Juan Castillo, Dead Man Walking

Guest post from the peerless BountyBowl:

The headlines say that the players back Embattled Defensive Coordinator Juan Castillo™, but man, the quotes seem to tell a different story. Or maybe I just don’t know what “back” means. Does it mean “Politely acknowledge that his ass is getting fired”? If so, then no problem.

Winston Justice: “Not entirely his fault.”

“I know Juan. He’s a fighter. He’s going to keep going to the end,” offensive tackle Winston Justice said yesterday, as the Birds prepared for this weekend’s visit to Miami. “In the NFL, you have to have a scapegoat, I guess … It’s not Juan’s fault. Not entirely his fault.”

Darryl Tapp: “All you can do is just move forward.”

“It’s been the perfect storm of negatives for him,” Tapp said. “I feel bad that all the stuff is getting directed at him, because we all have a part and we all understand that right now. But all you can do is just move forward.”

JamJax: “It’s just not working out.”

“It’s definitely been a learning experience [for Castillo], I can tell you that much,” Jackson said. “Juan’s a hard worker, man, and he’ll figure it out, as we’ve done in the past, offensively. “Will Castillo get a chance to figure it out? “I sure hope so,” said Jackson, who agreed that in terms of the defense coming together, “from the looks of it, it’s just not working out.”