Skip to content
Eagles
Link copied to clipboard

Eagles Notebook: Perry on Raiders' radar, along with Eagles

Count the Oakland Raiders as another team expected to wait until after the Super Bowl to fill their defensive coordinator opening.

Count the Oakland Raiders as another team expected to wait until after the Super Bowl to fill their defensive coordinator opening.

One of their candidates appears to be Packers safeties coach Darren Perry, according to the Oakland Tribune. Perry was the Raiders' defensive backs coach in 2007 and '08 before moving to Green Bay.

The Eagles are also interested in interviewing Perry, according a report Friday in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a report that has not been denied by the Eagles.

League tampering rules keep the Eagles from confirming they want to talk to any of the coaches involved in the Super Bowl, but the Birds do plan to interview at least one candidate in that situation, a source close to the matter has said. They also apparently have at least one candidate not involved in the Super Bowl.

Arizona is looking for a defensive coordinator, too, and coach Ken Whisenhunt said he wants to interview coaches on both the Packers and Steelers staffs. Whisenhunt is a former Pittsburgh assistant, so his focus likely is with Steelers assistants whom he worked with previously. Of course, that number would include Perry, who served with Whisenhunt on Bill Cowher's Super Bowl XL staff.

After the Super Bowl, the first step is seeking permission from the Packers, something Green Bay does not have to grant for anything less than a head coaching opening. Perry has a year remaining on his contract.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy declined to comment Saturday when asked whether the Eagles or Cardinals have asked for permission to talk to Perry.

"After going through the thing with Tom, I thought it was reported poorly, and I'm not going to get into it," McCarthy said, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette.

Last year, McCarthy denied the Bears permission to talk to QB coach Tom Clements about their vacancy at offensive coordinator. He was asked about that decision before the NFC Championship Game against the Bears 2 weeks ago.

Asked specifically about Perry on Saturday, McCarthy gave him a positive review, but also cautioned that everyone's focus should be on the Super Bowl.

"Darren Perry is an excellent football coach," he said. "I think Darren, along with a number of other assistants on our staff, they have a very bright future. As far as those futures, I know they're bright, but everybody is focused on the game in front of us, and I know there may potentially be some opportunities."

Perry has said he is "ready" for a defensive coordinator position, but also said he did not intend to talk about job possibilites with the media during Super Bowl week.

"I don't want to spend too much time talking about that because right now I'm consumed about winning this football game," he told the Journal Sentinel yesterday. "If we don't win this one here, all is for nothing. We have to make sure we don't lose sight of the job at hand. All the other things will take care of themselves."

Packers assistant head coach/inside linebackers coach Winston Moss is also viewed as a potential defensive coordinator candidate for one of the teams with vacancies. He said he had not heard of any interest from the Eagles or Cardinals.

"The best way I can answer that is that stuff takes care of itself after this game," he told the Journal Sentinel when asked about being a coordinator. "If it's there, let's take a shot. If not, then it wasn't meant to be."

Meanwhile, Packers defensive line coach Mike Trgovac, a former Carolina defensive coordinator who has been mentioned as coordinator candidate, indicated that his preference would be to remain in Green Bay.

"If it's my choice, I will be here next year," he told the Wisconsin State Journal.

Vick and the tag

An ESPN report yesterday said the Eagles will franchise Michael Vick. This reiterates what the Daily News has reported multiple times over the last few weeks and is not unexpected.

The Eagles have to franchise him, though they then could work out a new longer-term deal, once they have done so. Why? Because Vick's incentives met in 2010 pushed his salary more than 30 percent beyond what he got in 2009, eliminating the possibility of extending the deal under the terms of the current CBA, a source has said.

Under the franchise tag, Vick would receive a 1-year deal worth the average of the top five salaries at his position.

Daily News sports writer Les Bowen contributed to this report.