Andy Reid met the media today to introduce his former offensive line coach Juan Castillo as his new defensive coordinator. Andy Reid said the move may seem strange, but he's very confident that Castillo is the man for the job.
"If you talk to the players and coaches around the league, what might seem a little strange is just a very confident move and one that will take our defense to another level. I look forward to that combination of Jim Washburn and Juan Castillo and the rest of the staff that we'll add in the future.
I've seen good defensive coaches, including Jim Johnson, go down to Juan's office to talk to defensive football."
Reid made the point a few times that this was basically a two for one deal. That unless he could get a top guy like Howard Mudd to replace Castillo, he probably wouldn't have made the move.
Castillo said several times that naturally he is "a defensive guy."
If you ask the guys on the front 7, I always told them that I was a defensive guy that was stuck on the offensive side.
Castillo was asked whether he'll be running the same kind of system that Jim Johnson ran. His response was that Jim Washburn is the kind of defensive line coach that gets his guys to attack. So his scheme is going to revolve around supporting the front four and attacking the opposition. His mantra was that the defensive is going to be "fast, physical & fundamentally sound."
Andy also told an interesting story about how Juan Castillo drove up to Green Bay to tell Andy that he wanted to coach for him when it was just rumored that Andy would be named head coach. Juan said he could coach any position on any side of the ball, he just wanted to be part of the staff. Reid also said that on his second day as Eagles coach, Castillo again approached him saying that he wanted to coach for him and that he's said from the beginning that he was a "defensive guy."
Castillo was asked whether this move is a risk for him.
"All my life has been a risk since the time I came out of high school, played in college, and moved to coach offense. My life has always been about proving people wrong. "