Andy Reid is feeling the heat.
For the first time in his 14-year tenure as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Reid fired a member of his coaching staff in the middle of the season by dismissing defensive coordinator Juan Castillo on Tuesday morning.
Reid’s decision to make a change at one of the most important positions of his coaching staff speaks volumes about just how important the final 10 games of the season are for the head coach’s future in Philadelphia.
This firing wasn’t something that Andy wanted to do. Reid was very close to Juan Castillo; the two coaches worked with each other for 14 years. It was a huge gamble to make the former offensive line coach a defensive coordinator, and Reid stuck his neck out and put his reputation on the line when he made the decision to give the hard-working Castillo an opportunity to run his defense. However, he wanted to give his friend an opportunity succeed on a whole new level, and stuck up for Juan even when things went poorly for the team during the 2011 season.
But now Reid simply couldn’t afford to do his friend anymore favors. The Eagles are now 3-3, and Castillo’s defense had blown two straight fourth quarter leads. Juan’s defensive playcalling had come under heavy criticism from the fans, the media, and even some of the players. Castillo just didn’t have a natural feel for the game like a strong defensive coordinator should; he never seemed sure of when the right times to be aggressive were, and was regularly outcoached by opposing offensive coordinators.
I think Andy took a look at his upcoming schedule and noticed that his next two games are against two of the most explosive offenses in the league, the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints. Based on what he had seen in the first six games, there just weren’t enough positives for Reid to have confidence that Castillo could turn the defense around. Reid knows his team is already in trouble at 3-3, and it would be very difficult to get back into the playoff picture if the Eagles were to fall to 3-5 in the coming weeks.
A sense of urgency has come over Reid, and he knows he needs to win now or he’ll be out of a job by the end of the year. As much as Reid respected Juan Castillo as a coach, a man, and a friend, Andy took a long look at the situation and realized that in order for the Eagles to have the best chance to win right now, Juan had to be removed.
It’s going to be interesting to see what other changes Reid will make to try and improve this football team. Firing Castillo is a major shakeup, and it has to put every other coach and player on notice. If Reid was willing to fire his close friend Castillo, no coach’s job and no player’s starting position is secure.
The defense isn’t the only area of this team that needs a dramatic improvement. The offense has been just as much of a problem in 2012, and as Reid begins to grow more desperate to spark a turnaround for his team, more dramatic changes will come.
How short of a leash will Michael Vick have? Reid wasn’t interested in giving his turnover machine quarterback an endorsement during his press conference. Reid knows that the ridiculous amount of turnovers his offense has generated has been killing this team in the first six games, and he’s got to find a way to eliminate it. If the quarterback doesn’t shape up quickly, he could very well be the next man up on Andy’s chopping block.
The Castillo firing signals that we’ve reached a major crossroad in the Andy Reid era. Either Reid’s newfound urgency will help bring dramatic changes that propel this team in the right direction, or we could just be seeing the first in a series of desperate moves that prove to be too little too late.
One thing’s for sure, Reid can’t hide or escape from his own failures and poor decisions that have put this team in the position they’re in today. This is the year he’s going to be held accountable, and unless his changes transform the Eagles into a strong team on the field, Reid will be forced to fall on his sword at the end of the year.
Denny Basens is the editor of GCobb.com. Email him at dbasens@ycp.edu, and follow him on Twitter.
Everyone is missing the point.Reids Mea culpa is a breakthrough,he’s finally made a public admission that he was wrong.It’s a head scratcher ,hiring an offensive line coach and assuming he can transform into a defensive coordinator.Its a head scratcher when your best player on your team is continually under utilized in shady …if you already knew you had assumed you had a liability on the defensive side ,why would nt you shorten the game by running the ball and clock? Head scratcher? your quarter back is put in the same fetal position by the head coach as his buddy Juan ,knowing you have no offensive line cohesion ,you call multiple five and seven step drops? Andy has told us many times andin this he is correct..I need put th eplayers in a better position to succeed…it’s been years and still we are waiting..Jeff Laurie times now yours. Use the time wisely …don’t emasculate yourself ,embolden yourself ,juan was raw meat but geettingAndy will be literally bagging the big one …he’s in your sights …all you need do is be honest as the owner that this man and fourteen years have diminished what once was the gold standard to fools gold…joe banner was jettisoned as a scapegoat ,now Juan ,it’s only right to get Marty,Andy ,and this whole motley crew out of town before the decay erodes at the very foundation you’ve worked to build ..a proud leader doesn’t wait for the coach to fall on his sword the owner …thrusts it and turns it and the page..
Finish Him!!! Chop his MF head off and Fire his Ass and get rid of MM too. Blow this entire coaching staff up dont F?!% around Finish the deal. Enough of this arrogant incompetance from our coaching staff. I have said this two years ago on this very site the Eagles will not win a SB as long as AR is the HC.
Couldn’t agree more. We have a bye week. Let’s wave bye bye to this whole group of idiots.
It’s a too little late now to many anymore changes..
Getting Rid of Special Teams Coach Bobby April should have happened also
But changing Coaching Personnel, Schemes in Mid-Season is a true sense of Panic that players will feel and then becomes a Team full of Players and Coaches constantely looking over their shoulders and eventually wears on Trust and pulling for one another where it becomes easy for players to say the hell with it and start playing,worrying about their own stats,etc,etc..
This is the Team for the Final 10 Games, Is this Coaching Staff and It’s Roster Good Enough to win at least 7 Games needed in the Final 10 Games to Finish 10-6, to have a legitimate shot at the Playoffs and win the NFC East. I doubt it, myself and when looking at the schedule and especially against NFC Opponents, the Eagles will need to beat Falcons,Saints,Panthers,Bucs and go at least 3-2 with their 5 NFC Divisional Games left versus the Redskins,Cowboys,Giants to have a shot of winning the NFC East for it appears the Wild-Card Spots will come from the
NFC North (Packers,Bears or Vikings) and the NFC West (49ers,Seahawks)
while the only Team from the NFC East will be the Divisional Winner making the Post-Season
The 0-2 NFC Conference Record versus Cardinals/Lions is a bad place to be and were expected to be W’s on paper.. Remember a loss to AFC Teams is less damaging than to NFC Opponenets when it comes to Conference Records for WIld-Card Spots
My Sources out West is that the San Diego Chargers will be firing HC Norv Turner and GM Smith after this Season as they both have underachieved (like AR) and are in the final years of their Contract
Coach AR will move out to California (Where is he originally from) and take over the Charger Program as HC and GM/President of Football Operations and will bring Coach MM there to be his OC and then move MM to the eventual HC as Coach AR be comes strictly a Front Office President of the Chargers..
I expect AR to take WR Coach D Cullie, RB Coach Ted Williams, TE Coach Bob Melvin and Hire Juan Castillo as his OL Coach and Reach
You heard it here, but this is the end of AR as I stated it wouild be 2 Years ago that the 2012 was going to be it one way or another
your sources….well my ESPN sources told me that Norv is definitely on the hot seat…
paulman, U HAVE NO SOURCES OUT WEST . like I shared, 90% of the big name coaches are on the sideline because owners aren’t payin the big (8-10mil ) salaries anymore. nobody will payin andy that kinda money
On Defense for the Chargers in 2013
DC Sean McDermott will get fired after this Season by the Panthers for 2 very poor years as DC and am surprised he wasn’t fired during their Bye Week….. Coach AR will hire him as the DC with the Chargers..
Reid needs to be held accountable for the hiring of Castillo as the defensive coordinator. Castillo was over his head from the beginning and many that logon to this web site said so at the time he was hired.
It’s sad to see Reid panicking now that the end is so near. He’s has had a good run but it’s time to move on.
My login name says it all. Talongrip is on the money. Reid and Moron-weg are egotistical under performing coaches. The offense is worse than the defense but Reid won’t fire himself. The Castillo hire and subsequent firing are grounds for dismissal of the Reid. However, I would not fire Reid now- wait until the end of the year rather than get into an interim HC situation. Let Reid fall with the team/staff he alone is responsible for.
paulman, the only coach in the league more inept on game day than reid is norv turner. Replacing one guy who game plans well but fails miserably on game day with another guy with the exact same flaws (just a far larger waste size) would tell the Chargers fans that their ownership is a failure.
Reid’s firing of Castillo is the most pathological thing I’ve seen him do since, well, the hiring of Castillo. The act of firing the coach of the only semi-successful unit on the team is just disgraceful. If Castillo deserves it, so does ALL the rest of the staff.
Sure, Castillo blew the Lions game. Fine. But Vick and the offense is atrocious. Special teams is a joke.
The guy needing the biggest kick in the rear is the guy making the decisions.
If Lurie loves (yes, he does) and admires Reid as much as he professes to, then he would have faith in Reid’s personal integrity. If that’s his feeling, he should sit down with him now to tell him he’s not going to be here next year and neither will Vick. Tell him his job now is to work with Foles, put him in the game, and get him ready for next season.
If the team doesn’t realize that Vick is not good enough to get you to the Super Bowl by now, then that’s sad. We know he can’t do it. So every game he starts is just a pointless, self-serving exercise in trying to create a basis for Reid to prove to Lurie that he deserves another contract while the overall future of the team is put on hold. It’s not fair for Reid to be allowed to do that to the team. And sooner or later, the players are going to figure that out, too (if they haven’t already).
No Timm…we don’t know he can’t do it! you may think he can’t….but trust me there are plenty of fans that I talk to on a daily basis that believe he can succeed…Also how many SB;s have we won? No QB before Vick got the job done, so give him a damn chance. Call the plays that takes pressure off the line and the Eagles will be successful. This sending WR’s on deep routes every other play behind the O Line that is protecting Vick is ridicolous…And you fans that blame Vick and only Vick you guys are watching the game with one eye open..Put Foles in the game and ger ready for next season? are you serious? At 3-3 just consider the season lost and move on? you have got to be kidding me! It is way to early for all of that nonsense! A lot of what you said in your comment had me going WTF?
Lurie is not a Football guy and neither is GM Roseman so the likliehood of either one telling AR on who to play or not is assanine to even think about
Come On Timm00, Snap out of it… COach AR is going to ride it out this Year with who he’s got, plain and simple, is it going to be good enough, probably not.. but at 3-3 and 10 Games left and 5 within the NFC East, nobody is going to be throwing in the towel..Now if they are out it completely with 2-3 Weeks to go, then I could see GM Roseman (from Lurie) telling AR , hey, we want to look at this player, that player, but that’s down the road in December..
I’m just saying that Lurie has the chance to do something ‘out of the box’ because of the unique love he has for the large fella. I don’t believe he’d do it. I don’t believe Lurie ever challenges anything Reid wants to do.
But I reserve the right to change my mind on the odds of that happening if the players all start to mutiny. When the coach loses the players, there is no hope of recovering. A bad situation will get worse. And with another Giants game this year (you don’t think Reid can win both, do you?) and two against the Redskins (no way they get swept THIS year by the Reidles) as well as some other challenging games, it’s quite possible the bottom will be hit sooner than you think….
my question nfor all the people that are callign radio stations and even on here that Mick Vick gives his team the lead and its not him… wtf are you watching…. You continue to leave out the constant turnovers nt just THIS year but HIS WHOLE CARREER…!!! You mean to tell me a winning super bowl QB will throw the ball up in the air for grabs when he is getting pulled to the ground?? who does that ?? OR with a defendre in his face instead of sliding in the pocket to make the throw he stands there while knowing he is shorter will still try and throw it in there face and get it battted down.. vick makes mistakes as if he was a rookie STOP DEFENDING THAT GROWN MAN THAT IS OLDER THAN MOST PEOPLE ON THIS SITE. HE IS NOT A ROOKIE AND AFTER 10 YEARS OF NOT SUCCEDING YOU STILL THINK HE WILL DO FINE.. NO SUPER BOWL HERE
To Timm00,
I don’t doubt that Players will rally around AR and new DC Bowles, but this emotion just lasts a couple weeks at most, it’s gets back to game plans,discipline,execution and mixing things up both Offensively and Defensivley and the Eagles have been very bad at this for the last 5 Years on both sides of the ball.. Can It change, possibly, is it likely to change much,
I think Eagles can go 4-2 in the NFC East giving them a Chance but losing NFC Conference Games to the Saints and then to the TB Bucs on the Road will be the back-breaker, as they limp to another 8-8 Record and I also would not be surprised to see the Bengals come to Philly on a Thursday night in Late December and whip their butts as the Bengals will be playing hard for a Playoff spot while the Eagles are basically out of it by then..
I’m most concerned about Nick Foles.
Although Foles might be getting good practices, I don’t want to see Reid throw him into this chaos, as I think he can be a winning QB.
However, it might not matter as big changes coming for Birds on many levels.
Eagles should target Jets Def-coordinator Mike Pettine Jr to replace Reid
Bring him back to philly…..tough and a defensive guy
Yea… Cause the jets defense looks great….. They stop the run worse than philly and they dont even play the wide 9!
Timmooo….I think this is one of the best paragraphs I’ve read on here in a long time…
“If the team doesn’t realize that Vick is not good enough to get you to the Super Bowl by now, then that’s sad. We know he can’t do it. So every game he starts is just a pointless, self-serving exercise in trying to create a basis for Reid to prove to Lurie that he deserves another contract while the overall future of the team is put on hold. It’s not fair for Reid to be allowed to do that to the team. And sooner or later, the players are going to figure that out, too (if they haven’t already).”
You’re right on there.
Look, I have no issue with the Castillo firing. He was an experiment gone wrong.
The headscratching part of the Castillo is that we have another experiment gone wrong that has been more damaging than Castillo’s D. That’s the failed Mike Vick experiment.
It is clear to everyone here that while the D is an issue, and the special teams are trouble, the number one issue is a QB that enjoys giving the ball to the other team.
A few days ago I asked everyone what “change” they thought was needed on the Birds. Well, we’ve got a big change….but I’m not sure if it was the right one.
If the Reid willing to make radical changes to a D ranked 16h in yards against and 13 in pts against…..
then how long till he makes rdical changes to an offence that is 8th in yards and 31st in pts…..
….or a QB that is ranked 26th overall, 4th in ints and 1st in fumbles??
I think its funny that you cats want to put in Foles who is a rook and does not move like Vick. Foles would be killed. Do we want that?
Vinnie… i get it…. its Vick all day all night… we get your story by now.
I dont care who they put in at QB if they are going to run a balanced attack and use the wide open flats. Marty should have been with Juan going out the door…. or if its Andy doing this (as i would imagine), its time to fall on the sword.
I’m waiting for Howard Mudd to get the boot. Tre Thomas would be a better O-Line coach.
Putting Foles in, as a rookie “flier” pick, just doesn’t make a lot of sense. The should sign McNabb and get Foles ready for the end of the season of the start of next season.
Lurie “Believes” he’s a football guy and that’s the worse thing about the owner/FO situation right now.
Y McNabb would be a great signing. Have you seen him on NFL network? I think he’s 300lbs.
I’ll hold the sword steady as he falls on it. And we don’t have to wait til the end of the season. That fat horses rear, should have never hired Juan in the first place. A disgrace to Philadelphia. Made us the laughing stock of the NFL.
Hope Mike Vick gets schooled by RGIII when he comes to town. This is what you could have been, with a good head on your shoulders.