Steve Spagnuolo

This originally appeared yesterday in a Daily News Eagletarian blog by Les Bowen.   STILL MULLING the fallout from Tuesday's Andyfest I must have been a little less excited about the Steve Spagnuolo revelation than some folks were. It was exactly what most of us figured must have happened. I think the Eagles knew from the get-go that Spagnuolo, given a choice, would prefer something in a new city with a no-doubt, slam-dunk top contender. Remember, Spags and Andy share the same agent, Bob LaMonte.

Andy Reid offered Steve Spagnuolo a spot on his coaching staff, the Eagles coach said Tuesday, adding a rare revelation to a news conference announcing what was otherwise well known - that Juan Castillo would return as defensive coordinator. But Reid would not say what job he offered Spagnuolo and how it would have affected Castillo if Spagnuolo had accepted. "My feeling was that we could have two great coaches on defense. That's even better than just having one," Reid said during a 49-minute news conference that served as an analysis of a disappointing season and an endorsement of Castillo.

ANDY REID talked for 48 minutes and 23 seconds yesterday, and we still can't say we know for sure why it took a month after the season ended to announce Juan Castillo was coming back as defensive coordinator, or for Reid to opine that the combination of too many turnovers on offense and "moving parts" on defense doomed the Eagles to an impossibly slow start. We did learn that Reid tried to hire Steve Spagnuolo for some sort of unspecified role that apparently would not have entailed Castillo losing the coordinator title.

IF THIS THING is to get turned around by Andy Reid in his 14th season as the Eagles' head coach, the answers lay in the ashes of the first five games of his 13th season. It sounds as if that has been the focus of Reid's last month. Steve Spagnuolo? No Steve Spagnuolo? Yeah, there was that, too. It makes for interesting conversation, and it made for an interesting press conference yesterday as Reid acknowledged he offered the former St. Louis Rams coach a position on his defensive staff earlier this month but then wouldn't say what position he offered.

Exactly four weeks after owner Jeffrey Lurie told everyone that Juan Castillo was far from Andy Reid's first choice to lead the defense in 2011, Reid finally found the podium himself and confirmed he didn't get his guy for 2012, either. He's sticking with Castillo again because Steve Spagnuolo turned down an open-ended job offer from Reid, preferring to become the defensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints. Reid didn't come out and say Spagnuolo would have definitely demanded to be atop the defensive organizational chart, but if that had been the case, it would have happened.

When Andy Reid was hired to coach the Eagles, he helped Juan Castillo preserve his career in Philadelphia. Now that he has done it again, keeping Castillo on as defensive coordinator, Reid is hoping that Castillo can return the favor and help keep the head coach firmly ensconced at the NovaCare Complex. Reid, facing a make-or-break season in 2012, is bringing back the longtime offensive line coach whose early struggles as defensive coordinator (along with offensive turnovers)

INDIANAPOLIS - Ending weeks of speculation, the Eagles hired Todd Bowles to be their defensive backs coach. But the more important tidbit to emerge from Monday's news - first reported by The Inquirer - was not that the Eagles were adding a veteran secondary coach to their staff. It was that hiring Bowles "finalized their 2012 coaching staff," according to the team's release. Read: Juan Castillo is coming back for a second season as defensive coordinator. For weeks, Eagles fans and the media worked themselves into a froth wondering what would become of the embattled Castillo, who had not received a word of support from Andy Reid because the coach was not going to speak until after he had finalized his staff.

HALL OF FAME cornerback Darrell Green played with both Juan Castillo and Todd Bowles. Green said yesterday he thinks they will work together well on the Eagles' defensive staff. "I think Todd will bring great value to an underachieving secondary," said Green, a Redskins great. "This may be the missing link, from a defensive standpoint. These are two good people. These guys have worked their butts off, and I pray nobody tries to pit them against each other. That wouldn't be fair to either of them.

Practice for the Senior Bowl began Monday, and NFL coaches and scouts gathered once again in godforsaken Mobile, Ala., to pretend they can divine something about the current crop of potential draft picks that four years of videotape couldn't already tell them. Some of these players won't take part in the February scouting combine, and this might be the only chance to see them work out live and, well, everyone else is doing it. So, off they go with their clipboards and their stopwatches and their stubborn belief that the only way to beat the next guy is to put in one more hour than he does.

FAIRHOPE, Ala. - Juan Castillo is still a member of the Eagles coaching staff. Whether he's still the team's defensive coordinator even he couldn't say. "You got to go through Andy," Castillo said, deferring to head coach Andy Reid. "I'm just working," he added, explaining his presence at Senior Bowl practice on Monday. Castillo, making his first public comments since before the end of the season, was simply following protocol when he declined to comment on his current status with the Eagles.