I Come To Bury DRC, Not To Praise Him

Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
They that have done this deed are honorable:
What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That made them do it: they are wise and honorable,
And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.

Like Asante Samuel before him, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie drew a lot of righteous anger during his stay in Philadelphia. Despite natural athletic talents that rival any cornerback in the NFL, Rodgers-Cromartie floats through the game of football. He was an awful tackler even when he tried, and he rarely put in the effort anyway. He gave up many more penalties and long plays than any "Pro Bowl" corner should. In short, despite those tremendous outfits, he was nearly impossible to root for.

To that end, I have little quarrel with the Eagles deciding to let Rodgers-Cromartie walk without applying the franchise tag, as Geoff Mosher reported. If Chip Kelly doesn't want him, nor Howie Roseman (who acquired him in 2011), nor defensive coordinator Billy Davis (who coached DRC in Arizona), who are we to argue? It's not like the cornerback stood out last year. Here are the coverage numbers, from Pro Football Focus. The ranks show their place among the 77 cornerbacks who played at least half of their team's coverage snaps in 2012:

Looking at DRC's stats, you can tell he was no star. Of course, none of the Eagles corners were. Brandon Boykin held his own in the slot, proving himself admirable, if not spectacular in his rookie season. Nnamdi Asomugha continued his long streak of scaring quarterbacks off, posting the fourth-lowest targets per snap in the league. Of course, when they actually did throw his way, Asomugha was awful. He ranked 63rd in completion percentage and dead last in yards per target.

Rodgers-Cromartie doesn't deserve any breaks either. True, his target and completion rates were above average, but his performance declined dramatically over the course of the season as he seemed to lose interest. See the table at right, as DRC's quarterback rating against dropped after a good start to the season through week six.

This is probably the point where we should bring up the event that occured after week six: the firing of Juan Castillo. Remember what the cornerback said when Castillo was kicked out the door?

Most of the players have had fond words regarding Juan Castillo the man, but few have stood up for him as a coach quite like DRC did on Thursday. Rodgers-Cromartie revealed that it was Castillo that transformed him into a press corner, working overtime with him to make sure the 26-year-old went through the change as smoothly as possible.

“No question. He changed my game. He turned me into a press corner,” said Rodgers-Cromartie. “He’s one of the guys that took the time with you, to make you understand the weakness in your game and keep you after practice and make you work on it. This is the NFL, you’re accountable for yourself. Not too many people are going to say, ‘Hey, you need to do this and make sure you do it.’ They tend to let you do it on your own.”

Rodgers-Cromartie is capable of playing at a high level in spurts, but to do so consistently he needs special attention from coaches. That's not something we expect Kelly and his team of 50 assistant coaches (give or take) to have time to do, right? If DRC's performance goes downhill after his favorite coach is fired and the rest of the defense is falling apart, surely we don't want him around any more.

Time to move on to the team's other alternatives. Restructure Asomugha's contract, sort through the free agent bin and draft heap to find another adequate starter. Moving Boykin out of his natural slot position could work. Or perhaps one of the gang of invisible backups is will start showcasing Pro Bowl talent. Whatever the result, letting a young, capable, and inconsistent starting cornerback go for nothing is definitely the right move. There have to be better ways to spend the Eagles' plentiful salary cap space. DRC, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Photo from Getty.

On Jim Washburn and Selective Memories

It's funny how as soon as a guy like Jim Washburn is fired, everyone hurries to give him the hardest kick out the door. Clearly there were major reasons to fire Washburn, including his apparent unwillingness to play some youngsters and especially his insubordinate treatment of "Juanita" Castillo.

But there's a big difference between calling the firing justified and retroactively arguing that Washburn was a horrible coach from the start. A great example of this contradiction occurs in Reuben Frank's column this week about Washburn, in which he says "Hiring disruptive Washburn mistake from Day 1." On one hand, Roob makes some solid points:

The whole thing was built the wrong way. You can’t hire a defensive line coach and then a coordinator. It takes the traditional power structure of a coaching staff and makes a mockery of it. How could Castillo be expected to lead that defensive meeting room when one of his own coaches was conspiring against him?

Absolutely true. Giving Washburn his own fiefdom within the defense was dangerous, and it undermined Castillo's authority. That said, a firmer hand from Reid could have solved such issues. He never should have tolerated dissent from an assistant coach, even if that coach had reasons to look down on the coordinator. Would Reid of a decade ago let this thing fester? I doubt it very much.

But Roob quickly takes us onto more specious ground:

The current Eagles assistant coach said both Washburn and Mudd looked down on the other position coaches, held themselves in higher regard than the others and rarely interacted with their colleagues.

The evidence for this assertion, apparently, is that Mudd and Washburn always hung out together, instead of with the group. Doesn't this just seem like the logical extension of their friendship? We know that Mudd only came back to coach the Eagles because of the opportunity to work with his friend. And neither coach had any ties to Philadelphia, to Reid, or any of the other assistants. But, most importantly, this charge was never leveled while they were doing a good job.

Speaking of which, here's where Roob goes off the rails:

Washburn was actually a very good coach when it came to teaching young guys technique and getting them to play hard.

But his system was flawed. The Wide 9 doesn’t work.

Even last year, when the Eagles registered a league-best 50 sacks, the stats were hollow as the losses piled up week after week. And this year, we’ve seen the scheme continually put the Eagles’ safeties in difficult or impossible situations while the sack numbers dwindled.

Can you spot the glaring contradiction? The wide nine, Roob asserts, "doesn't work." Period, end of story. Other than the "league-best 50 sacks" and the fact that Washburn was "a very good coach" at teaching and motivating his players. If that's what a poor, ineffective coach looks like, I'd like to see a great one.

Once we get away from the bizarrely black-and-white statements, Roob tries to make a valid point about the wide nine putting the linebackers and safeties in too tough of a spot. That's true, on its face. Kurt Coleman certainly struggles combining run assignments with pass coverage duties. On the other hand, it's Kurt Coleman. He would probably struggle with those things anyway.

You can't blame Washburn for the personnel deficiencies of the back seven. Safety was a problem last year, and the Eagles did nothing to fix that spot. The run defense improved dramatically this season after the team sunk some NFL-quality resources into the linebacker corps. Plus, if anyone cared to take notice, the defense is actually ranked 8th against the run, according to Football Outsiders.

Pass defense has been the biggest liability, but I don't think Washburn deserves most of the blame there either. Over the last few weeks, we've seen so many receivers run free through the Eagles secondary. The coverage breakdowns have been astounding, and on no level can you pin that on the wide nine. There's still an issue of the decline in pass rush production. But are we really confident that people have "figured out the wide nine"? Everyone knew what it was last year, when the line racked up sacks galore. They knew what it was for years when Washburn was coaching in Tennessee.

Sure, being predictable is a negative, and Washburn has to take responsibility for his unit's decline. But are you confident pinning the blame on him when many of the players the team counted on to replicate their performance are aging vets? I'm not.

Did Washburn deserve to be fired? Yes. (That's answer you'll get for most Eagles coaches right now.) But it's absurd for Roob or anyone else to make such a simplistic argument after the fact, forgetting that not too long ago he was calling Washburn a "highly regarded veteran" and "legendary" coach.

Photo from Getty.

It's All Downhill From Here

As Eagles fans, we've been lucky over the last decade to witness such consistent success. Other than 2005, we've avoided watching a team just spiral out of control. Unfortunately, that's all changing now.

In hindsight, this was completely foreseeable. Andy Reid deserved to be fired after the 2011 season. His decision to go with Juan Castillo was indefensible (morbid humor), and the personnel holes were inexcusable. Lurie kept Reid around, though. That alone was probably a bad move, but he compounded his mistake at the same time by issuing an ultimatum for improvement. 8-8 wasn't going to be tolerated this season, and while we can debate the specifics, some combination of winning the NFC East or a playoff game is probably the bar Reid has to beat.

For many observers, myself included, that kind of ultimatum was comforting at the time. Lurie wasn't issuing a blank check to Reid. He was setting a standard and giving him one last chance. The problem that I didn't consider (and Lurie probably didn't either), is what happens if Andy can't reach that bar? What happens if he realizes, say, six games into the season, that his job is about to go down in flames?

Maybe he would fire his defensive coordinator, the right move but too late. Maybe he would start seriously considering starting a rookie quarterback to give the Eagles "a spark." And that might cause his starter and team leader to give up, even though he was far from the team's biggest problem. Maybe the rest of the team would smell the desperation and respond in kind. Change becomes a reason to trash people anonymously, and adversity becomes a reason to give up.

As a generic football team, you wouldn't count them out at 3-4. Not yet. But all indications are that this team has entered a death spiral. Morale is at an all time low, and desperation is peaking. The bye magic is gone. The coordinator change didn't work. The lame duck head coach will try anything. The offseason roster purge looms. They've even lost Dave Spadaro. 

It's the end times.

Photo from Getty.

"Mixing It Up"

​Derek Sarley:

Let's look at every passing play in the Lions game and see why those statements carry so much meaning.

Wait, every Detroit passing play? Every Eagles coverage? You can't be serious.

Must read, obviously.

Everything You Need To Know About Andy Reid's Decision To Hire Juan Castillo

Jonathan Tamari, taking a break from his new job as the Inquirer's Washington correspondent to weigh in on Juan Castillo's firing. This nugget stuck out:

So when Reid asked him to become the Eagles’ defensive coordinator after more than 20 years teaching offense, Castillo agreed, never mind that his last experience on D was at a Texas high school in 1989. (Apropos of his maniacal work ethic, the interview was at 4 a.m.) Castillo said this was what he always really wanted.

When was the last time anyone made a good decision at 4 a.m.?

Understanding The Juan Castillo Firing

And so, the Juan Castillo era ends.

In what was perhaps the most surprising, previously-expected coaching move, Andy Reid yesterday ended "the offensive line coach?" experiment. People are looking at this move a lot of different ways, but I want to examine it from Reid's perspective. 

Let's go back to the end of 2011. After such a disappointing season, it was obvious to everyone that Castillo's time as defensive coordinator had been a disaster. It was the main stumbling block over which the Eagles staggered to an 8-8 finish. Jeff Lurie said publicly that such results were unacceptable, implicitly placing Reid's job on the line if he couldn't deliver changes.

My impression is that overall, that message never sunk in for Reid. I don't blame him entirely. 14 years is a long time to stay in any job, and a certain sense of complacency likely developed. Behind closed doors, considering their friendship, Lurie probably conveyed the ultimatum in the most apologetic and equivocal manner possible. Moreover, the person most likely pushing for a Reid exit, Joe Banner, was instead the one who left. 

So while I doubt Reid needed anyone to tell him the problems Castillo had last season, he only half-heartedly tried to replace him. There were rumors about the job being offered to Steve Spagnuolo and others, but Reid could have found someone to replace Castillo if he really felt it was essential. After all, he could have made Todd Bowles that replacement in the offseason.

Instead, Reid kept Castillo and tried to fill in around him. He added talented young defenders in the early rounds of the draft, traded for a top-notch middle linebacker, and brought Bowles on as shadow-coordinator. Without feeling the urgency of his job on the line, Reid convinced himself that those moves were adequate. And through the  early part of this season, he could find reasons to believe that.

The defense, overall, wasn't the Eagles' biggest problem through 5 games and 3 quarters. There were too many turnovers. The offensive line, because of injuries and no depth, was awful. Play-calling was an issue, too. Special teams difficulties exposed Bobby April as not being the genius coach everyone expected.

With five minutes left in Sunday's game, I bet Reid was feeling relatively optimistic. The team was poised to go 4-2 into the bye, having survived early struggles. The idea that his job is one the line was undoubtedly far from his mind. But things can change quickly. My hypothesis is that Reid took that late-game collapse harder than anyone. Suddenly, staring down the barrel of 3-3, 2011's issues didn't look so far away, and finishing 8-8 again and losing his job suddenly loomed large.

You could see this idea play out in Reid's press conference yesterday, when he said:

"I thought we were making progress, I saw us making progress. We made progress through the last four games. I kinda liked the direction we were going. I thought we started off pretty good, and then I started seeing some trends come back that I wasn't real happy about. So I just wanted to make sure that we — I'm not going to go into detail on it, but there were just things that I saw that I didn't want to go in that direction."

Where complacency had reigned, desperation and determination set in. There is no margin of error for Reid this time, and he finally realized that. Firing Castillo doesn't fix every problem the Eagles have. Not even close. But it was the biggest change Reid could make overnight -- and it sent a strong message to the rest of the organization, coaches and players alike.

Castillo wasn't a scapegoat, he was a warning shot. The move said, "I'm willing to admit, for the first time, that I made a major mistake in hiring, and then retaining, Juan. That's on me. But everyone else better be on notice. Because if I can fire Juan, I can and will fire you too if you don't perform. I may go down this year, but I certainly am not going to hold anything back."

Too Little, Too Late?

Reuben Frank:​

According to a source, Andy called Juan into his office this morning and dismissed him. Juan will no longer be with the team in any capacity

​More to come on this, obviously.

Safeties Stepping Up

Mike Tanier, over at his new home Sports on Earth, has a quick look at one Eagles defensive change at halftime designed to inhibit the Ravens' tight end-centered attack. Interestingly, Juan Castillo apparently didn't order the change, but rather it was the defensive backs acting on their own (or perhaps under the authority of shadow-coordinator Todd Bowles). Check it out.