Philadelphia Eagles Mercifully Put Juan Castillo Out of His Misery

The Philadelphia Eagles should be dominating their division right now. The Dallas Cowboys lack the coaching, offensive line and general stability necessary for success. The Washington Redskins are a squad on the come up, but they are too young to really make noise at this point. The New York Giants don’t start working hard until Week 12 at the soonest.

In theory, Philly is in perfect position to control the NFC East.

Unfortunately, between their chronically underachieving defense, porous offensive line and inconsistent quarterback – the Eagles have been doing a whole lot of nothing this year, too. Following last weekend’s loss to the Detroit Lions, Andy Reid came out and said that Michael Vick would remain his starting quarterback. So that was set. But something obviously needed to change. That something? The defense coordinator, apparently.

On Tuesday, the team announced that they were parting ways with Juan Castillo and replacing him with Todd Bowles.

"I want to make it clear that I have nothing but the ultimate respect for Juan Castillo as a coach and as a person. He's one of the finest football coaches that I have ever worked with. He has served this organization extremely well for 18 years and letting him go was a difficult decision. I know he will continue to be a successful coach in this league and wish he and his family nothing but the best," Reid said in a statement.

"We're six games into the season and average isn't good enough. I know the potential of our team and insist on maximizing it."

This move was inevitable. Even if Philly hadn’t blown a 10-point fourth quarter lead this past weekend, Castillo would have been shown the door at the end of the season no matter what. He was never a good fit for the position, and his innate ability to turn lemonade back into lemons had become a thing of legend.

Will this completely solve all of the Eagles’ problems? No. The offensive line is still a point of concern. Ditto for Vick’s inconsistency. But this is definitely a step in the right direction.

(Kudos ESPN)