As expected, the St. Louis Rams have officially fired head coach Steve Spagnuolo, who guided the Rams to just two victories in his third season as the team’s head coach.
Lots of speculation has risen over the future of Spagnuolo, who will likely be hired as a defensive coordinator somewhere, instead of a head coach.
A report circulated out of the San Diego area last week that the Rams would fire Spagnuolo and Jon Gruden would come out of retirement at ESPN to accept the Rams’ head coaching position. Then the Eagles would fire defensive coordinator Juan Castillo and Spagnuolo would join the Eagles as their defensive coordinator. This report has been rebuked a number of times, notably by ESPN, who says that Gruden isn’t leaving for the Rams’ job next season.
But as Eagles fans, we really don’t care whether Gruden takes the Rams’ head coaching position. We care that Spagnuolo is now available.
So will he really be joining the Eagles for the 2012 season?
First, the Eagles have to fire Castillo. I’d give that a 50-50 of happening. If they did fire him, he’d probably leave the staff because current offensive line coach Howard Mudd says he is returning for the 2012 season, and it’s obvious that Mudd has had more of an impact on the offensive line than Castillo ever did.
So Castillo is gone. A defensive coordinator position opens up. Andy Reid won’t make the same mistake twice. He’s not going to promote quarterbacks coach Doug Pederson or tight ends coach Tom Melvin to be the new defensive coordinator.
No, it’s going to be a guy who has actually coached the defensive side of the ball before. So why not Spagnuolo?
He coached with the Eagles from 1999 to 2006, so he is familiar with Andy Reid. He has had tremendous success as a defensive coordinator, leading the Giants to an upset victory over the previously undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
I think he’d choose a winning organization like Philadelphia over somewhere else. He’s also got to like the fact that the Eagles have tremendous individual talent on the defensive side of the ball. Players like Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Cullen Jenkins, Jason Babin, and Trent Cole would be any coach’s dream.
With an experienced and intelligent defensive coordinator like Steve Spagnuolo, the Eagles would be competing for the Super Bowl title in the 2012 season.
Will Spags actually join? We don’t know yet.
But I say yes.
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