How good of a defensive coordinator can Juan Castillo be?
Good enough that he eventually could become a head coach, according to Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, a former Eagles assistant.
"I'm a big Juan Castillo fan. Who knows how it's going to go? But Juan's an excellent coach, plus he's surrounded by a veteran staff of assistants," Harbaugh said. "I think he's going to be a head coach in this league someday."
Castillo has a lot of work to do before he can reach that point. The Eagles, for now, are counting on the longtime offensive line coach to turn around their defense in 2011. Much of the team's fate and coach Andy Reid's standing depends on the unconventional move working out and proving skeptics wrong.
Three former Reid assistants - Harbaugh, St. Louis Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo, and Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera - met with the media Thursday as the NFL combine opened, and each expressed faith in both Castillo and Reid's judgment.
"If there is a coach in the NFL that can make that transition, it's Juan Castillo," Rivera said. Like others, he noted that the Eagles defensive assistants often spent time talking with Castillo about potential blitzes and the blocking schemes that might be used against them. "I will be surprised if he does not have success. If he has success, I'm not surprised."
Rivera acknowledged, however, that the unusual move puts added pressure on Reid, who is the longest-tenured coach in the NFL and who hasn't won a playoff game in the last two years despite promising starts each season. Amid speculation that the pressure on Reid is rising, Spagnuolo said the longtime Eagles coach can take it.
"Andy handles it as good as anybody. I think it's pretty evident by him being the longest-tenured head coach that he's doing something right," Spagnuolo said.
Roseman on Kolb
Despite having new coaches on the offensive and defensive lines, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said the team won't have to make much change in the types of players it targets.
"The good thing is from a scheme standpoint, our offensive coordinator, our defensive coordinator they're doing very similar things to what we've done in the past, so that makes it an easy transition from a personnel side," Roseman said. "For us, this is still a Jim Johnson-type of defense."
Despite the uncertainty caused by the NFL's labor situation, Roseman said the Eagles are approaching their offseason shopping as "business as usual," with different scenarios mapped out depending on the timing of free agency.
Kevin Kolb's future was a hot topic among reporters from other parts of the country, but Roseman shed little light on the situation.
Asked several ways about potential trades for the quarterback, Roseman said that the Eagles would evaluate all of their options and that trade talk now was just "speculation."
McDermott's new start
Rivera said he and former Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott - who took the same position in Carolina - share an attacking philosophy that comes from learning under Johnson in Philadelphia. But McDermott was under immense pressure after taking over for Johnson, and the move to Carolina should help, Rivera said.
"This was an opportunity to get Sean, I want to say, out of the shadow of Jim. It was a very difficult situation, but I think he handled that well and showed his maturity," Rivera said, echoing comments he made to The Inquirer at the Super Bowl.
Top pick?
Rivera hinted that he might be interested in Auburn quarterback Cam Newton with the draft's No. 1 pick.
"Franchise quarterbacks are really what's happening with this league in terms of this becoming a passing league," he said, comparing Newton's size to that of rising young stars such as Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco.
"Cam's got those types of physical attributes: tall, powerful young man . . . he might be the best athlete of all of them," he said. "He's a winner. You go back to his junior college and his college days, you can't pass that up either."
He quickly added that he has his eye on seven to 10 prospects at the top pick.
