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And we're back. Another Tuesday on the NFC East blog, which means I need to stretch my chat muscles so I don't pull anything. Let's get right to the links.

Dallas Cowboys

I wrote Monday about Mike Jenkins staying away from OTAs and assumed he was doing that to make some sort of statement. I was right, as it came out later in the day that he wants to be traded. As Tim MacMahon says, good luck with that, Mike. This isn't like the Asante Samuel situation in Philadelphia, where the Eagles just wanted to dump Samuel's salary and took a seventh-round pick for him. The Cowboys can still use Jenkins, even if he is now the No. 3 corner behind Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne. And given his health issues of the past year and where we are on the 2012 calendar (i.e., after the end of the draft), it's impossible to imagine any team offering them enough to make it worth their while to trade him.

In the ongoing quest to say sillier and sillier things about Tony Romo, the latest apparently is that the Cowboys don't go to the Super Bowl because Romo is not enough like Michael Young, which I guess means he needs to get on base more.

New York Giants

On the topic of Giants players "under pressure" in 2012 -- a topic we discussed here on the blog last week -- Ed Valentine picks wide receiver Ramses Barden, for whom opportunity looms large. Barden will have to hold off Domenik Hixon, Jerrel Jernigan and second-round pick Rueben Randle if he wants that No. 3 wide receiver spot created by the free-agent departure of Mario Manningham. The Giants drafted him thinking he had the tools to do it. The question now is whether he can stay healthy enough and play well enough to take advantage of his chance.

Tom Coughlin is still big in Jacksonville, where he coached the Jaguars before coaching the Giants and where he still holds his annual charity golf tournament. While in town for that, he once again answered questions about his possible retirement by saying it's not even something he's remotely considering.

Philadelphia Eagles

You can blame Juan Castillo and the defense all you like, but the Eagles' coaching staff thinks the biggest problem last year was their 38 turnovers (second most in the league), and they're determined to work with Michael Vick to cut that number down in 2012. Reading this, it sounds as though part of the problem is getting Vick to understand that there is one.

Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg talked about the fine line between leaning on the franchise running back to whom the Eagles just gave a five-year contract and overworking him. LeSean McCoy will only be 28 years old at the end of his new deal, and the Eagles surely can get five good years out of him even if they don't worry about limiting his touches. It will be interesting to see which way they lean.

Washington Redskins

You have to pay attention when you stand on an NFL sideline during practice, and Redskins coach Mike Shanahan unfortunately was looking at the wrong set of drills Monday when a couple of his players slammed into him and knocked him to the ground. "A little woozy" seemed to be the diagnosis, as Shanahan's "toughness" after his knockdown impressed some of his players. Sheesh. It's only the first day of OTAs and already the coach is down. Take it a little slower down there, fellas.

In spite of all he's done as a Redskin, Chris Cooley knows he's in a position this offseason of having to show something. Specifically, he needs to show he's healthy enough to play effectively in a two-tight end formation with Fred Davis. The reports after the first day of OTA practices were encouraging on Cooley.

The 2011 season was not the most, well, beastly season in NFC East history. It was the first time in a full, 16-game season that no team in the division won at least 10 games, and for much of the year the talk around the division was that it wasn't what it used to be.

Buncha baloney if you ask me. Even forgetting for a second that an NFC East team won the Super Bowl, this division still does one very important thing better than any other: rush the passer. The NFC East's 181 sacks led all NFL divisions in 2011, and by quite a bit. (The AFC North, which had three playoff teams, was second with 160). The Eagles tied for the league lead with 50. The Giants tied for third with 48. The Cowboys tied for seventh with 42, and the Redskins tied for 10th with 41.

Look deeper, into the film-based, number-crunching stats from Pro Football Focus -- stats that take into account more than just sacks when evaluating the extent to which teams rushed, hassled and affected opposing quarterbacks, and the division still rules. The Eagles rank No. 1 in PFF's 2011 team rankings, the Cowboys No. 3, the Giants No. 6 and the Redskins No. 9. No division prizes this critical aspect of the game more than the NFC East does, and it shows up in the numbers.

So, as we slug our way through a slow news month in the NFC East, I thought it'd be a good idea to check in on the pass rushes of our four teams and see how they're doing -- what they've done to get better or worse, what their 2012 prospects look like from this far out and yes, how they rank against each other. You guys asked for more polls, and I promised I'd listen, so there's one right here for you to vote on. After you finish reading, of course. I'm addressing them in order of how many sacks they got in 2011, in case you're wondering how I decided. Seemed fair.

Philadelphia Eagles

Key contributors: DE Trent Cole, DE Jason Babin, DT Cullen Jenkins. PFF ranked Cole the No. 1 overall 4-3 defensive end in the league last year. Babin ranked 10th overall and third in pass rush, finishing third in the league with 18 sacks. Jenkins ranked as the No. 4 pass-rushing defensive tackle, and Derek Landri was No. 10. Defensive line coach Jim Washburn and defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, each of whom is entering his second season in his current position with the Eagles, believe the front four is responsible for the pass rush. And while they got a lot of publicity for how wide they like to line up their defensive ends, they like to get pressure from the defensive tackles as well.

Newcomer: DT Fletcher Cox. The Eagles traded up in the first round to pick Cox because they believed he could be an impact pass-rusher from one of those interior spots right away. They need to toughen up against the run, and that will have to be part of Cox's game. But what appealed to them was his ability to get to the passer. Rookie linebacker Mychal Kendricks could conceivably factor in here too, but the Eagles don't ask their linebackers to rush very much in the new scheme.

Stock watch: UP. The addition of Cox, as well as the possible return to full health of Mike Patterson and 2010 first-round pick Brandon Graham, give the Eagles incredible depth at a position at which they were already very strong in 2011. It's possible they'll rush the passer even better in 2012.

New York Giants

Key contributors: DE Jason Pierre-Paul, DE Justin Tuck, DE Osi Umenyiora, DE/LB Mathias Kiwanuka. No one's roster goes as deep as the Giants' does in terms of star-caliber defensive ends. Pierre-Paul was fourth in the league with 16.5 sacks in just his second NFL season. Umenyiora had nine in just nine games. Tuck turned it on at the end and in the playoffs, and Kiwanuka is a defensive end playing linebacker. The Giants believe a strong pass rush is their heritage and their key to being an annual contender.

Newcomer: DT Marvin Austin. The Giants didn't really bring in anyone this offseason who looks like a 2012 pass-rush contributor, but their 2011 second-round pick missed all of last season due to injury, so we'll call him a newcomer. The Giants would like to get more help from inside. Linval Joseph was their best pass-rushing defensive tackle in 2011, according to PFF's rankings. A healthy Austin could be a difference-maker.

Stock watch: DOWN. Not by much, but a little, because of the loss of reliable, underrated reserve DE Dave Tollefson. If Tuck and Umenyiora have injury problems again, or if Umenyiora holds out, they could get kind of thin at defensive end pretty quickly without Tollefson there to fill in this time. Now, this is the Giants, and they'll probably figure it out. The addition of linebacker Keith Rivers could allow them to move Kiwanuka back to end in case of injury. But it's worth pointing out that they did lose a somewhat important piece of the pass rush and didn't replace him.

Dallas Cowboys

Key contributors: LB DeMarcus Ware, LB Anthony Spencer, DE Jason Hatcher, NT Jay Ratliff. There's no one like Ware, who rang up another 19.5 sacks in 2011. That's nearly half the team total, and the conventional wisdom says he needs more help. But PFF ranked Spencer its 11th-best 3-4 outside linebacker in the pass rush and Hatcher as its eighth-best 3-4 pass-rushing defensive end. Add in Ratliff, who can generate pressure up the middle, and the Cowboys look better in this area than we tend to think.

Newcomer: DE Tyrone Crawford. Dallas' third-round pick is looked at by many as a project, but as one that can eventually help with the pass rush whether he ends up as a 3-4 end or standing up as an outside linebacker. Whether he can help in 2012 remains a question, but the Cowboys didn't see a first-round or second-round pass-rusher they liked better than Spencer, so they focused on the secondary instead and picked up some down-the-road guys for the pass rush.

Stock watch: EVEN. They're bringing back basically the same group, and while there's a theory that the improvements at defensive back will help the pass rush by giving it extra time to get sacks, we have yet to see that in action. Spencer must play with more aggressiveness if this unit is to take a step forward into the upper tier with the Eagles and Giants.

Washington Redskins

Key contributors: LB Brian Orakpo, LB Ryan Kerrigan, DE Stephen Bowen. The Redskins' pass rush is all about those young outside linebackers, and they are fearsome. But with only 16.5 sacks between them in 2011, their numbers have a ways to go to get into the big-time stratosphere we're talking about in the NFC East. PFF did rank Orakpo fifth and Kerrigan ninth among pass-rushing 3-4 OLBs in 2011, so they do a lot of things well in that area. Bowen had six sacks and DE Adam Carriker came up with 5.5.

Newcomer: DE Jarvis Jenkins. Just as we did with the Giants, we'll go with a 2011 second-round pick who missed his rookie season due to injury. Jenkins may not be a pass-rusher, but adding him to the defensive line rotation could help free up more room for the linebackers and maybe help the other linemen get to the passer more often as well.

Stock watch: EVEN. This is really all about how much and how quickly Orakpo and especially Kerrigan continue to develop as elite pass-rushers. They've both shown flashes of incredible raw ability, and they have to continue to hone their craft so they can play at the level of the other pass-rushers in their division. Ware, Cole, Pierre-Paul and the rest of these guys are setting a high bar, and the Redskins know they have to have their own pass-rush monsters if they want to hang with them year in and year out.

Good morning to all, and welcome to another week on the NFC East blog. The rookie minicamps are over, the regular ones about a month away, but the weekend saw a little bit of newsworthy action here and there, and so we'll get you right to your links.

Dallas Cowboys

Calvin Watkins writes that, while the Cowboys' defense was bad in 2011, it was much better than it was in 2010. Which ... fine. But if someone were to sit down and explain to me that air travel was actually more pleasant in 2011 than it was in 2010, I'd react the same way: Who cares, as long as it's still this bad? And I'm not big on the idea that the Cowboys' defense struggled last year because the lockout forced Rob Ryan "to rush the teachings of his defensive system once training camp began." The defense played much better at the start of the season than it did at the end, which leads one to believe it wasn't the scheme but the personnel that got exposed. In the end, the point is that the Cowboys have made major personnel changes on defense and should expect to be better in 2012. Point taken. Still think they needed more.

On a completely, 100 percent different note, in case you were following the story of the 55-year-old grandmother who was trying out to be a Cowboys cheerleader, she didn't make it. But she says she had a heck of a time trying.

New York Giants

Last summer, when Eagles running back LeSean McCoy randomly attacked him on Twitter for being "overrated n soft," Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora fired back, calling McCoy a "chihuahua" and a "Twitter gangster," among other things. Well, Osi's on Twitter now, and he took his turn as Twitter gangster Sunday, wishing McCoy a Happy Mother's Day. McCoy recently became a father, but there's no evidence that Umenyiora knows that or that it motivated the tweet. Anyway, my wife says she thinks it's pretty silly when these guys use "woman" as an insult, since this is 2012. I remind her that, in the minds of professional athletes, it's very often really kind of not.

As for real football stuff, the Giants did have their rookie minicamp, which means media got a chance to talk to the coaches, and defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said he's looking at several options for middle linebacker, including newcomer Keith Rivers, who didn't play that specific position in Cincinnati. Fewell doesn't seem high on the idea of moving Michael Boley there.

Philadelphia Eagles

First-round draft pick Fletcher Cox learned right away that, if you make a mistake on the practice field with the Eagles, a coach will curse at you. From everything we've been told about defensive line coach Jim Washburn, Cox was going to learn this lesson eventually anyway, but it appears defensive coordinator Juan Castillo beat Washburn to it.

Eagles rookie camp featured a couple of quarterbacks -- third-round pick Nick Foles and undrafted free-agent signee Jacory Harris -- and both seemed to feel they got a lot out of the weekend's exposure to an Eagles coaching staff that has a reputation for teaching the quarterback position effectively.

Washington Redskins

This is the offseason in which returning Redskins free agents announce on Twitter that they have re-signed (as opposed to outside free agents such as Pierre Garcon, who use Facebook -- key difference, you see). Running back Tim Hightower tweeted his return Sunday night, as London Fletcher had some weeks earlier, and the veteran for whom the Redskins traded last year during training camp gets thrown into the running back mix with second-year backs Roy Helu and Evan Royster. A little more on this later, but if healthy, yes, I think Hightower is the front-runner to be the starter.

Chase Minnifield is going to need to beat the odds if he's to have a productive NFL career after going undrafted last month, but he's eager to do what he can to show the Redskins were wise to sign him. And in the Redskins' secondary, truthfully, there are going to be opportunities for him if he can play.

Can we trust the Philadelphia Eagles this time?

The Eagles were, as you'll recall, the stars of the 2011 offseason. The lockout ended, and they started spending and signing. Coming off a 2010 division title season during which quarterback Michael Vick had emerged as one of the best players in the league, the Eagles believed they were going to be awesome. Instead, they were one of the league's biggest 2011 flops. Radical changes on the coaching staff and with defensive personnel failed to come together as quickly and effectively as the Eagles believed they would. They started out 1-4 and never recovered. This offseason, they've been more measured, expressing the belief that the 2011 roster was better than it played and deserves a mulligan. They added a great middle linebacker in DeMeco Ryans to address their biggest need, extended the contracts of some of their core players, and are coming off a draft that many have hailed as the best in the league. Once again, they believe they are going to be awesome.

But is it real this time? Will Nnamdi Asomugha play to his all-pro pedigree in his second Philadelphia season? Will former offensive-line coach Juan Castillo's second year as defensive coordinator be free from the growing pains of his first? Will the Eagles be tougher against the run? And perhaps most importantly, will Vick be more responsible with the ball? Because as much as the defensive lapses cost the Eagles in the early part of the 2011 season, the turnovers on offense might have been even costlier. The Eagles might not need the brilliant, electrified 2010 version of Vick, but they do need a version that's more careful and responsible -- with the ball and with his own body -- than the one who played for them in 2011.

Any and all of these things could happen. With all of their problems, the 2011 Eagles still finished 8-8, only one game out of first place in the NFC East. So it's not as though there's some huge mountain to climb to get into the playoffs. But owner Jeffrey Lurie was clearly upset about the way the high hopes of 2011 fizzled, and if the 2012 Eagles disappoint, this could be the first time in Andy Reid's tenure as head coach that his job is legitimately in jeopardy. There's a lot riding on this Eagles season for a lot of people. They didn't do much to correct last year's problems, having sold ownership and fans on the idea that they would correct themselves because of the talent on the roster. That's a big bet to make, and for the sake of Reid and the rest of the folks in charge in Philadelphia, it had better pay off.

Traditional trade logic does not apply to the Asante Samuel trade. Yes, the Philadelphia Eagles have enough good cornerbacks to allow them to make this deal, but this isn't a case of dealing from a strength to address a weakness. The Eagles aren't weak at sixth-round pick. They already have three, including the second one of the round. They're trading Samuel and his eight-figure salary cap number to the Atlanta Falcons (who will reduce that number as a condition of the trade) simply because he no longer fit in Philadelphia. And that's just the latest bit of proof of how all-in the Eagles still are on their 2011 offseason plan.

The two most high-profile acquisitions the Eagles made last summer -- cornerbacks Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie -- are the two that rendered Samuel obsolete. Sure, he's a better player than Rodgers-Cromartie is. Sure, he played better in 2011 than Asomugha did. But he's more expensive than the former and doesn't fit into the Eagles' new defensive scheme the way they believe the latter does. The Eagles want to play press coverage with their cornerbacks when possible, and that's not Samuel's strength. He squirmed and said some snarky things about the front office after they brought in two big-name guys who played the same position he played. And with LeSean McCoy due for a contract extension and a number of early-round draft picks to sign, the salary cap room they pick up by dumping Samuel helps the long-range plan as well. All of that, combined with his salary, combined with his age (31) means he's the guy who has to go.

But this move is, effectively, a continuation of the 2011 offseason. The Eagles may well have traded Samuel last year if it had been a traditional offseason with free agency before the draft and time to work out an acceptable deal. Dealing him now is the latest bit of evidence in a long string that supports their claim of how strongly they believe in the 2011 plan. They're all-in on the Wide 9, on Juan Castillo, on playing press man. They believe the players they brought in last year, plus the trade that brought them DeMeco Ryans last month to shore up a woefully undermanned linebacker corps, will form the nucleus of one of the league's best defenses in 2012. They finished in the top 10 last year, after all, in spite of a rough start and a rocky transition. Given a year to jell, and a full offseason this time, the Eagles believe they will have something special.

They need to be right, or else jobs could be lost, and I guess you have to give them credit for not hedging. Trading Samuel now means they're going full-speed-ahead with this mulligan they're taking, in the belief that what they assembled last summer really was a very good team that underperformed. If they flop again at 8-8 or worse, the whole thing gets blown up anyway. If Samuel intercepts a pass and the Falcons eliminate the Eagles from the playoffs next year, they could look like fools. They know all of this, and they're dealing him anyway. All I'm saying is, when you trade away a player as good as Asante Samuel and all you get back is a sixth-round pick, your plan had better work.

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- One more day here by the beach. As you read this, I am at the NFC coaches' breakfast listening to what Andy Reid, Jason Garrett, Tom Coughlin and Mike Shanahan have to say. I shall spend the remainder of the morning and the afternoon working feverishly to communicate back to you the items of NFC East interest from this session before my flight leaves for home this evening. They had links at the AFC coaches' breakfast Tuesday, along with bacon and some kind of cool steak eggs benedict deal. Not sure if today's spread will be the same, but you know you can always count on having links right here, every morning at 8 a.m.

Dallas Cowboys

The only thing you know for sure about the draft this time of year is that everybody's lying. Everything's a smokescreen and no one's telling you what they really think or plan. So take this with a grain of salt, even though I agree with Jerry Jones that it wouldn't be a great idea for him to take an offensive lineman in the first round after drafting three of them last year and signing two more earlier this month.

Yeah, I wish Jones would tell us what he really feels about the salary-cap penalties, too, but he's smart to keep his mouth shut until the arbitrator rules on it, and so this little crack about wanting to settle his dispute with John Mara on the field will have to do for now.

New York Giants

Coughlin's getting a contract extension, obviously. Mara told the New York Post that he expects the deal to be done within four to six weeks, and there's every reason to think the Giants coach, who's won two Super Bowl titles in the past five years, will get paid a salary similar to those of the best coaches in the league -- upward of $7 million per year. I'm thinking it ends up being a three-year deal.

Defensive end Dave Tollefson continues to draw interest on the free-agent market, now scheduled to visit the suddenly free-agent-happy Green Bay Packers. As they are with Jonathan Goff and, to some extent, Brandon Jacobs, the Giants are letting Tollefson test the market while also letting him know they'd like to have him back. If he can't find a better offer than what the Giants are willing to give him, he comes back. If not, they move on and find a replacement. It's how they roll.

Philadelphia Eagles

Eagles general manager Howie Roseman sure made it sound as though the team believes it can find a trade market for cornerback Asante Samuel between now and the draft. Roseman discussed that issue and several others Tuesday with Jeff McLane. One point further down in the notes: Roseman declined to say where he expected Jamar Chaney to play because the Eagles are "still in the talent acquisition phase" of the offseason. Says to me they're still looking for linebackers, even with DeMeco Ryans in the fold.

Former Andy Reid assistants Pat Shurmur and John Harbaugh, now the head coaches of the Browns and Ravens, respectively, came to the defense of their former boss -- and of defensive coordinator Juan Castillo -- in conversations with Paul Domowitch at the aforementioned AFC coaches' breakfast.

Washington Redskins

Yes, the Redskins were seriously interested in Peyton Manning when he was on the market. No, it's not clear how good their chances were of getting him. But Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan met with Manning even after trading for the No. 2 pick in the draft, and it's clear that he was a serious option in their minds if they hadn't been able to move up to the spot from which they now plan to draft their next franchise quarterback.

Former Redskins quarterback Mark Rypien is at the front of the latest lawsuit by former players against the league over head injuries. These suits continue to be filed, and will continue to be filed, and if you don't think they worry the league, then think again about why the punishments against the Saints for the bounty stuff was so severe.

All right, well, it was a bit of a quiet weekend in the NFC East. A guard here, a backup quarterback there, a wide receiver leaving the champs for the conference runner-up. That was about it, and each of our four teams will enter the second week of free agency with more work left to do. I will, of course, be here to chronicle and analyze it all for you, just as soon as I have my links.

Dallas Cowboys

Calvin Watkins writes that the Cowboys have some interest in linebacker Erik Walden, a former Cowboys draft pick who had a nice year for the Packers but made the wrong kind of headlines last November. I guess I'll just leave his ugly alleged transgressions alone for now and say, yeah, he'd help the pass rush.

Clarence Hill has nothing but praise for the Cowboys' targeted approach so far in free agency. You know by now that I agree with him. Critique each individual signing if you must, but (a) we don't actually know how these guys are going to play and (b) picking out players you like because you believe they fit what you do is a lot better than just grabbing for the most recognizable names. Interesting nugget in Clarence's column: He seems pretty certain they'll go after guard David DeCastro in the first round of the draft.

New York Giants

Ohm runs down the Giants' options for a No. 3 wide receiver now that Mario Manningham is in San Francisco. These include waiting out the free-agent market and finding a bargain, drafting someone like Baylor's Kendall Wright with the No. 32 pick in the draft or just finding the solution internally, as the Giants like to do, from a group that includes Ramses Barden, Jerrel Jernigan and Domenik Hixon. My guess is they'll do at least one of the first two, but not in such a way as to rule out the internal solution as a possibility.

Prince Amukamara showed up on crutches at an autograph session over the weekend and a report got out that he'd had surgery on the foot he broke last year in training camp. Turns out it was a different kind of procedure -- an injection, like the ones Ahmad Bradshaw gets for his broken foot. So not surgery, but still, don't you have to wonder now if this is an issue that lingers as Bradshaw's has?

Philadelphia Eagles

I've consistently been amazed, since the Eagles' disappointing 8-8 season, at the extent to which quarterback Michael Vick has escaped blame. Not that it was all Vick's fault, of course, but his interceptions were a huge part of the problem, and that doesn't get harped on nearly as much as does Juan Castillo's defense or DeSean Jackson's pouting or Andy Reid's refusal to call enough plays for LeSean McCoy. But Sheil Kapadia's a sharp guy, and he writes, in the wake of the Evan Mathis re-signing, that it's going to be very hard for Vick to escape blame if it all goes wrong again.

Jeff McLane doesn't think the Eagles will be able to lure Stephen Tulloch away from Detroit or pay Curtis Lofton what he wants, so he runs down some other options for the Eagles at linebacker on the free-agent market. Yeah, London Fletcher's name is in there. And, yeah, it should be. Jeff points out that Fletcher will be 37 at the start of the season, which would generally be a turn-off. But anyone who's watched and been around Fletcher knows that he's an unusual case and still at the very top of his game. And what do the Eagles care about 37? Don't they have to win this year?

Washington Redskins

Rex Grossman is under no illusions about his role on the Redskins' 2012 roster after signing another one-year contract with the team. He knows they're planning to draft their new franchise quarterback, and that said quarterback is certain to be the starter. And he says he'll be happy to help.

LaRon Landry's drawing interest, The Washington Post reports, from the Jets, Patriots and Lions. But this is only a Redskins story in that Landry is a guy who once played for the Redskins. At this point, if he were to return in 2012, it would be a complete shock.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick was recently named the most disliked athlete in America, according to a Forbes survey. It's not a new development — Vick has been a somewhat publicly reviled figure since his conviction on dogfighting charges several years ago.

But as Jonathan Tamari writes, it's interesting to note the way the perception of Vick has changed in Philadelphia and around the Eagles. While the outside world continues to hold Vick's dogfighting past against him, in Philadelphia this year he was discussed and analyzed more or less as any quarterback would be:

There were still varied opinions on Vick — how responsible was he for his turnovers? How much blame did he deserve for the Eagles' struggles? But these were the kind of arguments that surround nearly any quarterback on any disappointing team. While there were occasional reminders — at one Vick endorsement event in Philly one woman pointedly asked what he was doing to help dogs trained to fight – for the most part it seemed that Philadelphia decided the debate had been well flogged and just moved on.

No, the issue with Vick in Philadelphia right now is whether the team can make a Super Bowl run with him as its quarterback. For all of the focus on first-year defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, the Wide 9 and the length of time it took the team to adjust to all of the new players, coaches and schemes this year, there's been precious little focus on Vick and his level of responsibility for what happened. Vick threw 11 interceptions and fumbled eight times (losing three) during the Eagles' 3-6 start. He played hurt without telling anyone in the Arizona game, which probably cost them. And he missed the following three games with the same injury, which definitely did.

If 2010 was Vick's breakout season, 2011 was a step back. His performance was brilliant at times but uneven. And the main problem was that this was supposed to have been the year he took over as a leader. Quarterbacks who lead are responsible with the ball and with their own bodies, knowing how important it is for them to stay on the field. Vick showed little regard for either as the Eagles were losing close games early, and he bears a good measure of the responsibility for the poor start that doomed the Eagles' season.

He'll be back in 2012, of course, and the Eagles will hope he's learned some of those lessons the hard way. The great quarterbacks are the ones that view the position as a craft to be honed, and who are always looking for the little-but-important ways to improve their game and their team. That's what Vick needs to show in 2012 if he's to prove that 2011 was the fluke and he really is capable of leading a team on a deep playoff run. He'll still probably show up in the top spot in next year's Forbes poll whether he does that or not. But if he does, the narrative and opinion about him in the town in which he plays will have changed dramatically.

INDIANAPOLIS — My favorite of today's links is Kate Fagan's diary of the Madonna news conference, and it's not because the Madonna news conference was my favorite part of the week so far. It wasn't. Top five maybe, but not No. 1. And no, it's none of your business what No. 1 was. Regardless, Kate's account of Madonna is an excellent and entertaining read. But for those of you who are more traditionally inclined and conditioned to two links per team per weekday ... well, we have that, too.

Oh, and since I know you're counting — the pedometer says I took 22,031 steps Thursday, bringing the total to 78,896 — or about 37.4 miles. All of them for you. Every single one of them for you. Even the ones that got me free gumbo from the 2013 New Orleans Super Bowl host committee. Which was awesome. I seriously wish you all could have enjoyed it with me.

Anyway, links.

New York Giants

Ian O'Connor says the Giants' pregame talk puts them at risk of being a punch line if they lose Sunday. I guess. Still doubt Tom Brady needs bulletin-board material for motivation to win as many Super Bowls as Terry Bradshaw won. Also, I think I think the Giants will win. But predictions come out... you know... later.

Jerry Reese thinks it's funny that his team won 10 regular-season games last year and missed the playoffs, won nine regular-season games this year and reached the Super Bowl and now people think he's smarter than he was then. This is the rare thing on which Jerry and I agree. I also think that's funny.

Philadelphia Eagles

Sam Donellon thinks Juan Castillo is in a no-win situation. I think Sam would be right if media and fan perception were the ultimate judge of the success of a team and a coach. But since it's not -- and since Castillo's employers, who like him, will ultimately make the call on whether he was responsible for the Eagles' 2012 successes or failures -- I think Castillo has a chance to win and win big.

Sheil has a look at Luke Kuechly, who'd be a pretty sweet pick for the Eagles at No. 15 in the draft this April if he's still there.

Dallas Cowboys

Jean-Jacques thinks the Hall of Fame needs Charles Haley in order to consider itself complete. We'll find out Saturday if the Hall voters feel the same way.

Michael Irvin believes that Dez Bryant will eventually be the best receiver in the NFL. That would be pretty awesome for the Cowboys if that happened.

Washington Redskins

Kyle Shanahan says his opinion on Rex Grossman hasn't changed since a year ago. I guess that's... good? Or bad? I don't know. Still pretty sure they need to upgrade.

Nathan Fenno writes that Sean Taylor's friends and family still await justice.

INDIANAPOLIS -- So yeah, lots to report from Super Bowl media day and I'll get to it I promise. But before we get to the Giants and the Patriots, let's talk about the Philadelphia Eagles, whose head coach emerged from hiding Tuesday and addressed the local media back in the city of brotherly love on a variety of topics.

The big news to come out of Andy Reid's news conference was Reid's admission that he offered former Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo a job. It had been widely believed that the Eagles might pursue Spagnuolo for the position of defensive coordinator even though current defensive coordinator Juan Castillo had not been (and still has not been, and won't be) let go. Reid told the Philly writers that he and Spagnuolo did not discuss the specific position for which he'd be hired, but that he made it clear he had no plans to let go of Castillo. Given all of that, it's easy to see why Spagnuolo preferred to take the defensive coordinator job with the New Orleans Saints.

We've discussed this before. While lots of people were assuming Spagnuolo, a former Reid assistant, would be a natural fit, I tried to make the point that other teams would be interested in him as well and that firing Castillo a year after moving him from offensive line coach to defensive coordinator would be an act of profound unfairness. Additionally, it seems as though Reid and the Eagles want to minimize the kinds of sweeping changes they made a year ago, since part of the problem they had this season was adjusting to all that was new.

It's surprising to hear Reid admit that he tried to bring Spagnuolo back. And it's possible, especially if it had been Spagnuolo's only offer, that an arrangement could have been worked out in which Spagnuolo became defensive coordinator and Castillo remained on the staff. What seems clear is that Reid believes both Spagnuolo and Castillo are good coaches, and that the opportunity to improve the overall quality of the defensive staff was appealing.

What's also clear, however, is that Reid is really "all in" with Castillo, and if the defense flops again and they miss the playoffs in 2012, they're all going to be in big trouble. Reid has decided to stick to his original plan and show faith in his people, which is admirable. We'll see whether it works.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Morning, all. Hope you're all doing well out there in the sane world.

The pedometer says I walked 14,714 steps on Monday at the Super Bowl, bringing the grand total since Sunday's arrival to 24,693. And we're just getting started out here. Heck, today's media day.

Ah yes. Media day. Eager to see what this year's funniest media costumes are. This is not the day when the most real work gets done, as you may know, but if you go into it with the right attitude you can have some fun with it. Also, it helps if you get your links.

New York Giants

Tom Brady won't be the toughest quarterback on the field Sunday, Ian O'Connor writes. Eli Manning will. As evidence, Ian points to all Manning has had to go through to get to this point, including try and live up to his famous brother, who happened to be the dominant topic of his Monday news conference.

Mathias Kiwanuka is back in his hometown for this game, and back to the place where he nearly lost his brother in a motorcycle accident. Kevin Armstrong talked with the Kiwanukas.

Philadelphia Eagles

Andy Reid's decision to bring back Juan Castillo for another year as defensive coordinator is a big one, Jonathan Tamari writes. Nothing less than Reid's coaching future rides on it. That's kind of why I don't agree with those who believe this was an act of stubbornness. There's too much at stake for Reid. Anyway, Reid will talk today at noon. I'll be at the Giants' portion of media day when that's going on, but I will track it and blog on it later this afternoon, I promise.

If you want to relive Castillo's first-year performance game-by-game, philly.com has you covered. If you don't ... well, it'd be hard to blame you.

Dallas Cowboys

No less a Cowboy great than Roger Staubach has joined the chorus of people who believe that Tony Romo is not the team's problem. This seems obvious to me, but I bring it up here because (a) it's not obvious to everyone who reads this blog and (b) those to whom it's not obvious may be more inclined to listen to Staubach than to me.

Mat McBriar's leg problems this year were apparently caused by a cyst below his left knee. So he's going to have surgery to get that taken care of.

Washington Redskins

Rich Campbell did a really nice, detailed story off of Senior Bowl last week. Redskins exec Scott Campbell (no relation, I assume) let Rich tail him around Mobile, Ala., and talked in-depth about the ways in which the Redskins are trying to transition into a team that builds through the draft.

London Fletcher got in a teeny bit of hot water with the NFL for a tweet he sent out during the Pro Bowl offering money to a follower who could predict the final score. Jeez, letting them tweet during the game seemed like such a good idea, too.

Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Philadelphia Eagles will hire Todd Bowles as their defensive backs coach and keep Juan Castillo as defensive coordinator for 2012. The decision was a long time coming, and it's widely believed the Eagles were interested in replacing Castillo with Steve Spagnuolo before Spagnuolo took the defensive coordinator's job in New Orleans. But in the end, keeping Castillo for another year was the right thing for the Eagles to do.

Part of the Eagles' problem in 2011 was coping with all of the changes they made on defense -- new coaches, new personnel and new schemes all thrown together in a short period of time in a year that didn't have a real offseason in which to install all of it. To overhaul the defense again would have invited the same kind of early-season chaos that doomed the 2011 Eagles before they got their act together late and finished eighth in the league in total defense.

And yes, there were times when Castillo looked overmatched as a playcaller. He was, after all, the offensive line coach for the previous 13 years. But if you believe, as the Eagles and head coach Andy Reid do, that Castillo is a good coach, you can make the assumption that he'll be better in Year 2 than he was in Year 1 at the parts of the job that challenged him. Eagles ownership is basically giving Reid and his staff a mulligan for this past season on the condition that they make up for it with a deep playoff run next season. If Reid truly believes that the circumstances and not the people were the problem, he should stick with what he believed all along was the right way to go.

Bringing in Spagnuolo or another established defensive coordinator would have required the Eagles to either tell that person he needed to accept the "Wide 9" scheme implemented this past year by first-year defensive line coach Jim Washburn or tell Washburn he needed to scrap it. Either would have created an uncomfortable situation for coaches and players alike, and that would have been yet another thing to overcome at a time when the Eagles need to steer as clear as possible of upheaval. And firing Castillo would have been patently unfair, considering the nearly impossible position in which Reid put him.

The only potential issue with keeping Castillo is if the players don't buy in. The defensive backs in particular chafed last year at the amount of zone coverage they were asked to play. But perhaps the addition of Bowles, a longtime defensive backs coach who most recently was the interim head coach of the Miami Dolphins, will help sell the move to Nnamdi Asomugha & Co. if that in fact needs to be done.

The Eagles believe their plan will work, given a full offseason of work and continued dedication to the schemes that were new last year but won't be new this time around. They may be right and they may be wrong. But a plan's no good unless you're willing to stick with it, and a leader's no good if he's not willing to believe in his people. To overreact to the disappointment of 2011 and make major changes again just to appease those on the outside who are upset about it would have been a mistake. The Eagles are staying the course, and this offseason that's the right thing for them to do.

It was around this time last year that Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy made the perplexing decision to take his offensive line coach, Juan Castillo, and make him his defensive coordinator. The results were ... well, they were mixed, in the end, and ultimately the Eagles' 8-8 season rendered pretty much all of their offseason moves unsuccessful by definition. The question on Castillo, though, is what if anything Reid plans to do about it. And if he's got an answer, he's not sharing it. With anybody. From Geoff Mosher of delawareonline.com:

Received the following text message the other day from a former Eagles defensive player, which I edited only to include punctuation and make slightly more legible:

[+] Enlarge
James Lang/US PresswireThe status of Eagles defensive coordinator Juan Castillo seems uncertain this offseason.

"What's the word on Juan. Is he still DC or what? One of my buddies... said he ask(ed) him about it at Senior Bowl and he said he's not sure of what his title is."

Well, there you have it.

The Castillo situation feels like the next thing the Eagles have to decide, now that they've announced that Reid will return as head coach and before they can delve into free agency and the draft. Firing Castillo feels too harsh, in part because Reid put him in a very difficult situation and in part because the Eagles did finish the season ranked eighth in the league in total defense. (And there was their mistake right there, by the way. Turns out defense was overrated this year. The two teams in the Super Bowl ranked 27th and 31st.)

But the fact that the players don't know got me wondering: What role might the players and their opinions have on Reid's ultimate decision about whether to keep Castillo in the same role, fire him or reassign him somewhere else on the staff? Castillo's impossible not to like personally, and he's therefore well liked by his players. And many of them knew him for years while he was coaching on the other side of the ball. But not everybody in the Eagles' locker room was happy with the schemes implemented in Castillo's first season as coordinator. There was talk, for instance, in the locker room that cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha wasn't thrilled with all of the zone coverage he was asked to play when his strength is in man-to-man coverage.

Asomugha is clearly a player around whom the Eagles plan to structure their defense in the coming years, or else they wouldn't have signed him to a long-term contract. Might Reid be factoring in the way his prominent defensive players feel about Castillo when making his decision?

Ultimately, it might not matter. Reports indicating that the personality and/or presence of defensive line coach Jim Washburn was one of the reasons Steve Spagnuolo didn't want the Eagles' defensive coordinator job are completely believable and legitimate. If the Eagles are committed to Washburn and his "Wide 9" defensive line formation, it's going to be hard to find an established defensive coordinator who's willing to come in and have something that significant dictated to him instead of deciding for himself how the linemen should line up.

Castillo already buys in, and the improvement the defense showed as it grew more comfortable during the season should buy him an extra season in the coordinator's spot. But so far it seems as though Reid hasn't told Castillo, his players or anyone else whether that's what's going to happen.

Tuesday of the week before the week before the Super Bowl. The NFC champions are having an open media access period at their practice facility, which is 20 minutes from my house. So I believe I'll take a trip down Route 17 and go ask them some questions. But before I go, I gotta have my links. And I know you guys gotta have 'em too.

New York Giants

Ian O'Connor takes up the questions of where Eli Manning now ranks in Giants history (could he end up being the best offensive player the franchise has ever had?) and in his own family (would a second Super Bowl title move him past big brother Peyton?) Heady stuff, but it's that time of year and Eli has played his way into these conversations.

Not that you'd expect otherwise, but 65-year-old Giants coach Tom Coughlin is enjoying the heck out of the ride on which his team has taken him, and the flight back from San Francisco sounds like it was a good deal of fun.

Philadelphia Eagles

Andy Reid isn't making the trip to Mobile, Ala., for the Senior Bowl, but some of his coaches are there, including defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, who deflected questions about his job security by referring his questioners to Reid (who, again, is not there). It's possible that Castillo knows his fate but just isn't allowed to say before Reid does. But if he actually doesn't know whether he's going to keep his job for next year and is still waiting for Reid to tell him, then that's a bad job by Reid.

Meanwhile, the buzz is growing stronger that Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg could be the next coach of the Raiders. If that happens, you're going to hear Brad Childress' name a lot as a possible Mornhinweg replacement.

Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys GM Jerry Jones addressed reporters Monday in Mobile. (Yeah, you see what I did there?) And during the course of his comments, Jones said he felt that the thing that has made the biggest difference for the Giants during this stretch in which they beat the Cowboys to win the division and kept rolling all the way to the Super Bowl was the play of Eli Manning. Does that mean Jones has hopped on the Eli>Romo bandwagon? I don't really think so, but Manning is collecting superlatives from every corner right now.

Todd Archer ponders whether a switch to a base 4-3 defense would be a truly radical move for the Cowboys and kind of seems to think it wouldn't, since they show plenty of 4-3-type looks now anyway.

Washington Redskins

The Redskins have made another couple of changes to their coaching staff, hiring former Giants wide receiver Ike Hilliard as their new receivers coach and moving defensive backs coach Bob Slowik to linebackers coach. The Hilliard move is the more notable one since he's a recognizable name, but he's a well regarded coaching prospect. The question is what kind of receiver corps he'll have next year with which to work. Shanahan has said finding a No. 1 wideout is an offseason priority.

Mike Shanahan said that free agent safety LaRon Landry is still hoping not to have surgery on his Achilles' tendon, which I think throws his status into even greater doubt this free-agent season. At least, if he had surgery, he could make the case that something about his chronic health problems has changed or at least been addressed. Without the surgery, he's going to have a tough time answering questions about why he hasn't been able to stay on the field. I also don't get the sense he's in the Redskins' plans.

So, former Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has a new job, and it's not with the Philadelphia Eagles. Spagnuolo has reportedly agreed to become the new defensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints, which means Eagles fans who were hoping Andy Reid would hire him to replace Juan Castillo in that position in Philadelphia are disappointed. It also means the most sensible choice for Eagles defensive coordinator for 2012 is Castillo himself.

The most significant problem with any Eagles pursuit of Spagnuolo -- and we never actually knew for sure that they were engaged in one -- is that the position was already filled. The Eagles fired defensive backs coach Johnny Lynn a couple of weeks ago, which would have given them the flexibility to move Castillo into another job on the defensive staff if they didn't want to fire him after only one season as coordinator. But now that the top available choice is off the market, it makes sense for the Eagles to keep things the way they are.

After a tumultuous offseason in which they converted Castillo from offensive line coach to defensive coordinator, hired defensive line coach Jim Washburn and revamped their defensive scheme and personnel, the Eagles struggled on defense for the first half of the season. But they ended the season ranked eighth in the league in total defense, led the league in sacks and ended up doing a number of encouraging things that would lead one to believe they were on the right track. To overhaul the coaching staff -- and, potentially, the scheme -- for a second offseason in a row would be to invite the kind of adjustment issues they had in 2011.

It seems as though Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is giving Reid a one-year shot to make a deep postseason run that helps erase the disappointment of this past year. If Reid really believed, a year ago, that Castillo was the man to lead his defense, why not stick with him on the basis of the improvement the team showed as the year went along? If they really believed the "Wide 9" defensive line alignment was the best way to play defense, the right move is to keep Washburn and Castillo in place and see if they were right about needing more than one season for it to take hold.

Anyway, I don't know what Reid and the Eagles are going to do. But to make a change at defensive coordinator just to do it, or just because the fans want it, would be the wrong move. Spagnuolo, an accomplished coordinator who gets a great deal of credit for the Giants' most recent Super Bowl championship, might have been worth such a change. But unless there's another, similarly strong candidate out there to replace Castillo, the best way for the Eagles to go at this point is to stay the course.