. It was one of the few success stories from last year. I guess it would have been better to keep running Johnson's system despite the fact they didn't have the personel for that either and it worked so well the year before?
Now, as to that running percentage stat you used to rant about? The one I told you was GARBAGE. Real men admit when they are wrong Hindsight...so let the excuses start...as if you'd answer anyway because only real men do that too.— tpizza - If there's any truth to what Peter King says, why is he scooping Philly sports media on the subject? Does SI's coffee and fruity beer correspondent now have better sources than the guys paid to cover the team?— bc3030
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