Jason LaCanfora of NFL Network says Steve Spagnuolo will return to the Eagles coaching staff by the end of the week. Spags hasn’t said what he’s going to do publicly but LaConfora tells us NFL sources say the recently-fired St. Louis Rams coach will be back in the fold with the Eagles.
He didn’t specify what his title will be, but simply that he will take over the defense from Juan Castillo in some way. I’ve been saying all week long, that the cornerback coaching position which has been opened after the firing of Johnny Lynn could be filled by Juan Castillo.
Andy Reid has a tremendous reputation amongst assistant coaches throughout the league because he’s very loyal and has been very liberal in allowing his assistant to pursuit other opportunities if they arise.
If you ask me, Spags would be a great addition to the Eagles coaching staff and would give Reid the same formula he has used to go to five NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl. Reid and Marty Mornhinweg run the offense, while an experienced defensive coordinator takes care of things on the defensive side of the ball.
I like the fact that Spags has a good feel for getting pressure on the quarterback because ultimately that’s one of the keys to winning on defense against great quarterbacks in the playoffs. You’ve got to be able to get in their faces, pressure them and don’t allow them to operate in their comfort zone.
This is kinda impossible considering Reid is on vacation until next Friday.
Anythings possible Jon…anything…dream it and you can achieve it.
Unless these guys are on the same Caribbean island, it seems unlikely it could be done very quickly. But I suppose if they had agreed in principle, it could just be Howie and Spags’ agent hashing out the compensation package, terms of the deal, etc. We’ll see. I will believe it when they hold a press conference and announce it. Wait for the facts people, before you get excited.
My sources tell me Spags is coming into town to drop off some Christmas Gifts to his in-Laws who are from the Philly area and to get a W-2 Statement from The Eagles from 2007 when he forgot to fiel his Taxes.. …
as opposed to castillo who had a team that just led the NFL in sacks????? So let me get excited here – we are going to go from ‘the stupid decision last year – hiring the O line coach – the guy who gave us 50 sacks worth of ‘pressure’ despite having LB and S problems early to overcome… and go to a guy that ran a team that was ranked #22 in defense and #16 in sacks – and this is going to ‘help’ us get more pressure?
Am I the only one that sees that Spags was a one year wonder? And not even one year – he had one great playoff run – this is like that dude from the Cowboys that Neil Odonnel or whatever threw the ball into his arms twice so he bacoae the SB MVP or Tyree who makes one great catch and then you find out they weren’t all that…….
DOn;t get me wrong – the Eagles hire him I will be his #1 cheerleader – but this man crush of stuff people are making up about this guy – he had 3 years in St Loius – nothing – the Eagles (remember the McNabb phone call) knocked the giants out in the first round the 2nd year he was DC and the team was ranked 14th regualr season his first year as DC…
I don’t know – maybe he will be like Derrick Burgess a guy that did nothing and parlayed two vick sacks in the NFCC game into a free agent deal with Oakland – just not seeing it – going back to all the things peopl eused to gripe about with small fast lineman etc.
to the
Joe Friday – I’m with you on waiting for facts (from reliable sources). But keep in mind, they have made incredible advancements in technology what with fax machines, cell phones and computers. Business can most definitely be conducted from Carribean Islands to Philadelphia, St. Louis or anywhere in the developed modern world.
Schiller, very true, the days of the Pony Express are long past. I will however wait until it is a done deal, AND the Birds are playing stellar defense next season before I dance a happy jig. A new DC does not a SB contender make.
Our defense was bad last year, we made it worse my moving an inexperienced (read: zero in college or NFL) O-LINE coach to defensive coordinator. So why welould we take a poorly performing secondary- and do the exact same thing? Regardless if the person, how many times can u make the same mistake??? Get an EXPERIENCED DB coach & stop trying to play Moneyball. They think they’re so clever. Juan Castillo should go back to the O-Line. If Howard Mudd is the Guy, then Juan Castillo should be let go. Why is he OWED a job, or there a need to FIND A PLACE for him. This is a business, and I don’t Remeber this organization ever being so sensitive when it came for FINDING A PLACE for someone- Not with Jeremiah Trotter, not with Brian Dawkins, Brian Westbrook, or Donovan McNabb- oh wait, they’re just the players. And u wonder why guys like T.O. and Desean Jackson flip out. WE need to get Dawkins or John Lynch in here as DB coaches, look at Duce Staley over there on the sideline w/ McCoy. McCoy -even after this season knows Staley knows what he’s talking about, and has no place or reason to question any criticisms. We need a pain in the ass DB Coach, and a Linebacking Corps with at least 2 combined felonies.
Just a thought Oak, why would Dawkins want to be a coach? Those guys work like indentured servants, do marathon hours and for not close to the money he made playing. He has a wife and kids, no financial concerns and a whole life to live. John Lynch does tv work, makes a tidy sum doing it, and pretty much only works a few days a week, part of the year. They’d both have to have rocks in their heads to want to be a position coach in the NFL. Duce is only doing it because he got bored with his radio show in SC. I’d be surprised if Dawk wants that life when he is done in Denver. Plus Ike Reese said the other day that Dawk built a house outside Denver, loves it out there, and probably is staying when he retires. That is a sizeable commute.
I read somewhere LaCanfora is backing off now, just saying he meant Spags was going to be in Philly, physically. Not for a job. Pretty weak, but we’ll see.
Think about , Rocky Mtn Highs with beatutiful fresh Mountain air and scenery or back the “Filthydelphia”… Not even close fellas
Better schools,parks, job opportunities, less peple, less crime, less expensive with lower taxes, utilities bills and a lower cost of housing..
navyeaglefan, Wade Phillips D was horrible too when he coached in Dallas but look at the Teaxans D now, some guys just are not head coach material, that doesnt mean their not good coordinators,
Andrew P – excellent point – excellent point…….
Look around the NFL…
MIke Tice former HC of Vikings has done well at the Coordinator Level
Ron Marinelli for HC of Lions has done better Coaching his speciaty which is the DL
Look at Norv Turner who I always thought was a good Offensive Coordinator and QB’c Coach but not so hot as a HC
Maybe guys like Spags, Jack Del Rio will end up like Wade Phillsips where they had pretty good success concentrating on building, and Coaching Defenses..
and who knows about Coach Marty Mohrnewig who did not have a very talented team or organizational strngth when he was the HC for Lions, now he’s matrured that maybe he would have more success or maybe Marry is better off concentrating on Offense’s and QB…
hello fellaz im back well firts thing i need to say is man does our D suck also my wish list for next year 1.fire juan or put him somewhere he cant be seen or heard from cause im tired of hearing about how hard he works doesnt every coach work hard at some point you have to be good.2- trade asante to the lions for a 2&4rd picks i love you asante but you just didnt fit in here with the way we played D and also you cried to much when #24 came here so bye bye.3.now i don want this guy to laeve at all djack but you cant work out a deal with him then tag him then trade him and get a 1&3rd picks for him but i try to keep him here first if he doesnt want to bye bye & and once he is gone there are 6-5 wr out there that would look good in green v-jackson -m.colston that way you still come out even.3.in the 1st rd of the draft do not take a lb for we will be in the same spot as this year saying he is to young ,cant get on the field cause he doesnt know the D ECT…….INSTEAD I WANT A 345LB DT TO CLOG UP THE MIDDLE AND GRAB L.FLETCHER TO PLAY IN THE MIDDLE ALSO GET A REAL BACK UP QB. AND ANDY TIMES YOURS FOR NOW.
Yes andrew- that’s what I’ve been trying to tell navy. Also navy… You CANNOT give juan ANY credit for the line. None. Not good or bad… Not his at all.
cant keep changing coordinators this is not good.. st louis defense was horrible .. juan made alot of progress by the end they were playing great .. juan also is the one that moved the 9 technique in on running downs
Llard- ray dit clearly explained that the 2ndary did NOTHING different last few weeks. The teams just didn’t capitalize. Owner jeff said that the eagles were not playing teams that were any good. Don’t give me that bunk that they were getting better. Seriously bro- the players have all said that juan is getting bette but really…. Do these same players trust this guy in big games? This was a crap panic move and it for one am glad its almost over. Can I get a “financial apolgy” for my sunday ticket this year?
Donta Hightower should be the main target for the Eagles and yes he’s not great at coverage but he’s okay Ray Lewis is not a great cover guy either but he brings the pain and so do Hightower.
oh come on steve – you can give him just a weeeeeeee little bit – a touch, a taste, a smidgen – love how people try to parse the credit and the blame around… this guy is wrong for this, this guy is right for that – its his fault – he gets no credit – cracks me up – see Andrew P makes an excellent point and give the man full credit for it – nice use of an example –
larrwd – you are using way to much good judgement and common sense there partner – don’t focus on getting better at LB and Safety, letting the other players mature a year, and reduce your franchise record number of turnovers – start firing people!
Gloomy, do you believe in punctuation? Go back to English class. LOL! Just messing with you. Where the hell you been?
Can we all stop with this he made a lot of progress at the end! It took him 14 weeks to make simple, obvious, adjustments. The last 4 games were anomalies against, horrid QB’s that shouldn’t even be in the league. Dallas sat most of their starters, & had no RB. If you all say you know Football the way you say you do, go back & watch those games, like I did (DVR all of the games), & see how the opponents did not take advantage of a porous DF, that was run on with ease. In no way, shape, or form, should Castillo be allowed back on the Defensive side of the ball, here again!
Spags coached the defense that stopped the unstoppable New England Patriot offense and his team won the Superbowl.
Whatever Juan “bozo the clown” brings to the table is from the defensive line coach washburn.
I will take a “one hit wonder” over a “no hit wonder” in a heartbeat.
Then again, I’m writing to people who think Andy Reid deserves a 14th year for failure.
Just remember that Juan’s expert eye started a complete bum at MLB.
Just because he was related to a pro bowl Linebacker. Then refused to admit the mistake.
Yeah that’s who we need running the defense.
Bring back the aggressive blitzing of Spags…Dawk is retiring in the Denver area, man I don’t blame him for that…spent a week there in December and that place is Heaven… Anyway… I’m on to the Sixers, the best thing in Philly right now… Give this football foolishness a break until April.
Paulman’s Eagles Solution to sure up the Defense for 2012
Sign Free-Agent OLB Rocky McIntosh from the Redskins to Play Sam
Draft MLB D Hightower in the 1st Round as your Starting LB
Draft SS Mark Barron with 2nd Round Pick from Cardinals as your SS
Eagles 2012 Starting Defense looks a little like this
DE – Cole, Babin (Graham,Tapp,Hunt and Draft pick as back-ups)
DT – Jenkins,Dixon (Patterson,Landri and Draft pick as back-ups)
MLB – Hightower (Chaney as back-up)
OLB – McIntosh & Rolle (Clayton,Matthews,& Draft pick as back-ups)
CB – Asmo & DCR (Hanson,Hughes & Marsh nickle backs)
Safety – Barron at SS and Allen at FS (Coleman & Jarrett as back-ups)
My plan would call for players like J Parker, T Laws,M Fokou to be released or not resigned, Also I would attempt to Trade CB Samuel or package him with a Draft Pick to maybe move up, but with his current back loaded Contract of receiving $9.5 Million in 2012 and $10 Million in 2013 in Salaries, this will be almost impossible to accomplish for any team to be seriously interested as well as giving Eagles compensation in returm. If I can’t trade him by Draft Weekend, then I release him Monday after the Draft.. The Eagles do not need any distracations before their 1st Spring OTA’s and subsequent Mini-Camps and need to focus on who is going to be part of the Team moving forward which is the players I listed above
Navy, no i dont give him any. Go back and listen to what was said when Juan was brought in. AR clearly said that Washburn would be in charge of the front 4 and that Juan had the back 7. I remember this because i was thinking at the time that it was the stupidest thing ever. Why not have Juan (or better yet, hire a DC) be in charge of his D.
as ive said from GO on this thing…… Its not Juans fault that he was hired. Its all on Andy. I actually give Juan some props for even being in games. I dont blame Juan at all.
Navy, i dont want anyone fired. Im not looking for BLAME to fall on this guy or that. What i want… what we all want… is for the eagles to get better. I want for them to finish what they started last offseason. I want them to finish building a good coaching staff. I want for them to lezrn to takle. Why is that so hard to understand? why is that so wrong?
When JJ was here he waas in charge of the D. Whos in charge of it now? Juan?? Andy?? are you comfortable with either of them being in charge of it? I am not. We need someone who can take charge. I was not the biggest JJ fan but at least it was HIS D. right now we have Washburn in charge of the front 4. juan in charge of the back 7, andy in charge of Juan. Banner in charge of picks. its a mess.
i wish people would stop asking and wanting the eagles to draft a safety do you think there really gonna give up on jarrett that quick i dont think so,also why are gonna draft a mike lb in the 1st rd i know that we need one but i dont want any more kids in the lb group i need grown men and as far as asante goes they had a deal in place they just didnt pull the trigger.if any team wants to trade for him all they have to do is rework the deal add some years onto it and stretch the money out over those years its not hard since i think we can get a 2nd&4th rd picks from the lions who have no dbs at all
gloomy, if Jarrett had the ability he would have been on the field this year, other than his draft status, what do you know about him that says he can play at this level
jakedog – ‘if Jarrett had the ability he would have been on the field this year” – well first, he was on the field. He wasn’t starting above two other recent draft picke and a vet as a rook. but he did see the field.
As for not playing great as a rookie….um….Aaron Rogers sucks too cause he didn’t see the field much as a rookie right?
Schiller- the Aaron Rogers thing wont work because he had Favre behind him. The point on Jarrett is valid because we clearly did not have a HOF SS playing in front of Jarrett. Also… we had a rook MLB, rook C playing and they were drafterd after the SS. Thats the point people are making. And frankly….. there are MANY MANY question marks on this D. The problem is we dont know if its drafting, coaching, or under performing.
After the noncoach Rory was fired… look at the progress our Dline made. We have gotten stronger at DL over the last few years.
Im good if the bring in some Vets to challenge and perhaps teach these young guys to play.
Stevo – I’m all for them bringing in more talent at the Safety position. I too don’t know what Jarrett will turn out to be (though I am pulling for him), I have concerns about Nate Allen (health and play) too.
But to say that a guy would’ve been on the field as a rookie if he has NFL ability is limited. That’s oversimplifying the scenario – that was my point.
I hear ya Schill but honestly… The birds have been inconsistant on the rookie front. Andy himself said (years ago) that Rookies need time to learn and thats why He doesnt like to start them. Then…. Djax hits the field and changes his thinking all together. NOW…. he starts like 9 rooks this year except for the 2nd round pick that THEY told us in camp was amazing and bla bla bla. SS was clearly one of our weaknesses yet this guy doesnt see the field early on when they were dragging guys like Page out there. What it says to me is that the Eagles dont value him as much.
Stevo – gotta love that line “the birds have been inconsistant on the rookie front”. HA.. EVERYONE IS. THEIR …wait for it…. ROOKIES!!!!!!
btw- im pulling for him too. Im just tired of the Eagles telling us how amazing coaches and players are and then watching them leave the team and do nothing anywhere else. BTW… who was it that told us how great Juan was as an OLINE coach? oh yea… Eagles. And who told us that whats his face was a “shark in the water”? oh yea.. Eagles. And who told us that Sean SOmething would “make us forget dawk”? oh yea Eagles… and who told us that Kolb was “something special” oh yea Eagles.
no Schill- not the rookies themselves… but what the birds SAY about the use of rookies. As always…. spin my words.
Stevo, each rookie is different and the trend of rookies starting or not, having different learning curves, it’s the same across the board for all 32 NFL teams – widely variant. There’s nothing to see here, just one instance of a very well established and broadspread phenomenon.
did you even read what i wrote? read it and read what you wrote… clearly you didnt. SPIN!!
Im glafd you say that Schill because it just proves my larger point about the lack of coaching on D.
You are going to tell me that having a Rook MLB who is also the playcaller and expected to be the D leader and the one who is the calming voice of reason was ready and yet the 2nd round pick is not ready to miss takles like the rest of them?
thats what your going with?
Stevo – Did they say ” our policy is the same for all rookies”? I doubt it. He made a generalization.
Dude, I’ve said it before – if listening to the Eagles talk just pisses you off – then don’t listen to them. I don’t listen to them.
Them talking is a result of (in no particular order) –
A) the modern sports media which constantly hawks them for comments
B) structured/scheduled in press conferences by the league
C) PR, marketing, and sales (NFL teams are companies afterall)
So for me, talk in the context of A, B, and C above is worthelss. I don’t listen to it because any way you cut it, it’s lip service.
To add to the top about Rookie/Young Players
When you think about it, the Eagles Secondary and in particular the young Safeties have had 4 different postion Coaches the last 4 seasons, not to make excuses.. but I am sure this hasn’t helped matters
2011 – Secondary Coaches Zordich and Lynne
2010 – Secondary Coach Jauron
2009 – Secondary Coach Bill Stewart
2008 – Secondary Coach Sean McDermott
Stevo – there’s no correlation between Mathews and Jarrett. Different players, different positions, different scenariors.
agreed… so we need to WATCH what they do. And for me…. thats where it’s even gotten worse.
Im not one to be anti F.O. or Anti AR… or Pro F.O. or pro AR. I have my moments of judgment like the rest of you all.. and I for one will be glad when AR gives up control of the D. He needs to focus on timeout usage and getting Vick ready. If Marty leaves like some think…. my hope is we get chilly in here to continue the balnace we had this year in the playcalling.
disagree… Same HC same DC, same D style, same draft class, same green on head.
Point remains….. with so much youth on the field….. with season clearly a mess from Go…. its amazing that Jarrett did not see the field earlier. And its valid to wonder what the birds trully think of him. therfore….. its fair to wonder what they should do next. that was the point that you have been arguing against and ive given you more than enough reason to see how its valid.
Honestly…. some guys come on here to just spin everything into something else.
Yes Pman… clearly a problem. They need to stop this crap. This is what happens when you try to run both the O and the D at the same time. Get a true DC in here and let him run the show. Enough of this crap. I cant believe im writting this but get a DC and leave this coaching staff alone for 2 seasons.
Stevo – what do you mean run the O and D at the same time? Every team has a head coach, a DC and an OC. The eagles are no exception. As far as I can tell, none of us (fans) can tell to what extent Reid gets involved with the O or D. It’s all speculation. How do you think you know? Marty’s there to run the O. Juan’s there to run the D. Reid is head coach so he can stick his nose in any of the business. To what extent it’s done….. how can we know?
Im talking about last season when the question was if AR was going to fire MCD during the season. if you remember, it was reported by several players and others that Andy had stepped into the D side more then he has ever before. And just today we hear that during JJ’s tenure, Andy was not a part of the D side at all.
anything you want to add to our last convo Schill or are you happy to have been called out for not reading posts and spinning the convo foir funs sake?
*for
Stevo – can I pretty pretty please have your definition of what a TRUE DC is? Cause I swear, whenever I look on any website or sports station, it either lists or refers to the Eagles DC as ‘Juan Castillo’
Then – can you pretty pretty please (see I am asking nicely) if there is a performance standard that must be met, and experince standard that must be met or some sort of professional accredidation for someone to be labled a ‘True’ defensive coordinator –
cause I looked at the defensive coordinator of the NY Giants – and they finished 25th in points, 27th in yards allowed and 29th against the pass and 19th against the run – and their DC was a dude named Perry Fewell – now bonus points if you can figure out why I picked this gent to use in my example) – was a DB coach in Chicago, was a DC in Buffalo (and interm HC)
so he was a TRUE DC –
yet ‘gasp’ statistically, the the ‘non-true’ DC did better – hmmm. wait – he had JPP and we drafted GRaham – nope…… we had more sacks? um……
wait – D line coach… no – Giants have Nunn who was a D line coach in Green Bay and Tampa Bay…..
wait – there it is – the Giants had a +7 turnover ratio – they didn’t set a franchise record in turnovers.