San Diego Union-Tribune NFL writer Kevin Acee is reporting that an offseason coach/GM game of musical chairs will end up with Steve Spagnuolo as the Eagles defensive coordinator next season. Here's how it will work according to the Acee:
The Chargers will fire GM AJ Smith and the Rams will clean house firing both GM Billy Devaney and coach Steve Spagnuolo. The Rams will hire Smith as their new GM, who will then hire Jon Gruden as his head coach. Acee says that Gruden has already decided to return to coaching next season and that ESPN is already planning for his departure from the Monday Night Football booth. Spagnuolo will then head to Philadelphia to run the Eagles defense.
League sources also said this week that it is all but certain that Spagnuolo will join Andy Reid's staff in Philadelphia as the Eagles' defensive coordinator.
Now, who knows how much of this is speculation and how much is truth? My guess is that it's more the former (if not all), but it does make logical sense. While it is certainly true that Juan Castillo's defense has shown remarkable improvement over the last several games and maybe that means he's got a bright future as a coordinator... but Spags would represent an opportunity to bring in a proven commodity, a guy Andy Reid knows, and a guy that has the ability to recreate the Jim Johnson defense that was successful here for a decade.
While Spagnuolo has been a pretty terrible head coach, there's no denying the job he did with the Giants defense in the year they won the Superbowl. And as we know, he spent 7 years in Philadelphia under Reid and Johnson. He's not likely to get another head coaching job right now, so if he's looking for a coordinator job next year, it only makes sense that there would be mutual interest.