After a typical Eagles loss, head coach Andy Reid will normally begin his postgame press conference by placing the blame on himself, and stating they he has to a better job. While those words have a tendency to come off as insincere, there is a great amount of truth to them.
In Reid’s offseason attempts to improve this football team, he took a large number of risks and gambles. And very few of them are paying off.
The first item on Andy’s offseason agenda was to improve a defense that was historically bad in the redzone a year ago. Firing Sean McDermott (and most of the defensive staff) was an easy decision. The tough decision would be to find a replacement that would be able to restore the defense to the level of respectability it had under Jim Johnson.
After interviewing a number of potential candidates, Reid shocked all of Philadelphia with his decision to go with former offensive line coach Juan Castillo as McDermott’s replacement. It was an utterly baffling move at the time, and it hasn’t been working out. Castillo is clearly overwhelmed with his new duties. He’s been at the controls of the defense for three fourth quarter collapses, and hasn’t been able to find ways to effectively utilize a trio of extremely talented cornerbacks. Who would have thought that a man with no coaching experience on the defensive side of the ball would struggle to succeed?
Reid’s next gambles were the hiring of two new position coaches, Jim Washburn on the defensive line and Howard Mudd on the offensive line. Both coaches had reputations for being among the best in the business, but also offered dramatically different philosophies than what the Eagles have been used to. Washburn is a heavy believer in the Wide Nine alignment on the defensive line, and Mudd prefers undersized, quick offensive lineman as opposed to the heavier, powerful lineman that the Eagles have had when Castillo was incharge.
Washburn’s new defensive line alignment has had mixed results. While the alignment has finally allowed the Eagles to generate pressure on the quarterback without the help of the blitz, its left the middle of the defense exposed, leading to all kinds of big plays for the opposition. If a team is going to run a Wide Nine, they need to have the proper support behind the defensive line (ie: capable linebackers and safeties, and maybe an experienced defensive coordinator who can properly scheme to utilize it).
The Howard Mudd hiring has done more harm than good so far. In less than a month, Mudd almost completely changed the offensive line to fit his own tastes, and left tackle Jason Peters was the only player to remain at his previous position. Todd Herremans was shifted to right tackle, veteran center Jamaal Jackson was placed on the bench, and the interior of the offensive line was rebuilt with the likes of a pair of journeyman (Evan Mathis, Kyle DeVan) and a sixth round draft pick, Jason Kelce. The result has been a line that struggles in pass protection, and can’t generate any push in short yardage, which has killed this team in the redzone.
After reshaping the coaching staff, Reid’s next risks came with the draft. The Eagles spent their first-round pick on Danny Watkins, a 26-year old guard with only a couple years of football experience. The rookie came into camp late, and found himself completely in over his head. He was terrible in the preseason, and spent the first four weeks on the bench before being forced into action because of the inept play of veteran Kyle DeVan.If he had a full offseason to work through mini-camps, and spend time with Howard Mudd, maybe we would have seen a different player in training camp, and he’d actually be helping this offensive line.
After the lockout was resolved, Reid then made his moves in free agency. He allowed a pair of established veterans (Quintin Mikell and Stewart Bradley) to walk in free agency without a second thought. While neither player could be considered elite they were far from being liablities, Mikell was the team’s best safety and Bradley was the team’s best linebacker. They were replaced with several inexpensive options, Jarrad Page (a veteran safety, short on speed and allergic to tackling) and fourth-round pick Casey Matthews (a very raw rookie, undersized and overwhelmed).
Reid then took the money that he saved by letting the two veterans sign elsewhere, and poured most of it into the cornerback position, signing Nnamdi Asomugha and trading for Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. While the secondary was now extremely deep and talented on paper, the challenge would be to find a way to use the trio of Asomugha, Rodgers-Cromartie, and Asante Samuel to benefit the defense, an answer that the team is still searching for five weeks into the regular season. In fact, they’ve actually put the corners into bad positions, asking them to play in schemes that they aren’t comfortable with (Asomugha playing zone when he’s at his best in man coverage, Rodgers-Cromartie asked to play nickel).
The bottom line with this mess of a football team is that with a lack of mini-camps and organized team activities until August, there wasn’t enough time for a football team with such a high amount of change to get organized and ready for the regular season.
Think about it. The team hires a defensive coordinator with no experience, two assistant coaches with dramatically different philosophies from their predecessors, plans to have seven new starters on defense and four new starters on the offensive line, and expected to be completely organized in less than a month? There just wasn’t enough time for Castillo to get comfortable with his new responsibilities, there wasn’t enough time for the team to shape the offensive line to Howard Mudd’s liking, and there wasn’t enough time for all of the new players to mesh with each other and get comfortable in the system.
It hasn’t worked out at all, and the result has been a disorganized, undisciplined, underachieving, and confused football team, from the coaches to the players. Andy Reid overlooked the impact of the shortened offseason, and his team is now paying the price for the mistakes he made in preparing this team for the regular season.
Denny – Here’s the thing though. You agreed (and most everyone does I believe) that it was right to fire McDermott. So your beef is with the replacement – duh, everyone hates the Juan move. Ok, so you think it would’ve been better to replace McDermott with a more experienced/different DC. Fine. But that would still be affected by your main thesis – that the shortened offseason/lockout was a big factor.
You mention stew bradley – the guy isn’t playing football much. It’s hard to make an arguement that keeping him around to play gimpy or get reinjured and be unhealthy on the bench would’ve made our LBs any better than they are.
Sure Q looks better now than our safeties but would he alone have stopped all those runs, screens, etc… that our D screwed up so far? Doubt it.
And our Oline sucked. It needed help. They got one of the best. Any Ol coach would’ve been a transition.
My point is that – yeah, the lockout/shortened offseason was a big detractor to the Eagles so far. And my point is that the media and fans underestimated it. Reid was taking a risk, but the alternatives were pretty much just as risky. Eventually (in the next few weeks) the offseason effect will wear off and then most likely things will improve. It will either be too late, and for impatient fans and media, they’ll still call for Reid’s head. Or he’ll stay and the team will be better and succeed soon. Look, what will happen with Reid, we’ll see.
But to say that Reid coulda shoulda woulda, when really any option would present a transition and risk… it’s splitting hairs in my opinion.
Well I think Andy handled this offseason just fine.
I mean……most coaches would have implemented a new system with different players, and promoted there failed offensive line coach to defensive coordinator,
This perfectly normal.
IN ANDY’S WORLD
Schill?
If you had to number the risks……How many Risks you would say Andy took this offseason?
And how many of the Risks panned out?
The biggest risk was clearly changing so many core philosophies in a shortened year. I honestly think they didn’t think the lockout would last as long as it did. For instance Washburn was hired way back in January and Juan in February so I think they probably assumed a deal would get done and there would be camps and stuff. Bad assumption. But by the time the lockout is over, it’s too late to make any more personnel changes and you’re caught in a difficult position by having guys that did not have enough time with their players. And then, I agree, the worst moves after that was letting Q and Bradley go with the above circumstances because now you aren’t resigning 2 players that fill key voids in the defense.
It just seemed to be the perfect storm and the 1 offseason where the Eagles decided to make big changes probably was the worst season to do so.
This was clearly the year to upgrade player personnel for the current coaching staff. And it’s too bad the FO didn’t anticipate or seem to have properly prepared for a very short offseason. If they would not have made the change in coaching and upgraded the players then we would have been much better off, at least on defense.
Honestly, can’t say too much about the offensive line because they were terrible last year as well. Don’t think Mudd made them worst, just hasn’t made them better. Just my opinion on that.
Songs, you know the answer to how many panned out so far – again, stop asking stupid questions. As for panned out – well, it’s 5/16ths through the season. You know better than to grade a test before the test is over right? (oh, that was a stupid question on MY part becuase we all know that you DONT know better than to be dumb).
I think Reid took 1 more risk than he possibly could have. Going into the season with Juan staying as the OL coach would have been a risk becuase it wasn’t working. Same for McD. Same for Segrest. Same for Lb and secondary coaches too.
My problem with Reid, even more than the risks he’s taken is the fact that he didnt have a plan to counter the problems that have come up since he made these decisions…
Yeah they didnt have a true offseason… but Reid has had plenty of time since he realized this to begin adjusting things to fix his problems…
Im not mad at Mudd, he has a different idea on how the Oline should work.. Its pretty good in some areas and andy needs to tailor his offense so it is in sync with what his players can do… the playcalling doesnt seem to fit the strengths of his players… QB sneak on the goalline with this Oline? C’mon Andy!!! you should know better than that!!
same with the defense.. He obviously is handicapped by having Juan in there as the DC. But there are ways to help Juan and the players on defense, but Andy seems to stubborn…
I wanna break my television when I see the linbackers lining up so far off the ball when we all know they arent good enough to react and fill the holes before the Rb hits them… The whole world knows what other teams plan to do against us and yet I dont see enough adjustment out this defense… It seems that Juan can only learn 1 lesson a week… Last week he finally learned that playing Nnamdi in zones is a dumb idea… it took 4 games tho..
It took 2 full games for him to admit Casey Matthews didnt belong at MLB
something isnt right with these coaches… they are waay too slow to react to these issues
I’m with you Rasheed, I don’t have anything bad to say about Mudd or Washburn. Both are teaching the players to play the way their philosophy is. That’s like hiring Mike Martz and then want him to run the ball 30 times a game. If you wanted that, then you should have hired someone else. So I can’t really be upset with them for constructing their respective units they way they’ve done it their entire career and what made them among the best in the league. As we know coaching don’t change their philosophies much, they just change the players. And it’s kind of hard to ask a position coach to change their entire philosophy because unlike running an entire offense or defense, this is probably the only way they know.
If anyone is to blame it’s of course Andy for being shortsighted about the offseason and moving too many parts at one time. There was no way anyone could anticipate how long the lockout would have last which is the reason why so many of those parts should not have been moved. Think about it, last year our defense was probably 2-3 players away from being good. You keep the same coach and philosophy and remove Matthews, Page, Hobbs/Patterson, Bunkley and replace them with Bradley, Mikell, Nnamdi, Jenkins and DRC, you probably have a stud defense. And I gotta tell you the lack of foresight and perceived disrespect for certain positions on the defense is quite disheartening.
Just think about it, all of these guys could lose their jobs. If this season continues to go bad, then Andy could possibly go which means a new coach is going to pick his own offensive coordinator. So bye bye Marty, and there’s no way in hell Castillo stays on as D coordinator. Mudd goes back into retirement and depending on the new offensive and defensive coordinator, they will hire their own staff especially if they had one before. So many things at risk. I always wanted to see Andy succeed because he is coaching our birds and for a team that’s always been pretty consistent and non-volatile, who would have thought that the year they decided to make so many big changes would be the thing that did us in.
wait a minute, am I wrong or wasn’t everyone saying McD was terrible and he just had to go? I don’t remember anyone saying he should stay. Now he’s gone and people are saying he should have stayed.We all have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight vision…Fact is that McDermott’s D looked bad and everyone said he had to go. So he went. Everyone said the OLine sucked an needed changes. So they changed it. Now becuase the changes haven’t worked well for 5/16ths of the season, everyone’s changing their minds and saying that McDermott should’ve stayed and that we should’ve kept gimpy Bradley – if he’s not on the field in ‘Zona, do you really think having him here would’ve made a difference?
Guys, if the answer is venting and you need it, so be it. But otherwise, what’s all the ‘coulda woulda shoulda’ talk accomplishing?
I am not buying the shortened – lockout excuse…I blame the lack of adjusting your game plans,schemes and formations based on tha talent and players you have on your team
There’s no doubt that the Lockout put teams and players behind the 8-ball in getting up to speed or how sophisticated your game planning and schemes should be… So knowing all of this going into Summer Camp, why wouldn’t you simplify these things so you team can execute and play at high level to gain continuity and confidence (which is the key for success in the NFL) and then building up your gameplans as your all your new parts start meshing together… Knowing this, why would you annoint LB Matthews as your Starter, or D watkins as your Starting RG when you haven’t even see these players suit up in the NFL… I really believe Coach AR lost so much creditbility with the Veterans still on the Team and expecially on the Defense(Cole,Pparker,Samuel,Hanson,PAtterson) that it turned them off and then you have 5-6 new players who don’t know what the hell is oging on with new COaches putting in schemes but is anyone on the same page.. maybe so, but it sure doesn’t look like it.. Each Unit (DL,LB & Secondary) appear to be doing their own thing and they are not playing together as a unit…
Why would a Chuck Cecil or an Eric Mangini want to walk into this current Eagles Hornets Nest… No thank you is all they are going to hear…
If you wnat to look at an example of how a completely new Staff of Coaches have handled the SUmmer Camps/Preseason and now the early part of this season, take a look at the San Francisco 49ers who have a completely new Staff.. How come they are able to be productive and execute basic game plans and be 4-1 after 5 weeks in the Season… Or the Tiatans, or hell even the PAnthers who are 1-4 also, have looked better and beenmore competitve in all their games more so than the Eagles and they are playing a Rookie QB from Day #1 and all of these teams don’t have the talent level that the Eagles have.. OAkland Raiders have a completely new Coaching staff also..
Coach AR knows 1 way and that the “pedal to the floor” and jump on and learn on the fly.. It’s what he’s done most of his Coaching Career and he’s not going to to change at this point.. .He is not good at making adjustments verus good opponents during games,half-times and in this case, going into a new Season where “simplicity and exectution” should have been the rule of the day and especially for the first 4-6 games…
Paul, “I am not buying the shortened – lockout excuse” “There’s no doubt that the Lockout put teams and players behind the 8-ball”
Sir, that is a full blown contradiction.
schiller, it depends on who you talked to on whether they thought it was McDermott or mainly the personnel. But I’m sure “everyone” didn’t say it was totally McDermott’s fault. In fact, many people blamed Andy for not giving McDermott good enough personnel. But that’s not the point I’m making. I’m making the point that this defense could have been good even if a person thinks McDermott should have been gone because of the addition of FAs. This was clearly not the year to redo everything on that side of the ball. And not because the the coaches and players aren’t good enough but because of the uncertainty of what the year would have brought. That’s just my thought. It was almost like putting yourself on the same playing field as all those other teams that are rebuilding when you could have been ahead of all of them by having the same coaching staff intact and adding more talent. And for most people it’s not as much as about McDermott staying as much as it is with hiring an inexperienced coordinator and changing the philosophy in a bad year to do so. That could have meant just promoting Dick Jauron. It’s not about McDermott, it’s about this team’s lack of foresight in making such big changes on that side of the ball.
Here’s the thing, we cannot give Andy Reid credit for coaching good successful team for nearly every year of his tenure and then admonish him when things go bad. He gets the praises when things go good and gets the criticism when things go back. Just like people used “uncertainty” of the CBA as a reason for some of the Eagle’s moves or non-moves you also have to use that same logic and say “well why did they make so many drastic changes with uncertainty of the CBA”. It works both ways. For the same things these guys get the credit for, also warrants criticism when things go bad.
I remember before the season began, fans and media were talking about how good the Eagles are going to be because of the talent they added. And few people took the side of caution because of all the changes and were quickly dismissed by people who agrees with everything the FO does no matter. And stated why we should be ranked higher than the Packers in preseason rankings because we almost beat them and we now have better talent. Not taking into account that the Packers had the majority of their players coming back and coaching staff in tact. Some people chose to ignore the preseason and how bad the LBs were and chalked it up to “it’s only the preseason” and disregard the fact that the LBs have been bad for a few years now. Don’t worry about the safeties even though we haven’t really had a good one since Dawk left and the only decent one you had on the roster you let him walk because you probably didn’t think the position meant enough to make a priority. The Eagles problems on defense go back before Juan and McDermott. Several season people have been stating how certain positions are ignored. But they are quickly hushed by FO apologist who attempt to make every excuse possible. And then those same things come up during the season and exploiting by a team that knows what they are doing. This just didn’t happen the past 4 games. It’s been the past couple years. From trading down in the draft to pick up even more bums who are eventually cut to naming a guy who never coached any unit of an NFL defense to run an entire unit. This just didn’t happen overnight.
Quite frankly, Andy’s decisions over the past couple seasons have been quite volatile which is a lot different than it used to be and it isn’t paying off. His last 6 seasons have been worse than his first 6. No more of Ray Rhodes defensive players to hold other teams to lower scoring. Andy has done complete 180s on things he openly proclaimed which used to not be the case. I’m not saying Andy should be fired but it may be that time. Not because he’s not a good coach but because like everything else, good things do come to an end. The funny thing is that none of you FO apologist who try to hush people up who point out glaring issues never come back and say you were wrong when the team eventually lets you know there are issues when they start changing stuff around.
schiller, everyone was put behind the ball because of the lockout. So that’s not an excuse for this team or anyone else. Everyone had to operate under the same constraints. So yes, it put every a little back where they normally would have been BUT that’s not an excuse because it affected everyone. Definitely not a contradiction when everyone is operating on the same playing field. Now, if something happened where the Eagles had unique circumstances created by the lockout and not their own doing then I agree with you.
As usual Schiller, you miss the bigger and most improtant point..
Smart,prepared and flexible Coaches realized this way before Summer Camp ever opened and adjusted,simplifield their plans accordingly bases on how to best prepare and put their players and schemes in position to be successful and HC AR and his staff have failed miserbly at this adjusting period
The old “It’s my way, jump on and learn on the fly or be left behind” mentality has left the Eagles in the basement after 5 weeks
@Paulman…I’m not gonna say that AR isn’t smart, prepared or flexible…But I agree with you 100%…regardless of the moves you make, the coach has to be able to adjust…Coach has to know what the team can handle and how much of it they can handle at a time..
With that said…I expect we bounce back this weekend with a W…One game at a time fellas…our backs are against the wall, I think my team will respond the way I would…never lay down, never give up!
Yeah Paulman, I agree with you. Since they already made the coaching changes way back in Jan, they should have known that certain things in the defense would not work with the personnel once it was time to play for real. We all know Matthews stunk from the 1st preseason game. Took them 3 regular season games to get him off the field. I agree that this season should have been more about the basics and not sure it is. Just doesn’t seem like a good season to do so. We all know Andy is a good game planner but when he plan doesn’t go as expected, it’s tough to win. It seems the whole offseason plan didn’t go as expected and it’s very hard to adjust now that we are already in the season. I hear Mudd is getting hip surgery during the bye week so who knows what will happen with the o-line during the time he will miss. It’s funny because people long held on to Andy winning 10-11 games a year as a reason to not take a chance with another coach. I don’t know what will happen with the rest of this season but with 5 more division games, Jets, Pats and Bears, it’ll be hard not to lose at least 4 more games with the way they are playing. I do believe however, that if Andy does come back, he can right the ship by bringing in a real D coordinator. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens this year. I’m not a big fan of his right now, but I don’t want to see the team fail because of my dislike for some of the things he does. We will just need to see. But all I know is that after the Phillies and Eagles lost I banned ESPN in my house for the entire week LOL.
Yeah if we let Rex Grossman look like a pro bowl QB, then I’ll be even more upset. He’s awful. But then again, Alex Smith was like Steve Young out there against us. Teams can’t wait to play our defense. Even in my fantasy league, if a skilled players is going against the eagles, start em. No questions.
Paul, we all agree that they’ve failed – DUH – they’ve played terribly and lost. But you’re saying they didn’t simplify. They didn’t try to adjust. That they were just stubborn and stuck to the same playbooks. Dude, that’s Bullshit. They said they trimmed the playbooks down. They made tons of adjustments – remember, today people said they made TOO MANY!? You’re acting like Reid was like “lockout, what lockout?” and kept everything the same. You don’t know what they did in the film room, teaching sessions, practices, etc.etc.etc. anymore than i do. So don’t sit here and tell me what they did or didn’t do in preparation/gameplanning. we all know it didn’t work. But to say they didn’t try anything is ignorant.
I’m not trying to defend them or say everything is honky dory. But this ‘monday morning QB’ ‘hindsight is 20/20 but I’m ignoring that time tested wisdom’ bullshit is getting old and it’s nonsensical.
Come on guys give Andy a break.
It’s a conspiracy!!!!!! no
The Eagles are the only team that was locked out with OTA’s.
DREAM TEAM
Schill?
Earlier you stated the Eagles made risks.
Can you point out the Risks they took?
and which of the risks panned out?
I would love to hear your anser to these risks you said they took.
Great post up above Scorpion…
Some of us voiced and posted our reservations and concerns about this team since Summer Camp and Preseason Games and of course, we were s chastised, labeled a hater and a fraud and everything else that goes along with ir.. I diidn’t want the Eagles to suck or be the laughing stock of the NFL 1 month into the Season…I want them to win and bring a Championship to the City but when I see what I think are bonehead moves, then as a frustrated fan, I am going to point it out and complain about it
I consider myselg a knowledgeable and a passionate fan, and to be honest, The way this season has gone from the get go, has not surpirsed me at all
J Castillo is in way over his head and Coach AR doesn’t know what to do about it and other in the Organization are hunkering down and starting to retreat from Coach AR.. It’s not all hands on deck for the Eagles anymore, It’s each Coach and Player for themselves right now (at least that’s how their playing and the vibe that I get listening,reading,and watching them play)
Hopefully they win this week and still have a chance to turn this season around, but if Redskins pound the rock and their QB Grossman protects the ball, I don’t see the Eagles Defense stopping them and if they go on to lose and fall to 1-5, then the Eagles Season is truly over and then it’s each man for themselves..
Anyone find it odd that GM Roseman and President BAnner have been almost silent during this free-fall.. I mean I have not heard a word from these guys.. They were eactively giving interviews when they hired this coaching staff, Draft picks and signing Free-agents.. where are they now….
songs, you’re being a tool and you know it.
So the Raiders just traded for Arron Curry of the Seahags,its not like we coulda used a linebacker. What a fuggin joke this org. is coming to be man.Im mos def tryna stay positive cause thats just my way,but come on. And dont give me he cant play. He wasnt a Pete Carrol pcik and he fell outta favor. That dudes a stud. He would wrap someone up and play with a chip here.
Paul,save your scouting report on him cause hes not on our squad. And yes we know you thought they shoulda signed Tulloch of the Lions.
Erock is alright…
We have Clay Matthews
STUD!
I offically have LB Curry off the list, What did the Raiders give up for him Erock.
Damn it, I should be the GM of this Eagle team… even as a part-timer, I could do a better job thatn Howie and AR …
Draft picks….of which we have plenty of…maybe they didnt want him in the conference.We go out there 12-1. But come on dudes….give em what they want and get a backer in here.
Don’t wory guys…We’re stockpiling picks for 2012
You know how much we value those picks to wheel and deal on draft day.
Andy may have a new formula..Let’s trade our first 3 round picks (Since we suck in picking there) and stockpile “Banner Specials”…..fill the roster with future 4-7 round picks and if we’re lucky….a plethora of undrafted kids.
Heard there a 42 year old paramedic who played rugby for 3 years and you know we need a linebacker so if we do pick in the 1st round that’s the guy
Wait…does he play flag football in the NewCastle County 9-9 league? I think i know him.lol.Andy’s found a gem. Hopefully i get a look at safety.
Fuggin joke….he needs to get it right.Im so disgusted by this team i dont even watch the Sunday/Monday night games. i dont even wanna watch the college games. Im so beatdown by this team i just lift or continue drinking.
Good thing im Irish and dont do well in therapy.
He underestimates everything, because he is the God of football, the QB Guru, the offensive task master, the game prep master, the man that can reinvent the game at the flick of the thumb! Didn’t all you guys know this already!? How dare you not know this!? I’m sick of hearing about this bumbling @$$clown, already! It’s been at least 3 years, past his expiration date! Fire this @$$clown, & his cronies already, for God’s sake!
Erock, we don’t need LB’s, they’re interchangeable! Ritalin man Castillo said so! He know’s of what he speaks! 😀