While the headlines from Eagles Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie's press conference will focus on the announcement that Andy Reid will remain the team's head coach for his 14th season, Lurie also addressed a few other issues related to the shape of Reid's coaching staff moving forward. Of note, Lurie said that any decisions regarding the staff, specifically the status of defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, are up to Reid.
"That's up to Andy," Lurie said. "We've had long discussions about player personnel staff and everything. That's Andy's area, and I think he'll make the best judgment of that. I think he'll be addressing you guys soon on that. I have full confidence that he will make the right decisions there.
"You know it's a constant discussion, but I think one of the important things, and it's important in our locker room, is for Andy to have the final say. I want our players to understand that he's responsible for selecting his staff. If I had to tell Andy Reid what to do for offensive or defensive coordinator or something like that I have the wrong coach. I just have the wrong coach if I didn't trust his judgment. If he's wrong then circumstances happen, but I have faith that next year we will have a far superior year to this year. And we have great upside."
Castillo, of course, had not coached on the defensive side of the ball in the NFL before he was named defensive coordinator last year. Because of the work stoppage, Castillo and the Eagles were not able to implement their new scheme until the players arrived for training camp in August. The Eagles then allowed 26.4 points per game over their first five games of the season, during which they went 1-4. That's contrasted to the final four games, when the Eagles allowed only 11.5 points per game, all wins.
"I think maybe there was a miscalculation in terms of implementing big-scheme changes in a lockout situation," said Lurie. "To me I don't know why, I would have thought we would have been able to during the abbreviated training camp and preseason to adapt to some of those schematic changes, they were bold changes. But clearly the team was not gelling and maximizing those scheme changes in the first half of the year ... So I would hold everybody accountable that's responsible for the scheme changes, yet there's a payoff once it takes effect and you gel and have it. So I think we saw tremendous benefits in the two lines, offensive and defensive as the season went on and we will benefit from that as we go forward. But the first half of the season, it's just ridiculously unacceptable to have a fourth quarter lead and blow all of those games. And if we just blew one less game we'd be playing Atlanta next week. So that's where it's at."
"You know, the process was very different in reality. What Andy did is he made – and I can't speak for him, but I know in our discussions that he made a list of all of the top people that he was looking at to replace [former defensive coordinator] Sean McDermott as defensive coordinator. And things happen, circumstances happen, and if changes don't happen on other teams than certain coaches aren't available and he became very, very interested in Juan because he knew what he could accomplish; whether he could accomplish it fast enough is an interesting question and he didn't, the whole team didn't, in terms of early in the season. The second half of the season, you know what was it a [5-2] record and regardless of the competition you're playing. So I think when you analyze any decision of who's going to coach that there's a lot of hidden background in terms of where did that decision come from, the reason for it, what was the search process, who was truly available, and then move forward. And look, with Juan Castillo I will just say anyone who's known this man for 17, 18 years as we all have, incredibly impressive man, incredible family, incredible coach. And was he put into a situation where he couldn't succeed early in the season? That's for us all to have answers to; it was a difficult process. So that's a long-winded answer to say I have a lot of respect for Juan but it's a complicated process when you're going through that."
As for elsewhere in the Eagles' front-office, Lurie confirmed that general manager Howie Roseman and team president Joe Banner will retain their roles, answering "absolutely" when asked about Roseman specifically. When questioned about the team's performance in the draft in recent years, Lurie said that, in many cases, it's too soon to full evaluate.
"I think the analysis is complicated," he said. "You know, we've had a pretty good defense and we've had a lot of veteran players we've brought in that have been very successful that probably overplayed the draft choices. So I think if you look back just two years on defense, I know Andy and this team is very excited about (defensive end) Brandon Graham having a healthy offseason and should be a top-tier pass rusher, but we brought in a top-tier pass rusher (in Jason Babin) because we didn't think Brandon was necessarily going to be healthy this year. So you know, in today's NFL it's a combination of draft, free agency, whatever, every aspect has to be analyzed by everyone in terms of internally, and it's putting the pieces together."
