Reid's decision makes no sense

DALLAS - At first, the news seemed ridiculous. Juan Castillo would be the Eagles' new defensive coordinator? Must be a mistake.

Upon further reflection, and after hearing Andy Reid's explanation for the decision, the move makes even less sense. Indeed, the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. Every attempt to understand it just raises more questions.

Reid wants to give an opportunity to one of his loyal assistants as a reward for his years of intense hard work. But didn't he just do that with Sean McDermott? After the death of Jim Johnson two years ago, Reid could have gone out and found an established, qualified replacement. He stayed in-house, took a flyer on McDermott, and wound up crashing hard.

Lesson: Working hard isn't always enough. Being a loyal guy isn't always enough. Experience and ability matter, too.

We're now being told Castillo helped the defensive coaches. How is that a good thing? Didn't Reid just clean house on that side of the ball, and for cause? The defense wasn't very good.

This isn't the first time Reid has granted an assistant a job change in order to burnish his resumé. He did it for John Harbaugh a few years ago and Harbaugh is now a very good head coach in Baltimore. But Harbaugh went from special-teams coach - a coordinator-level job - to defensive-backs coach. He accepted less responsibility in order to work under Johnson and master a new area.

Castillo was a linebacker in college and in the old USFL. He was able to make himself into a good NFL offensive-line coach through hard work, smarts, football acumen, and people skills. There's no reason to think he couldn't transform himself into a good defensive coach the same way. If Reid had made him the linebackers coach and let him marinate in defensive strategy for a few years, that would have been unusual but hardly stunning.

This is stunning. This is unprecedented. Someone pointed out that Mike Nolan moved from wide-receivers coach to defensive coordinator in Baltimore in 2002. But Nolan had been a defensive coach, including a coordinator, for most of his career.

Reid compared the move to Mike Holmgren's trust in him during their tenure in Green Bay. But Reid was moved from tight-ends coach to quarterbacks coach. There were two people above him on the offensive staff, Holmgren and coordinator Sherman Lewis. Holmgren didn't give Reid a supervisory job that required him to do a bunch of tasks he'd never done before.