D Coaches Speak Out

And say very, very little.

The Eagles defensive coaches met with the press yesterday in some casual sit-down interviews.  I was hoping we’d get some good nuggets (with honey mustard please) or hear something at least interesting.  Didn’t really happen.

Juan Castillo spoke again about hard work and effort, but didn’t offer up any information that was worth really getting into.  There was his quote about taking a bullet for Andy Reid.  That’s already played out and it is just a day later.  Juan did himself and the staff/players a dis-service with one comment he made.

Asked what he thought was the biggest thing he learned last season, Castillo answered in true form, “That when you work hard, and you believe in something, and you don’t change no matter, that good things do happen.”

Hard work?  Belief?  No changes?  Juan juggled the lineup all year long and finally found the right combination of players late in the year.  He figured out how to use everyone.  The players finally delivered.  Keenan Clayton and Casey Matthews became good Nickel LBs.  Phillip Hunt was effective as a pass rusher.  Nate Allen had some good games.  Trevor Laws played his best ball.  And so on.  Hard work was a big part of that success, but so was making adjustments until everyone figured things out.  Had the Eagles not adjusted, the team would have finished 6-10 and could have drafted Fletcher Cox…oh wait, we got him anyway.

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Jim Washburn is confident in the D-line.  He thinks having OTAs will greatly benefit his players, since they had to learn the scheme on the fly last summer.   Remember, Wash’s first work with the Eagles was up at Lehigh.

We’re so much farther ahead, it’s ridiculous, he said. “I didn’t even know who they were (last spring); they don’t even know who I was this time last year.

Wash loves the depth of the DL, but says you won’t really know who can play until the pads go on up at Lehigh.

It is entertaining to hear him speak, but none of what he said is anything close to news.  Just good to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

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Les Bowen wrote about LB coach Mike Caldwell.  I think the key take-away from this is something from the end of the column…the need for stability.  Players were shuffled all over last year.  That was hard on them.  This year the situation will improve if a great deal if DeMeco is the answer at MLB, Mychal Kendricks plays SAM, and either Rolle or Chaney can hold down the WLB spot.

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Domo must have won an office pool.  He got to talk to Todd Bowles, who was Mr. Personality compared to the others.

Bowles said some stuff I wanted to hear.  He stressed the importance of keeping things simple so that players stay on the same page.

“People try to make football harder than it is sometimes,” he said. “It’s blocking and tackling. It’s been like that for a hundred years. It’s not going to change much. You’ve just got to teach the guys to see what you’re seeing on the field. That’s basically it. We’re all trying to get on the same page.”

Bowles didn’t care about moving from the 3-4 to the 4-3 or the fact his players were behind the Wide-9.

“It doesn’t affect anything we do,” he said. “The 4-3’s been around a long time. Jim might move [his defensive ends] an inch wider. But the wide-nine isn’t a scheme. It’s an alignment. I don’t see how it affects my guys any. They’ve got the front, we got the back.”

Clearly the Wide-9 does affect DBs in some regard, but I love the mindset that he’s got.  Don’t look for excuses.  This is football.  Go do your job and it will all work out.  Last year there was too much confusion.  This year Bowles wants to eliminate that and keep the DBs focused.

We know that the defense is going away from a heavy mixture of zone and man to a predominant press coverage system.  That will make things easier on DRC and Nnamdi.  Zone will be mixed in.  Some exotic coverages will be mixed in.  They will just be a part of the package rather than a lot of it.  The more players think, the slower they play.  This year we want clear heads and fast DBs.  I really do like what I hear from Bowles.

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Jason Babin is back in town.  His excuse for missing last week…”My trip to Alaska got caught in bad weather and we couldn’t make it out.  Wind.  Cold.  Icy.  I’m scared.  Blah, blah, blah.”  I’m paraphrasing, of course.

Listen, Babin.  I once dug holes for fence posts in frozen clay on a day when it was -20 with the wind chill.  Then I went home and watched “The Catch”.  Then I wrote 100 sentences (punishment for talking too loud to Kim McCallum on the previous Friday).  I manned up and got the job done.

Am I saying that I’m tougher than Babin?  Absolutely (give or take 98.3 percent).  It is possible I just wanted to mention my crazy weekend from January 1981.

Either way, it is good to have Babin and Cullen Jenkins back with the team.

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The Eagles released RB Graig “Don’t call me Craig” Cooper and WR Aaron Pflugrad.  The team is down to 87 players on the roster.

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Jason Kelce is quickly becoming one of my favorite Eagles.  The team went and helped work on a playground today.  That meant a variety of things, including some painting.  I don’t know how it happened, but Jason decided to do more than just help paint.

Must see picture.

Make sure you follow Jason on Twitter.

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Our good buddy Jimmy Bama has some good news.  Buried in a post, with some stuff worth checking out, is this nugget:

– New gig for me writing about the Giants/NFCE at SNY.  Should be writing about an article or two per week there.

Great news, Mr. Bama.  Well deserved.

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Vikings CB Asher Allen told the team he is retiring today.  He’s young, but had a couple of concussions in the last 2 years.  No official word that the concussions are the main cause, but you’d have to think that’s probably why.

I mention this because the Eagles really liked Allen in the draft a few years back and were disappointed when MIN took him.

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