In wake of the Eagles making me sad and the fact that I likely won't get to watch Derrick Rose make a bid for a second MVP this year, its been a depressing year for sports for me already.

While I was sitting back working on a medical assignment from class, I decided to take a break and rethink the Castillo signing. Needless to say what I still think about the move. But it got me thinking about something. What if BGN were a pool of coaches and I was a GM?

So just to take our mind off of our massively underachieving team and its inept coaching staff for a minute, we gonna choose our own coaches.

Each person who wants is gonna cast a name for a specific coaching position for the Philadelphia Eagles. But they can only be from this site. (For example: Head Coach--JasonB). We are gonna combine some of the positions into one so we don't struggle too much with deciding names. The positions are all the following:

Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator, Defensive Coordinator, WR/TE coach, OL coach, RB/FB coach, DL coach, LB coach, Secondary Coach, Special Teams Coordinator.

So yeah you can cast 10 names all together. If one name ties two positions (for example: JimmyK is tied as both the OL coach and the DL coach) that person will decide which position they would prefer and the runner up for the position that they did not choose will be named to that position. Oh, and you CANNOT cast yourself for a position because I can already picture everyone casting a vote for themselves as HC and I will never be able to decide one. Plus, you're job is to picture yourself as the GM anyways.

Sometime Saturday night or early Sunday morning (possibly with help from Jason and Jimmy) I will tally up all the names and votes and reveal the the BGN coaching roster prior to our sunday night game against the Giants. I'm a little bit of a busy man during the weekdays so I'll do the best I can to keep up with it during then, but come the weekend it should be a lot easier. Just please try to keep the switches to a minimum if you can.

If you don't want to be apart of it, that's your prerogative, I only mean this to be as something kind of fun in such a dull NFL season for the Eagles. Plus, it'll be interesting to see what members think of each other for certain positions since there are so many of us and so few positions (hopefully I'm not setting up a ticking time bomb).

The floor is yours from here on for whoever wants apart of it. Enjoy yourselves.

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How could it go wrong? Every major defensive signing you could think of. One of the best shut down corners of the decade opposite of our very own pick machine with a former Pro Bowl player playing slot. Then, the resurrected former first round bust following a position who knew about getting to the QB combined with our own stalwart pass rusher and add in another DT who knew how to get to the QB. A second round FS who looked good early on in the previous year coupled with the 2nd round safety who knew how to use the hit-stick. On paper, the defense looked stout. Like there was very little much you could do against it rather than hope to play catch up.

11 Passing TDs, 701 Rushing Yards, 5 Rushing TDs, and 3 INTs later, this defense has been anything, but what we've expected. Many want to point the finger at Juan Castillo and understandably so. However, I prefer to point the finger at someone who has as of late, made worse decisions.....Andy Reid.

Now let me start off by saying I'm not here to call Reid a terrible coach. I will be honest, I never really though much of Reid, especially as the years went along. I always thought his methods seemed more or less unorthodox, but, we were successful so I couldn't complain. But, ever since the passing of JJ, Reid has had more of a say in what happens with the defense. And there is where my problems with Reid lie.

I always thought Reid was short sided on how important it is to pick your defensive players and coaches right. Such as naming Bill Shuey, a former offensive quality control assistant, to LB coach. Or Rory Segrest, a guy who underachieved with the special teams, to DL coach. When Reid proceeded to turn loose those guys along with the firing of the underwhelming Sean McDermott, I thought maybe, Reid was gonna step outside his comfort zone and go for a guy he who was on the rise. Boy, was I as wrong as I have ever been.After hearing names such as Ray Horton, Dean Pees, Dick Jauron, Winston Moss, and Bob Babich tossed around the rumor mill, we selected our defensive coordinator......Juan Castillo, our OL coach.

I don't care  who you are. There couldn't have been a person in the world who didn't scratch their head or raise and eyebrow to that move. But after watching some youtube inspirational videos, reading some positive reports, and some self denial, many of us became content with the move. Especially after the signing of big names Jason Babin, Cullen Jenkins, DRC (who we acquired through trade), and of course Nnamdi Asomugha and running a simplistic defense, how could anyone find a way to screw it up? Ask Juan and more importantly, ask Reid.

I want to find it in me to blame Castillo, and it is obvious he needs to go. But I can't blame him as much because its a position that he never should have acquired in the first place, whether he wanted it or not. But somehow, Reid saw something in him that made him select Juan above anyone else he could think of. But this is just one of the many mistakes that Reid has made when it came down to defense.

Earlier this year, we selected a LB out of Oregon named Casey Matthews. Matthews came from a long line of great football players (I don't need to list them). Many analysts had him pegged as a player who could contribute at the most on special teams early and after years of learning from others, could possibly find himself in a starters position. But once again, Reid fooled himself. He decided for reasons beyond me (along with his "DC") that Matthews deserved to have the starting MIKE position. No competition, no learning the playbook, no hitting practices, just that he deserved it simply because he has that "IT" (whatever the hell that is). Now everyone one knew that LB was gonna be a weak position because it perennially, it always is. So you would think that Reid would address a young position with a coach who was experienced enough to really make these players succeed. But no, he just promotes his assistant LB coach to overall LB coach. 5 weeks later, we've allowed 5 straight 100+ yard rushing games, our "IT" boy is on the bench, and coaches let us know they are gonna go straight at that group.

Another questionable move Reid made was the one regarding bringing in Jim Washburn. Now before anyone gets on me about hating the Wide 9, don't. I love the Wide 9. I think it's a great scheme and allows your DEs to focus on what they are suppose to do, get to the QB. But Reid's refusal to address the LB position stood out more than ever. When your DL rushes up field, you need to have LBs that can shed blocks and make plays. To everyone, that was a given. Everyone except Reid. Reid's philosophy seems to be "You rush the passer with the line, and cover with the CBs." Well that's good in theory, but when you run certain schemes, you have to be able to account for the weaknesses. Reid didn't (or didn't want to). I heard awhile back ago and announcer say when he talked to Reid, he said "Our plan is to prevent big plays from happening through the air. If we give up some rushing yards, we'll live with that." 701 rushing yards later, are you still sure? Apparently he forgot about the Play Action Pass. When you give up rushing yards you make that defense scoot up and react to the run more heavily, and when that's done, it opens up the passing lanes. And guess what else it makes your team have to face lots of? Screen and shovel passes. Many of which have been run successfully against us. Its like he expected the Wide 9 to just solve all of our upfront troubles and that the DL would be able to stop the run and the pass.

And the worst part, that isn't even the worst part about Reid's defensive ignorance.

Over the years we've watched our defensive draft picks come and go (I've brought this up a couple times in comments). I don't understand our picks and who picks them, but they do lead to one conclusion. Reid doesn't need to ever selected another defensive draft pick without some consulting.

In 2006, Reid selected 4 defensive draft picks: Bunkley, Gocong, Gaither, and Ramsey. Of that group, not one player is still on this roster. Bunkley was recently traded to Denver after never living up to his first round status, Gocong was a failed experiment by Reid who opted to change his positions, Gaither who was to be Trotter's successor till we saw how soft he was, and Ramsey who appeared in 9 games for the Eagles, but never panned out for us or anyone else after that.

In 2007, Reid selected another 4 defensive draft picks: Abiamiri, Bradley, Gaddis, and Barksdale. Of that group, only 1 remains, Abiamiri (somehow). Bradley (who looked like an up and comer after taking over the MLB position) suffered multiple injuries and never became quite himself again and now is struggling in AZ.

In 2008, Reid selected 6 defensive draft picks: Laws, Smith, Demps, Ikegwuonu, Mays, and Studebaker. Of those guys drafted only Laws remains. Smith (who was a questionable pick from the the start) turned out to be a failed experiment on account of Reid, Ikegwuonu (who was another questionable pick because of the suffered torn ACL prior to the draft) never saw the field as an Eagle, Mays who was to be a fill in for Bradley when he got injured but turned out to be a disappointment is now finding some success in Denver, Studebaker who was waived by us early and has gone on to find himself a home in KC, and Demps........you know the story. I don't even wanna talk about that.

In 2009, Reid selected 2 defensive draft picks: Harris and Fokou. Only Fokou remains. Harris would become our starting FS (even though he never played safety before), but never found success and would be released the next year.

In 2010, Reid selected a whopping 9 defensive draft picks: Graham, Allen, Te'o-Nesheim, Lindley, Clayton, Sapp, Chaney, Owens, and Coleman. Graham currently finds himself on the PUP list until after the bye week, Allen would get of to a hot start his rookie year then regress as the year went on eventually tearing his patella tendon. He would come back this year, but lost his starting spot at first to Coleman, but eventually regained the spot yet still underachieving from his hot start (even though he did play ok last game), DTN who currently is on the practice squad after surprisingly being picked so early, Lindley who never seemed to return to his first round form his junior year at Kentucky, Clayton who has found his niche as a rotational guy, Sapp who was at one time projected as a first rounder but suffered a torn ACL (his second one) and never panned out for the Eagles, Chaney who at one point in time looked like a player on the up rise who has heavily struggled thus far, Owens who never had a chance to make it due to our depth along the front, and Coleman who many pegged as the second coming of Polamalu but removed their hyno-glasses and realized he's just as mediocre as all of Andy's other defensive draft picks. Of this group, only 5 remain: Graham, Allen, Clayton, Chaney, and Coleman.

So you add that together, in the last 5 years, Reid has selected 25 defensive draft picks. Of the 25, only 8 defensive draft picks remain from those 5 drafts. To make matters worse, take away the 2010 draft and only 3 defensive players remain. Abiamiri, Fokou, and Laws. Hate it or love it, none of those 3 players are even remotely close to a starter on any other team.

It would be one thing if Reid was a hit or miss guy when it came down to the defense, but the way he has missed out on so many draft picks and some of the outlandish things he's allowed to become of the defense is sickening. The defense has become soft, clumsy, fundamentally flawed, and overall just bad. I understand players have to make certain plays, and I understand that players have to do the basic things that they've always done (tackling, reads, shifts, etc.), but to be honest, this when this defense takes the field, they look completely lost. Like they forgot how to play the game. And that goes back to coaching.

As I stated, I would like to use Juan as a scape goat and blame it on him, but that would be too easy. The fact is, Reid put Juan in charge, Reid brought in Washburn and his Wide 9 and told him to make it work, Reid had the say in which players were drafted, Reid wanted the FAs signed to give Juan something to work with, and most of all Reid chose not to step outside his comfort zone to get someone foreign to his staff to help him on his defense.

Therefore, I put the defensive struggles above everyone else on Reid.

I'm finally starting to get back into the thick of things now after I just had a brand new baby boy. His name is Caylim Jarrell Echols. Remember that name because in 21 years he's gonna be a 1st round draft pick for Philadelphia Eagles to man the MLB spot. (I kid....but I digress). 

I'm kind of here to pretty much preach my thoughts on the LBs since everyone knows that's one of my prime best positions and my favorite at that. Also, I promised wild_eagle I would give him my thoughts on the LBs for this year so here we go after the jump.

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Haven't made a fanpost in months

O.K., so well all know the story and how cookie crumbled. Rose has no help, forced to make something happen, doesn't work against triple teams, Heat take over, yada, yada, yada. I'm of course beating a dead horse by saying we need a secondary scorer. It's a broken record at this point.

So to keep it kind of short, if you had the choice as to pick who your ideal (or top 3) choice for our shooting guard....who would it be? As of late the names heard round web have us tied to names such as Mayo, Lee, Richardson, Hamilton, and Gordon and many other including the recent rising rumor of Monta Ellis. So I guess I'll start it off with my top 3 and why:

1) Andre Iguodala- I think I've made this clear by now that I would love to see him next to Rose. The biggest knock on him seems to be the fact that some don't think he is a SG and his outside shooting being bad (even though I would consider it more mediocre than bad because his numbers are up there with Kobe's, Roy's, Ellis', Wade's, and Johnson's...somewhat). First, he is a SG that can play SF. His physical abilities and athleticism allow him to be able to play SF. I don't have the space for it, but here is the Liberty Ballers website take on it

http://www.libertyballers.com/2010/5/12/1464627/andre-iguodala-the-shooting-guard

As for the shooting, I don't think he is a bad shooter, just mediocre. But considering everything else he does, he makes up for it. He is one of the best rebounding shooting guards, he is a great distributor (led all SGs in assists this year and in the post season including being in the top 5 this postseason), is one of the top fast break players, a ferocious finisher, maybe the best defensive player at the 2 guard position (he shutdown Joe Johnson, Kobe, Ellis, Manu, and Martin at points during the year), he's tough, and most of all he plays with heart. I am a firm believer that he is a consistent jump-shot away from being considered elite. I think he was just thrown into the fire when Iverson was traded because he was the best player and they expected him to just become an All-Star. Yet while lacking a complete game, he still managed to lead a talentless Sixers team to the playoffs 3 times as the leader. Not only would Rose get someone to help him on fastbreaks, scoring in the paint, and alley-oops, but our defense wouldn't miss a beat with Iggy (probably even get better).

2) JR Smith- People keep bringing up the same arguments about him..."He is a headcase" and "He is a shot chucker." Let me start off with the first one. He is a headcase. The so far cast of people he has had to look up to are Iverson (who mind you might have been the biggest headcase and have the biggest ego in this era of basketball) and Melo. Now, I really do like Melo. He is one of my favorite players, but at the same time, he wasn't exactly a picture of enthusiasm and leader that one might believe (if he somehow led you to believe that). It's pretty obvious, his ego is just as big as any player's in the NBA. Now add in George Karl who doesn't mind consistently throwing players under the bus, especially JR such as here or even here. Now maybe the first one was deserved, but you don't publicly throw you players out there to the lions like that. Take all those factors together and you have.....a headcase. As far as the shot chucking goes, I think that is apart of him not having respect for Karl and Karl not having respect for him. So he (and it seems like every other player there) just go out there and play to make themselves look good rather than to play as a team. I went over Denver Stiffs for awhile and you'd be surprised at how many want to keep JR. I would say that the support is about 70%/30% in favor of resigning him. What's even more surprising is how many want Karl fired. I would say the support their is about 50/50. So if Karl can even get his own star players, bench players, and fans to buy into him......starting to see the puzzle pieces come together.

Now onto the good about JR. He is a highlight reel player. He can shoot the three with the best of them, can finish at the rim, is another tough player who will dunk down someone's throat, has size, is very athletic himself, and is good at assisting in his own right. Plus, we could use a goon on the court every now and then because it seems like a lot of times when we got complacent and soft (especially in the playoffs) when Rose and Noah weren't providing energy. As far as defense goes, I think I would be willing to gamble that Thibs' can make him into a better defensive player. JR wants to be a star and this is probably his best opportunity at reaching that status especially with someone like Thibs coaching him and Rose supporting him. He wouldn't have to be a leader, just a team player which I think he can be in the Bulls thanks to guys like Rose, Noah, Deng, and Thibs.

3) Leandro Barbosa- Other than his wrist injury, I don't know why his name hasn't been brought up more. According to many posts, articles, and comments I've read about Barbosa, he is a great offensive player and is underrated on defense. He can create his own shot, can shoot the lights out, can finish at the rim, and is one of the fastest players in the NBA (Fast don't lie, indeed). The fact that he has been a bench player all his years might turn some away, but for the most part all of our SGs are bench players and Barbosa is more talented than all of them. I can't say I know a vast amount about him since I haven't really seen all that much of him other than a few games and those games against us. I can honestly say he didn't really play to bad in those games (except against us....but come on, its our defense). The only reserves I have about him are his injuries and maybe him being slightly undersized. Otherwise, I need to look more into him, but from what I have seen, I'm pretty impressed. Plus, playing next to Rose can't make him any worse. We get the spot up shooter, shot creator, and possible defender we are looking for. Plus, Thibs worked magic on a slightly undersized Ray Allen, maybe he can make Barbosa our Ray Allen. Oh....and no character issues in site for him.

Those are my top picks. I more than expect to hear the common names such as Mayo, Lee, Afflalo, Richardson, Hamilton, BG7, and maybe even Rush from people. So provide your top 3 and provide your reasons why and see what responses you get back (I didn't know exactly what words to use to close this so bear with me).......