What if—and believe me, this is a hypothetical—but what if you were offered some kind of a rationale behind Juan Castillo's promotion to defensive coordinator?
The Eagles throw some curve balls now and again, but this is just bizarre. After weeks of wild speculation, smart money finally had landed on the Birds waiting for an assistant who would be coaching in this Sunday's Super Bowl. Then, with less than a week remaining until the mystery front-runner can finally interview, and candidates from both of the big game's participants literally lobbying for the opportunity, Andy Reid pulled off a most improbable spin-o-rama that left everybody grasping at air.
He hired an offensive coach... from within the organization... to run the defense. Oh yeah, good luck convincing the people this is a good idea. Even the parade of talking heads, former colleagues, and ex-players attempting to make sense of the peculiar decision to elevate Juan Castillo sounded like a group of used car dealers making their sales pitch based on the vehicle's previous owner; anything other than merit.
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Make no mistake, Castillo is a superb offensive line coach. He served in that capacity for the Eagles since 1998, and while his unit has regressed over the past two seasons, traditionally it's been one of the offense's strengths during Reid's tenure. A number of Pro Bowlers and Pro Bowl-caliber linemen have been through here in the past decade, and every one of them speaks of Castillo's work with the highest regard.
With that in mind, the problem is not entirely with the concept of his suddenly becoming a defensive coach either. After all, the quick-and-dirty on Castillo is he played linebacker at the collegiate and professional levels, and his work ethic reportedly is unmatched. Some opinion makers already are playing up the coach's experience studying opposing defenses, or his matching of wits with the venerable Jim Johnson on a daily basis in practice.
Plus, perhaps Reid deserves some benefit of the doubt, unlikely as he is to receive a shred. While the head coach has revealed plenty of shortcomings through the years, historically he's been extremely adept at assembling a staff. When you also consider the rather lackluster list of names the Eagles ultimately passed on for the coordinator position, they didn't exactly miss out on any obviously great choices.
So it's not as if Castillo is a completely unlikeable selection. On the contrary, if this were a different situation on another football team—someplace they were starting over for instance—Castillo might be considered an exciting hire. League enthusiasts would revel in his reputation as one of the best line coaches in the business, a hard worker who toiled under the radar for long enough. Their fans would be happy to have somebody from a winning organization.
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Which is where we reach the divide. This isn't supposed to be starting over.
The goal right now is to take a young defense and mold them into a unit essentially overnight, so that maybe the Eagles can win a Super Bowl sometime in the next year or two. Sure, they still need to fill a few holes on the depth chart first, but when Sean McDermott was fired, the thought process was his replacement would be somebody with the ability to bring it all together quickly.
That was partly the reason why McDermott got canned in the first place, was it not? It's not necessarily because he was actively bad at his job. He was inexperienced, thrust into an impossible situation where the offense is light years ahead of the defense. The organization couldn't sit on their hands, waiting for McDermott to come into his own. The situation demanded somebody who could walk through the door and spark a revolution.
Instead, the Eagles settled for somebody who must learn on the job. Plenty of candidates were without coordinator experience, but at least those guys coached defense more recently than 20 years ago. What is Castillo's defensive philosophy? What schemes does he plan to implement? Has he been preparing for this gig at all? That he worked closely with Jim Johnson makes for a nice story, but until Castillo goes out and actually coaches defense, that stuff is only theory.
If you know anything about Juan Castillo, it's difficult to be overly critical of the move. Here is a coach who has earned the respect of his players and peers, who's been around the game for a long time. There isn't a higher class of coach in the NFL, which is probably why Reid called an audible on the increasingly unimpressive list of candidates. Honestly, there are no reasons to declare Castillo can't do it
Yet his hiring still doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The Eagles can rationalize the decision any way they choose, but Castillo is walking into a position for which not a single human being outside the NovaCare Complex considered him a candidate. How can the fans, and more importantly the players, buy him as credible in this new role?