Todd Bowles' turn to straighten out Eagles secondary

On paper, coaching the Eagles secondary would seem to be a job full of upside.

The team has invested second-round picks in safeties each of the last two years and its top three cornerbacks have combined for eight Pro Bowl appearances.

But the last few seasons have been hard on the Eagles' back four. The team has finished ranked 24th, tied for 29th, and 24th again in the NFL in touchdown passes allowed after giving up 27, 31, and 27 scores through the air the last three years.

Veteran defensive coaches Dick Jauron and Johnnie Lynn have come and gone. Now the job of getting the most out of the secondary falls to Todd Bowles, a longtime defensive assistant who won a Super Bowl with the Washington Redskins as a safety.

Bowles inherits a perplexing group. Nate Allen, a second-round pick in 2010, showed flashes of talent but also errors after returning from a knee injury. Jaiquawn Jarrett, the team's number two pick in 2011, barely got on the field and was stuck behind Kurt Coleman. And the star corner trio of Nnamdi Asomugha, Asante Samuel, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie all played well below expectations.

"You see a lot of athletes, you see some playmakers back there, and you see some guys that can hit, so you see potential," said Bowles, 48. "You see potential, but you just have to bring it all together."

"Bringing it together" was a theme he returned to several times in a 30-minute interview Thursday. Last season the team struggled to blend Asomugha, who has spent much of his career in press-man coverage, with Samuel, who prefers to play off the line of scrimmage.

"When game time comes you're going to do what you do best, but you've got to be smart about it and try to do some things off of what you do best and not do the same thing, but show the same look," Bowles said.

He wouldn't delve into his plans, noting that he's been in Philadelphia only about a week and was still reviewing games from last season.

Bowles, the only new addition to the coaching staff, took the Eagles job over offers to become the defensive coordinator in Oakland, to remain the assistant head coach/secondary coach in Miami, or take the same position in Cincinnati.

He interviewed for at least five head coaching jobs in recent years, and there's been speculation that Bowles could be a fallback option if defensive coordinator Juan Castillo falters.

"My role is to be the defensive back coach," Bowles said. "I answer to the defensive coordinator."

Bowles grew up in Elizabeth, N.J., and played safety at Temple. Mild-mannered and soft-spoken - he's no Jim Washburn - Bowles showed his toughness as a senior.

In a practice shortly before his final college season, Bowles dislocated six bones in his wrist and missed five games, but he returned to the field with three pins holding his wrist together.

At the NFL scouting combine that year Bowles couldn't do a pushup, let alone the bench press, and he went undrafted. But he signed with the Redskins and worked his way into the lineup, winning a championship in 1988.

After eight seasons in the NFL, though, including seven in Washington, Bowles wore down.

"When you start playing football, you can run through a brick wall," he recalled. "When you start counting the bricks, it's time to shut it down."

He left the game for two years, and worked as an owner of a gym and a construction company, but he returned as a scout for the Packers and then a defensive coordinator at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where former Redskins quarterback and teammate Doug Williams was in charge.

"[Williams] said I'd be a great coach from practicing against me," Bowles said. "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have got into coaching at all."

Bowles' coaching career has since taken him to the New York Jets, Cleveland, Dallas, and Miami.

Back in Philadelphia, he can wear his Temple shirts with the same pride as he did in Miami, only with a better chance of seeing the Owls.

More important, Bowles will have to figure out how to get a talented but underperforming secondary to play together, and do it in a year in which the Eagles and their coaches face enormous pressure.

"If you can't handle that," Bowles said, "you don't need to be in the business."