Eagles Should Still Consider Adding Joyner to Staff

Written By Bob Cunningham On Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Head coach Andy Reid recently decided to fill the void at linebackers coach by promoting last year's assistant linebackers coach Mike Caldwell. Reid also promoted defensive quality-control coach Mike Zordich to secondary/safeties coach.

By my count, that leaves at least two positions open the team must fill. So instead of filling them with some no-name guy who will be learning the game on the fly, why not bring in former Eagles great Seth Joyner, who has shown interest in joining the staff?

"If granted the opportunity, I would love to come back to Philly to coach and pass on my linebacking knowledge to this good group of young Eagles LBs," Joyner told me back in late January.

Joyner also went on 610-WIP to tell Angelo Cataldi and his crew why he believes he could pull off being an NFL coach despite no prior experience.

"I might not have coached on the pro level. I might not have coached on the collegiate level, but I played football for 13 years," Joyner said. "That is my experience. From an X's and O's standpoint, anyone can learn X's and O's. I can teach anyone the game from an X's and O's standpoint. And I can learn any defense because I played in every single defense.

I played for Bud Carson. I played for Buddy Ryan. I played for Fritz Shurmur. I played under Wade Phillips. Wade Phillips had a lot to do with my development as a linebacker. I played for Jeff Fisher. He was my linebackers coach for two years.

I played under some of the greatest minds that the NFL has ever seen. And what they've done is they've taken their wisdom and their knowledge and planted it inside of me and showed me how to play the game."

Joyner then goes on to talk some basics of the game and, if you haven't heard it yet, it's definitely worth a listen. You can hear the intensity and the knowledge when the man opens his mouth, and his experience would be invaluable to a linebacking corps that is very young and very raw.

One former player in Caldwell coaching them up is a big step in the right direction, but bringing in an All-Pro guy like Joyner could really push this group over the hump.

At worst, Reid should consider bringing him in as a coaching intern. He did the same thing with Duce Staley and it clearly had a positive effect on LeSean McCoy.

While I believe Juan Castillo can get the job done with this defense, I also believe he is going to need a lot of help from his position coaches. One of the best defensive line coaches in the league to go along with two former players has the makings of a good staff and support group for Castillo, but adding Joyner to help coach the weakest group of the defense could really go a long way.

Or maybe Jon Gruden can do it when he's the head coach.


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