Philadelphia Eagles: Could Todd Bowles Join Defensive Staff?

According to Omar Kelly of SunSentinal.com, there is gossip circulating at the Senior Bowl practices this week that former Miami interim head coach Todd Bowles could end up coming to Philadelphia.

Bowles took over for the fired Tony Sparano towards the end of the 2011 season.  Prior to taking the interim head coaching position, he had been Miami's secondary coach since 2005.

Earlier this month, Tim McManus of Philadelphia Sports Daily reported that Bowles would be interested in joining Philadelphia as well as that the Eagles requested permission to interview Bowles last year for their defensive coordinator position.

Then, we can add in the facts that the Eagles have a vacant secondary coaching position as well as an apparent gag order on the status of Juan Castillo.  Therefore, this move would make sense and could get some legs in the coming days.

Bowles has not been offered a position on Miami's staff so he's definitely looking for work.  All head coaching positions around the NFL have been filled.  However, Bowles could be hanging on to the hope he can still land a defensive coordinator position.

New head coaches Greg Schiano (Tampa Bay) and Dennis Allen (Oakland) have yet to fill their defensive coordinator positions.  With that said, the word on the street is that Schiano might be looking to hire Butch Davis.  There is no word yet on who Allen might consider for his defensive coordinator.

Therefore, Todd Bowles could very well end up in Philly.  The question is, in what capacity exactly?

Obviously, he'd fill the need for a secondary coach but he'll likely receive some kind of additional title that would basically make him an assistant defensive coordinator.  I have to think that it wouldn't make much sense for Andy Reid to make Bowles the actual DC and demote Castillo.

That would have been worth doing for an experienced DC like Steve Spagnuolo or Mike Nolan, but not for someone who has never been a coordinator before such as Bowles.

Ultimately, hiring Bowles would be a solid move because he's generally regarded as a good coach.  He's also somewhat of a local guy in that he attended high school in Elizabeth, NJ, played college football at Temple University and played pro football in Washington.

I won't hold that last fact against him though.