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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.

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 the 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 coast 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 that 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.

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.

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.

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.

At some point, presumably soon, the Minnesota Vikings will wrap up what has already been a two-week review of their defensive coaching staff and determine a direction for 2012. To this point, however, we have a better idea of who won't be a part of it than who will.

The latest domino to drop is coordinator Fred Pagac, whom the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported was fired Friday. The Vikings offered Pagac a job as their linebackers coach, however, a demotion that calls into question the status of current assistant head coach/linebackers Mike Singletary.

NFL teams occasionally make courtesy offers to fired coordinators, fully expecting them to be turned down. But even if that was the case with Pagac, the Vikings couldn't have done it without already having made a decision on Singletary. As we discussed Monday, it wouldn't be surprising to hear that Singletary has been fired or that he has been promoted to defensive coordinator. The fact that both possibilities are legitimately on the table provides powerful commentary on the state of the coaching staff at the moment.

At least two outside candidates who interviewed for the coordinator job have signed on elsewhere. Raheem Morris joined the Washington Redskins as their defensive backs coach, and Mel Tucker remained in his job as the Jacksonville Jaguars' defensive coordinator. Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com has reported that current Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Juan Castillo could emerge as a candidate as well.

The Vikings will coach the North team at the Senior Bowl, where the festivities begin a week from Monday. Stay tuned.

The Philadelphia Eagles announced Saturday that they had "released" secondary coach Johnie Lynn, which on its face isn't a surprising move. The Eagles had a disappointing season, the defense's propensity for allowing big plays was a major reason why, and as Eagles head coach Andy Reid surveys his personnel -- coaches and players alike -- it's reasonable to expect some tinkering.

But the move with Lynn leads one to wonder what else might be coming. Former Eagles defensive assistant Steve Spagnuolo, who won a Super Bowl four years ago as the New York Giants' defensive coordinator, was just fired as head coach of the St. Louis Rams and is looking for work. The Eagles' defensive coordinator is Juan Castillo, who this time last year was their offensive line coach and did in fact look overmatched at times in his first season on the defensive side of the ball. But Castillo is a longtime member of Reid's staff, and even if they are looking to upgrade at coordinator with someone more accomplished, such as Spagnuolo, it's likely the Eagles would just want to fire Castillo and make him the scapegoat, considering the difficult position in which Reid put him.

It's also unlikely that they could give Castillo his old job back. He was replaced at offensive line coach by Howard Mudd, and even if Mudd decided to move back into retirement, things wouldn't be so simple. Mudd installed completely new blocking schemes and techniques that bear little resemblance to what Castillo was coaching before Mudd replaced him. The Eagles' linemen bought in completely to Mudd's teachings and performed well, and it's likely that, even if Mudd were to leave (and there's no reason to believe he would, other than his health), they'd likely want to continue to teach and practice Mudd's technique.

So if, hypothetically, the Eagles want to hire Spagnuolo (or anyone else) to replace Castillo as defensive coordinator, and if they don't want to fire Castillo, they'll need a place to put him. There is now an opening at secondary coach, so you know ... just sayin'. Worth paying attention to, especially if Reid is planning more changes down the line on his defensive staff.

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Arrow indicates direction team is trending.

Final Power Ranking: 15
Preseason Power Ranking: 4

Biggest surprise: Michael Vick's step backward. There is a lot of blame to go around for what went wrong with the Philadelphia Eagles this year, and we'll get to it all. But coming off a season in which he ran second in the MVP voting to Tom Brady, and continuing under the tutelage of Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg, Vick was expected by many people to continue to build on and develop the brilliance of 2010. Instead, he was shaky and unreliable, turning the ball over way too much during an early-season swoon that knocked the Eagles out of playoff contention almost before they even started. Injuries to Jeremy Maclin and the weird year DeSean Jackson had pouting about his contract situation didn't help, but this isn't on the wide receivers. Vick must come back next season determined to be more responsible with the ball and continue the growth and maturation as a quarterback that he was showing in 2010.

Biggest disappointment: The team's inability to finish games early in the season cost it dearly. Blown fourth-quarter leads in losses to the Falcons, 49ers, Giants, Bears and Cardinals left the Eagles 3-6 after nine games and put them in too deep a hole from which to climb out. The defense took way too long to jell, with all of its new players, new coaches and new schemes. Cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, the prize free agent of the 2011 offseason, showed up on other teams' highlight reels a lot more than he did on Philadelphia's. And the Eagles head into the offseason wondering if the strong finish their defense had under first-year coordinator Juan Castillo and new defensive line coach Jim Washburn was a mirage or a sign of what might have been and what could be to come.

Biggest need: The Eagles need linebackers in the worst way. Washburn's "Wide 9" defensive scheme was very effective at pressuring quarterbacks, and the Eagles led the league with 50 sacks. But they ignored linebacker when they were doing all of their signings last summer, and it showed up. The corps of rookies and young players they used at linebacker was unable to support the defensive line and left the team vulnerable not just to big passing plays but also to the run.

Team MVP: Running back LeSean McCoy. He didn't play in the final week of the season, and he got knocked out early the week before against the Cowboys. But he still ended up fourth in the league with 1,309 rushing yards and had 20 touchdowns, including a league-leading 17 on the ground. McCoy was the Eagles' best, most consistent and most dynamic player on either side of the ball. If anything, they leaned too hard on the pass and didn't use him enough late in games to help salt away those leads.

Front line legit: Two of the biggest free-agent signings were defensive end Jason Babin and defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins, each of whom had outstanding years. Jenkins was a force inside and was even able to move outside and play some end when needed. And Babin, who followed Washburn to Philadelphia from Tennessee, continued to flourish under Washburn's direction. He finished the season ranked third in the league with 18 sacks and now has 30.5 the past two years with Washburn as his position coach.

There's a point in The Princess Bride where Vizzini says the word "inconceivable" too many times for Inigo's taste, and Inigo looks at him sideways and says, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

I bring this up because Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie used the word "unacceptable" several times in today's news conference, and that's one of those words that sports people use without thinking about what it really means. If something is "unacceptable" (as Lurie insists the Eagles' 8-8 season was) yet elicits no consequences, then that makes it, by definition, "acceptable." Lurie spent the first 15 minutes of his address to the Philadelphia media talking about his anger and frustration, called the first half of the season "dismal" and "terrible" and said he took little solace in the Eagles' 4-0 finish because it came against teams that weren't "that competitive."

But in the end, he announced that he would bring head coach Andy Reid back for a 14th season. And he announced that any coaching staff changes -- including any decisions on embattled first-year defensive coordinator Juan Castillo -- would be up to Reid. And while the idea that something "unacceptable" has happened but that no one is to be held accountable for it likely isn't sitting well with disenchanted Eagles fans today, as usual I think there's some gray area here.

"Accountable" isn't automatically the same thing as "fired." As a result of the flop that was a 2011 season in which, Lurie said, "the difference between the expectation and the result was dramatic," Andy Reid enters 2012 under greater pressure than he has felt at any time during his tenure as Eagles coach. I believe Reid will coach in 2012 under more pressure than any other coach in the entire league. Lurie made it clear with several of things the said that, unless the Eagles rebound, big-time, next season, the news conference he has next January isn't going to be as friendly.

"If I didn't think that next year would be substantially better," Lurie said. "Then I would be up here announcing a coaching change."

That says to me that, if next year is not substantially better, Lurie will in fact be up there announcing a coaching change. If I were Reid, that's the way I'd be hearing it. And throughout Reid's long and impressive tenure as Eagles coach, I doubt he's ever faced this degree of ultimatum.

Lurie spoke of other teams in recent history that rebounded from disappointing seasons to win the Super Bowl, naming the New York Giants and the New Orleans Saints specifically. He spoke of Reid's record of bouncing back from seasons in which the Eagles missed the playoffs, pointing out that it's very good. He didn't say he expected 2012 to continue that trend, but he didn't have to. That much was clear. Lurie is an owner who's much more upset about this season than he let on at any point while it was unfolding, but he's also an owner who believes in a measured approach, who believes in continuity in positions of leadership, and who believes Reid is a good coach who knows what he's doing and is capable of making next season a success where this one was not.

But Lurie also left little doubt that this can't happen again. So from this point forward, every decision Reid makes is going to be scrutinized in ways it never has been before by the guy who matters most. Whatever mistakes Reid made in 2011, Lurie was able to view them through the prism of all the good work Reid did for him in the previous 12 years, with the knowledge that players have historically played hard for Reid and have wanted to play for the Eagles because of the coaching structure they have in place. But any mistakes Reid makes between now and this time next year will be viewed through the prism of Lurie's present disappointment, and are likely to be judged much more harshly as a result.

Reid must now decide about Castillo and the rest of the coaching staff, then he must get to work on free agency and the draft. Then there will be minicamps and OTAs, the incubators the 2011 team lacked but which the 2012 Eagles must use to make sure they don't sleepwalk their way through the first half of next season the way they did this one.

"It's possible there was a miscalculation in terms of implementing big scheme changes in a lockout situation," Lurie said.

That could mean the Eagles stay the course, scheme-wise, in the belief that they are moving in the right direction but just took too long to start moving. It could mean that they make big scheme changes again this offseason in the belief that they will have the time this year to implement them. That sounds as though it's up to Reid.  But whichever way he goes, it's got to work, or he's going to be gone. He may not have to win next year's Super Bowl to keep his job in 2013, but it's very clear after listening to Lurie today that he's got to make a pretty serious run at it to make up for the damage this year caused. Those are the consequences of 8-8: That Reid finds himself, at long last, facing a make-or-break season.

The St. Louis Rams have fired head coach Steve Spagnuolo, who began his NFL coaching career with the Philadelphia Eagles and rose to prominence as the defensive coordinator for the 2007 Super Bowl champion New York Giants. Spagnuolo's been a hot name around this blog lately (though, for some reason, not a name that's getting any easier to type), so let's take a team-by-team look at his chances of returning to the NFC East in 2012.

Philadelphia Eagles

This is the most likely spot for Spagnuolo to resurface in the division. He was a defensive position coach in Philadelphia from 1999-2006 under legendary defensive coordinator Jim Johnson. And while reports have said he was upset toward the end of his Philadelphia tenure, that Eagles coach Andy Reid blocked him from pursuing opportunities to be a defensive coordinator elsewhere, the two men have since reconciled and their relationship likely wouldn't be an impediment to a potential Spagnuolo return. Other things could be, however. While first-year defensive coordinator Juan Castillo took a lot of heat in Philadelphia this year -- and Reid took a lot of heat for converting Castillo from offensive line coach to defensive coordinator -- the Eagles finished the season strong and ended up ranking eighth in the NFL in total defense, as measured by yards allowed. Additionally, the Eagles just hired Jim Washburn to coach their defensive line a year ago. The scheme that Washburn and Castillo installed this year leans on pressure from the front line, whereas Spagnuolo has been more known for blitz-heavy and zone-blitz schemes. It's possible that the Eagles are (a) happy with Castillo's performance in spite of the outside criticism and/or (b) loath to make major coaching and scheme changes again leading into next year, since that seems to have backfired in 2011. Spagnuolo could return to Philadelphia as defensive coordinator, but it's certainly no slam dunk.

New York Giants

There are Giants fans who'd like to see Spagnuolo back in New York as defensive coordinator. But first of all, you don't often see a guy make a direct backward career move like that. Second of all, the Giants like current defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, even though the team ranked 27th in total defense this year and the coverage issues in the secondary need to be addressed along with the linebacker position before next year. Third of all, I don't know if you heard, but the Giants just won this division and are in the playoffs, so they certainly won't be making any coaching changes for at least a week. And for those who thought Spagnuolo could come in as coordinator and be a coach-in-waiting behind Tom Coughlin -- the way the Giants have finished this season makes it very unlikely that Coughlin would be going anywhere anytime soon.

Dallas Cowboys

Obviously, Rob Ryan's first year as defensive coordinator in Dallas was a flop, but it'd be a surprise to see them give up on the well-regarded Ryan after just one year and without addressing the personnel issues they have in their own secondary. Also, the Cowboys likely would have to transition from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 under Spagnuolo. Possible? Sure, but it'd be a big surprise.

Washington Redskins

The defense was a strong point for the Redskins this year, and Mike Shanahan is pleased with the way the second year of the conversion to the 3-4 under Jim Haslett went. Haslett's safe.

Lots of people asking about this San Diego Union Tribune report that it is "all but certain" that St. Louis Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo will rejoin the Philadelphia Eagles as defensive coordinator once he is fired, as expected, by the Rams at the end of this season. Here's the way I understand this situation right now:

I've spoken with several people around the league lately who believe it makes sense for Spagnuolo to return to the Eagles as a defensive coordinator. But the people with whom I've spoken have basically been speculating, connecting sensible dots. Spagnuolo used to work there, the Eagles need a defensive coordinator, he's about to get fired ... makes sense. Maybe Kevin Acee has a source telling him such a move is already actually in the works, but if he does, that's not a person to whom I've talked.

The few people I've talked to who would know what's happening with the Eagles say no decisions have been made about the coaching staff beyond this season. Everyone assumes Andy Reid is safe in his role as head coach, but no one has yet come out and said for certain he is. And while it's assumed they need to move on from defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, the converted offensive line coach who seemed overwhelmed at times in his first year on the other side of the ball, questions remain. Does Reid want to fire him or give him another chance? If it's the latter, is that going to be a sticking point between Reid and the front office? Do you move Castillo out of the coordinator spot and into another spot on the staff? And if so, which one?

The Washburn factor. The Eagles completely changed their defensive philosophy this year under Castillo and new defensive line coach Jim Washburn, who runs a "Wide 9" defensive line formation based on generating quarterback pressure with the four linemen and rarely blitzing. As a coordinator, Spagnuolo was known for blitzing. Would the Eagles want to re-install a whole new scheme and philosophy on defense for the second year in a row, considering the way that worked out this year?

Finally, everyone I speak to says that Spagnuolo is still very well regarded as a coach by NFL decision-makers, in spite of his lack of success in St. Louis. There will be competition for his services, and a couple of people to whom I've spoken have even suggested to me he could possibly get another head coaching opportunity right away. Even if Spagnuolo is on the market, it's no sure thing that his next job is in Philadelphia.

So that's what I know and what I've heard. To sum up: Sure, it makes sense and might even already be in the works. But based on what I know, it's nothing about which to get too excited on this particular morning. We'll all know soon enough.

It's hard to know what, exactly, we were watching Saturday when the Philadelphia Eagles won their third game in a row, 20-7 over a Dallas Cowboys team that was missing several of its most important players. The New York Giants' victory that concluded in the early minutes of the Eagles-Cowboys game eliminated Philadelphia from playoff contention -- a punctuation mark that would have been far more bitterly disappointing if it hadn't been all but assured weeks earlier.

Eagles fans could be happy their team is playing hard and finishing the season strong after a 1-4 start, but that kind of stuff is for fans whose teams didn't have preseason Super Bowl expectations. This is a lost and lousy season for the Eagles no matter how you slice it -- a terrible missed opportunity in a season that required no more than nine wins for the NFC East title.

So what are we looking at when we're watching Michael Vick slice up the Cowboys and the Eagles' defense torment an opposing quarterback for the third week in a row? Does the Eagles' late-season performance matter? Does it say something about the way we can expect them to play next year? Or is all of this easily swept under the "meaningless games" rug and dismissed as useless for predictive purposes?

I think there's a pretty good chance these are the real Eagles -- the Eagles the way they were supposed to be when they put this thing together in July and August. If you remember, the Eagles weren't playing bad football in September and October -- they were merely finding different and agonizing ways to lose games in the end. They matched up physically with nearly every team they played this season. Of their eight losses, they held fourth-quarter leads in five. There were two games they weren't in at all -- New England and Seattle -- and they were using their overmatched backup quarterback in both of them. And they're 4-1 in the division with one game left against Washington next week, so it's not as though they have major problems with their closest competition.

This is, of course, the angle that Eagles coach Andy Reid will try to sell to the front office and ownership when he meets with them in the coming weeks to discuss the team's future and his own -- that the way the team has played indicates a potential for great things if they stay the course, cut down on turnovers and put in a full offseason program with the players and coaches who are suddenly playing and coaching so well. And while Eagles fans may not buy it, it's entirely possible ownership will. It depends on the level of faith they have in Reid. That faith has long been considerable, but it would be understandable if it had been shaken a little bit by what went on this year. We'll see whether Reid is in trouble (I doubt he is), or whether he'll have to sacrifice first-year defensive coordinator Juan Castillo or make other staff changes in order to keep his own job.

The Castillo issue is interesting. Even if Howard Mudd goes back into retirement, the Eagles can't shift Castillo back to his old position of offensive line coach. Mudd introduced a completely new way of blocking, and the Eagles' linemen have bought into it and thrived in it. They're not about to tell Castillo to go back to his old job and coach Mudd's schemes instead of his, and they're not about to tell the linemen they're going back to the old way of doing things. That's out. The three choices with Castillo are to fire him (which Reid would surely hate to do), re-assign him to a defensive position-coach job or keep him right where he is in the hopes that this late-season defensive surge represents his potential as a coordinator.

That last one would be an impossible sell to the fans, even if Reid could sell it to ownership. But much worse, I personally believe it would be a tough sell to the players. Castillo is a nice, hard-working guy, but the defense has had too many failures in too many big spots this year for the players to maintain faith that Castillo knows what he's doing. Bringing him back in the same role could actually damage the late-season progress the Eagles have made if the players on the defensive side of the ball don't believe in him.

Lots of fascinating decisions yet to be made with the Eagles, and the way they are finishing the season can't help but factor in. Three weeks ago, we said Reid could be in trouble if the team played the final four games as if it didn't care. The opposite has happened, and so it stands to reason that that only strengthens Reid's position. At this point, you have to believe he's back in 2012. The question is, based on what we've seen from the Eagles this month, is there reason to be encouraged about that?

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FALLING

1. Rob Ryan. The Dallas Cowboys' defensive coordinator was a hot name on the head-coaching rumor mill a couple of weeks ago. But lately, Ryan's defense hasn't been able to stop anyone. He seems to blitz when he shouldn't blitz, to not blitz when he should ... the kinds of things that happen when your coverage in the secondary is failing you. And it's failing Ryan big-time right now. Terence Newman has regressed throughout the season. Mike Jenkins looks like an injury waiting to happen. And the guys behind the starting corners aren't playing well at all. Of all the Cowboys' collapses this year, the one that might haunt them the most if they don't end up in the playoffs is blowing a 12-point lead in the final six minutes against the Giants on Sunday night.

2. New York Giants secondary: The Giants as a whole are rising, as they're back on top of the division by virtue of a tiebreaker and in spite of the four-game losing streak they just ended. But if you watched Sunday's game, you noticed the Cowboys weren't the only team in it that couldn't get a stop on the back end. Giants coach Tom Coughlin called his team's coverage issues a "grave concern," and the Giants need to get some things fixed in the secondary these next two weeks against Rex Grossman and Mark Sanchez before they see Tony Romo & Co. again in what could be a critical Week 17 rematch.

3. Santana Moss, Redskins receiver. Normally one of the Washington Redskins' most solid and reliable offensive performers, Moss cost his team a chance to send Sunday's game against the Patriots into overtime. An offensive pass interference penalty moved the Redskins back as they were driving for the tying touchdown, and Grossman's final throw of the game went off Moss' hands and into the arms of Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo for an interception that ended all hope. It hasn't been the greatest year for Moss, who missed games earlier in the season with a broken hand, but Sunday was a low point.

RISING

1. Eli Manning, Giants quarterback. He's been here before, but Manning just keeps on rising and rising and rising. His 400 passing yards in his latest comeback victory established a new single-season career high. He's over 4,000 yards for the third year in a row and one of four quarterbacks who are threatening to surpass Dan Marino's single-season NFL record of 5,084 yards. If Aaron Rodgers hadn't already locked up the award, Manning would be in the MVP race. He's led five game-winning touchdown drives this year for a team that has only seven wins. If the Giants' run game can look as good as it looked Sunday behind a resurgent Brandon Jacobs, the way Manning's playing could make them one of the best offenses in the league in the final month.

2. Felix Jones, Cowboys running back. Sadly for Cowboys rookie running back DeMarco Murray, his season is over because of a severe ankle injury he suffered in the first quarter of Sunday's loss. That means a lot more carries for Jones, who was the starter earlier this season before he got hurt and Murray took over. Jones looked fresh and spry and more than capable Sunday. The problem now is that they have practically nothing behind him, so the priority has to be keeping Jones from getting hurt. I imagine the Cowboys will throw the ball more over their final three games, but when they run, they'll ask Jones to do the running.

3. Philadelphia Eagles defense. They totally cooled off a red-hot Miami team Sunday, knocking quarterback Matt Moore out of the game and shutting down the Dolphins after an early Brandon Marshall touchdown. First-year defensive coordinator Juan Castillo is working new guys into new roles and expanding what the defense is capable of doing. It was the best the defense has looked all year and the way the Eagles had hoped they'd be able to play consistently this year. The talent is there, and if the scheme and focus issues are settled, it may be enough to carry the Eagles to a strong finish, even if it is too little too late.