Smokedawg
Eagles Fan
It was a disaster from the start. All of it. The decision to hire Jim Washburn as defensive line coach before Andy Reid even found a defensive coordinator. The decision a couple weeks later to make Juan Castillo his defensive coordinator. The decision to replace Castillo with Howard Mudd and his gimmicky offensive line scheme.
In Washburn and Mudd, Reid got two veteran line coaches with glowing reputations but one with a novelty scheme that can’t produce sustainable results and the other with a blocking system that might have worked for Peyton Manning and the Colts but was ill-suited to the quarterback and personnel the Eagles have.
And in Castillo, Reid got a defensive coordinator who was not only miscast from the beginning but forced to work with a defensive line coach who had little respect for the former offensive line coach and didn’t hesitate to show it, two team insiders – one player, one coach – said in the last few days.
The whole thing was built the wrong way. You can’t hire a defensive line coach and then a coordinator. It takes the traditional power structure of a coaching staff and makes a mockery of it. How could Castillo be expected to lead that defensive meeting room when one of his own coaches was conspiring against him?
A coordinator must lead all the position coaches. If they don’t all respect him, then the players won’t all respect him, and the whole chain of command falls to pieces.
Castillo is a good man who was put in an impossible situation. Washburn, a lifetime defensive coach who’s never been shy about speaking his mind and trampling anyone in his way, often made his disdain for Castillo clear.
Washburn operated apart from Castillo, running his own little defensive line fiefdom and often either ignoring Castillo or derisively calling him “Juanita” in front of his players, the veteran defensive player said. He was condescending and confrontational and embarrassed Castillo numerous times in meetings and at practice.
Even after Castillo was fired in October and replaced by Todd Bowles, a respected veteran defensive coach, Washburn continued to be difficult, the defensive player said. And when slumping one-time Pro Bowl defensive end Jason Babin, who he had coached for years in Tennessee and was very close with, was released last week, Washburn became more disruptive than ever.
Babin was all about compiling sacks, never about winning, never about being part of a team, and it turns out Washburn was exactly the same. No coincidence they were dismissed less than a week apart.
Washburn followed Babin out the front door of the NovaCare Complex Monday morning, the latest casualty of a disastrous season and a disastrous series of decisions Reid made in a two-week span in late January and early February of 2011 (see story).
Washburn was actually a very good coach when it came to teaching young guys technique and getting them to play hard.
But his system was flawed. The Wide 9 doesn’t work.
Even last year, when the Eagles registered a league-best 50 sacks, the stats were hollow as the losses piled up week after week. And this year, we’ve seen the scheme continually put the Eagles’ safeties in difficult or impossible situations while the sack numbers dwindled.
The Wide 9 forces safeties to cheat the run, since the defensive linemen are so busy blasting up the field thinking sack that they’re often unable to or unwilling to tackle running backs or are out of position to make tackles. Just won’t work over the long haul.
There are a lot of reasons the Eagles are 3-9 this year, 11-17 over the last two years and out of the playoffs for a second straight year.
Uneven quarterback play. Offensive line injuries. Ineffective secondary. Underachieving receivers. Turnovers. Penalties. Play-calling. Injuries. Poor drafts. Bad coaching. You name it.
But the rapid and stunning deterioration of this defense into the shambles of the last two months is at the top of that list, and Reid in the last few days finally concluded that Washburn was hurting more than helping.
At the end of last year, Babin was enjoying a Pro Bowl season, Mudd’s offensive line was actually playing well together, Castillo was finally having some success as defensive coordinator and Washburn was a popular and crusty old defensive line coach whose unit was leading the NFL in sacks.
Now, Babin, Castillo and Washburn are gone, all fired over the past two months, all fired since the Eagles last won a football game back in September. Mudd is still here but only for a few more weeks, and then he’ll retire somewhere far, far away, where he’ll never have to think about Danny Watkins again.
When you’re as bad as the Eagles are, losers of eight straight games and winners of just 11 games over the last two years, there’s usually something corrupt on the inside. And Reid is doing everything he can to excise that corruption as he desperately tries to win a game or two before this nightmarish season sputters to a halt.
This whole thing reeks of too little, too late. Reid is likely gone himself in a few weeks, and by next fall, Mudd, Washburn and Babin will all be forgotten footnotes in the sad period in the history of a once-proud franchise.
Soon, the tearing down will end. Soon, the building will begin again.
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com
In Washburn and Mudd, Reid got two veteran line coaches with glowing reputations but one with a novelty scheme that can’t produce sustainable results and the other with a blocking system that might have worked for Peyton Manning and the Colts but was ill-suited to the quarterback and personnel the Eagles have.
And in Castillo, Reid got a defensive coordinator who was not only miscast from the beginning but forced to work with a defensive line coach who had little respect for the former offensive line coach and didn’t hesitate to show it, two team insiders – one player, one coach – said in the last few days.
The whole thing was built the wrong way. You can’t hire a defensive line coach and then a coordinator. It takes the traditional power structure of a coaching staff and makes a mockery of it. How could Castillo be expected to lead that defensive meeting room when one of his own coaches was conspiring against him?
A coordinator must lead all the position coaches. If they don’t all respect him, then the players won’t all respect him, and the whole chain of command falls to pieces.
Castillo is a good man who was put in an impossible situation. Washburn, a lifetime defensive coach who’s never been shy about speaking his mind and trampling anyone in his way, often made his disdain for Castillo clear.
Washburn operated apart from Castillo, running his own little defensive line fiefdom and often either ignoring Castillo or derisively calling him “Juanita” in front of his players, the veteran defensive player said. He was condescending and confrontational and embarrassed Castillo numerous times in meetings and at practice.
Even after Castillo was fired in October and replaced by Todd Bowles, a respected veteran defensive coach, Washburn continued to be difficult, the defensive player said. And when slumping one-time Pro Bowl defensive end Jason Babin, who he had coached for years in Tennessee and was very close with, was released last week, Washburn became more disruptive than ever.
Babin was all about compiling sacks, never about winning, never about being part of a team, and it turns out Washburn was exactly the same. No coincidence they were dismissed less than a week apart.
Washburn followed Babin out the front door of the NovaCare Complex Monday morning, the latest casualty of a disastrous season and a disastrous series of decisions Reid made in a two-week span in late January and early February of 2011 (see story).
Washburn was actually a very good coach when it came to teaching young guys technique and getting them to play hard.
But his system was flawed. The Wide 9 doesn’t work.
Even last year, when the Eagles registered a league-best 50 sacks, the stats were hollow as the losses piled up week after week. And this year, we’ve seen the scheme continually put the Eagles’ safeties in difficult or impossible situations while the sack numbers dwindled.
The Wide 9 forces safeties to cheat the run, since the defensive linemen are so busy blasting up the field thinking sack that they’re often unable to or unwilling to tackle running backs or are out of position to make tackles. Just won’t work over the long haul.
There are a lot of reasons the Eagles are 3-9 this year, 11-17 over the last two years and out of the playoffs for a second straight year.
Uneven quarterback play. Offensive line injuries. Ineffective secondary. Underachieving receivers. Turnovers. Penalties. Play-calling. Injuries. Poor drafts. Bad coaching. You name it.
But the rapid and stunning deterioration of this defense into the shambles of the last two months is at the top of that list, and Reid in the last few days finally concluded that Washburn was hurting more than helping.
At the end of last year, Babin was enjoying a Pro Bowl season, Mudd’s offensive line was actually playing well together, Castillo was finally having some success as defensive coordinator and Washburn was a popular and crusty old defensive line coach whose unit was leading the NFL in sacks.
Now, Babin, Castillo and Washburn are gone, all fired over the past two months, all fired since the Eagles last won a football game back in September. Mudd is still here but only for a few more weeks, and then he’ll retire somewhere far, far away, where he’ll never have to think about Danny Watkins again.
When you’re as bad as the Eagles are, losers of eight straight games and winners of just 11 games over the last two years, there’s usually something corrupt on the inside. And Reid is doing everything he can to excise that corruption as he desperately tries to win a game or two before this nightmarish season sputters to a halt.
This whole thing reeks of too little, too late. Reid is likely gone himself in a few weeks, and by next fall, Mudd, Washburn and Babin will all be forgotten footnotes in the sad period in the history of a once-proud franchise.
Soon, the tearing down will end. Soon, the building will begin again.
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com
