Todd Bowles, who eight years ago briefly replaced Juan Castillo as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator, is scheduled to interview today for the Eagles’ head coaching vacancy, ESPN's Adam Schefter tweeted.
The Eagles' search committee, led by owner Jeff Lurie, general manager Howie Roseman and president Don Smolenski, has been meeting candidates at Lurie's winter estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Because Bowles' team is still in the playoffs, his interview will be held virtually.
Bowles will become the seventh candidate to interview for the job that opened up when the Eagles fired Doug Pederson a week ago today, just three years after he won the Super Bowl.
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SIGN UP HERE Bowles has spent the last two years as Tampa's defensive coordinator under Bruce Arians, who was his coach in the 1980s at Temple.
Jeff Lurie hasn't hired a defensive head coach since Ray Rhodes in 1995, but Bowles is one of several defensive candidates the team has expressed interest in during this search.
The Bucs beat the Saints 30-20 Sunday to advance to their first NFC Championship Game since 2002, when they beat the Eagles in the last game at the Vet. They face the Packers on Sunday at Lambeau.
Bowles certainly didn’t hurt his stock on Sunday. The Bucs held Drew Brees to 137 passing yards, limited the Saints to 294 yards and allowed only one play over 17 yards. Brees’ 38.1 passer rating was his 5th-lowest in 305 career starts and worst in 155 career home starts.
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The Buccaneers this year ranked No. 6 this year in the NFL in yards allowed, No. 8 in points allowed, No. 5 in takeaways and No. 1 in rush defense.
They went 11-5 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2007, beating Washington 31-23 in a wild-card game before beating the Saints.
The Eagles were initially scheduled to interview Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley on Monday, but the Chargers named him head coach on Sunday.
They have already interviewed Panthers offensive coordinator Joe Brady, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, Eagles running backs coach Duce Staley, Patriots inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo and Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
The Jets hired Saleh and the Falcons hired Smith.
Others the Eagles are interested in, contacted or plan to interview according to various reports: Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
They also early in the process are known to have contacted long-shot college coaches Lincoln Riley of Oklahoma and Ryan Day of Ohio State, Chip Kelly’s one-time quarterbacks coach.
Bowles went 2-1 as the Dolphins’ interim head coach in 2011 before joining Andy Reid’s staff in 2012 as secondary coach. When Reid fired Castillo during the bye week, became interim defensive coordinator for the rest of the season.
Bowles then became Arians’ defensive coordinator in Arizona for two years before getting the Jets’ head coaching job in 2015.
His first year in New York, the Jets went 10-6 - still their only winning record since 2010 - and ranked fourth in the NFL in defense. But they went just 14-34 the next three years and he was fired after the 2018 season and replaced by Adam Gase.
Bowles is one of 10 former Andy Reid assistants who's become an NFL head coach.
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