Babin weighs in on Castillo

Eagles defensive end Jason Babin, on his way to his second consecutive Pro Bowl, weighed in on the Juan Castillo situation during an interview with Yahoo's Shutdown Corner.

Like many around the Eagles, he pointed to the improvement at the end of the season rather than the hole that the team dug for itself by blowing those fourth-quarter leads.

"Early on, Castillo was more or less a transition, when you go from offensive line coach to coordinator, you're doing more than just coaching; you're creating a style, a system," Babin said. "So that can take time. It took a little longer to work out than we would have liked and I'm sure he would have liked. I think there was a lot of growing going on and that's what makes him good as a coach. He listened, we listened — we all learned."

Babin also said the players fully expected Andy Reid to return as coach.

"None of us saw it going any other way and we expected coach Reid back, that was the player perspective," he said. "We weren't on the roller coaster of the media, the fans."

Babin said the Eagles went from "ok to friggin good" at the end of the season and despite the disappointment, the onus is the on the players, not the coaches.

"I think we found answers on both sides of the ball, answers we can take to next year," he said. "We had the ability, the talent, everything was there. You can't get mad at the coaches. We went out there and just didn't play that well. Could we have gotten it done? Absolutely. I feel we can do better as we get ready for this next season."