The Eagles have a new defensive coordinator: Juan Castillo, their offensive line coach. Castillo apparently hasn't coached defense in over 20 years, and that was at the high school level. He did coach front seven at Texas A&M-Kingsville 1982-85. He's been with the Eagles since 1995.
↵Castillo has clearly been highly regarded on the Eagles staff, as Vikings coach and former Eagles staffer Leslie Frazier affirms:
↵↵↵"I have a strong affinity for Juan going back to our days spent together in Philadelphia," Frazier said, according to the Eagles' website. "I can remember Jim Johnson and our defensive staff putting our game plans together and we'd always get together with Juan just to make sure they were sound in terms of pressures and blitzes. Sometimes, I felt like he was on our defensive staff."
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It's still a curious move, and it will be interesting to see whether he can bring that unit back to their former level. The Eagles had one of the most fearsome defenses in the NFL for years under Jim Johnson but dropped off the past two seasons under Sean McDermott. They were still 12th in yards against in 2010, but just 21st in point allowed.
↵To replace Castillo the Eagles hired Howard Mudd, who built a dominant unit in Indianapolis. This is a bit of a scary hire from the Cowboys' perspective. The Eagles struggled at times on the line, and when they didn't the offense dominated.
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