Former Eagles linebacker and assistant coach Mike Caldwell, who just interviewed for the defensive coordinator job just a few days ago, is interviewing with the Eagles again, this time for the linebacker coach job, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Friday.
Caldwell interviewed for the DC vacancy earlier this week before Vic Fangio parted ways with the Dolphins and filled that position with the Eagles.
D.J. Eliot spent this past year as Eagles’ linebackers coach, his first NFL coaching job after 24 years on the coaching level, most recently at Temple in 2022. He replaced Nick Rallis, who was Nick Sirianni’s linebackers coach in 2021 and 2022 before becoming Jonathan Gannon’s defensive coordinator with the Cards this past season.
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We also learned Friday that former Packers defensive coordinator Joe Barry is interviewing with the Eagles for a spot on Fangio’s staff – quite possible the same spot. Barry’s background is linebackers – he played linebacker at Michigan and USC and has coached linebackers the years he hasn’t been a coordinator. Barry and Sirianni were with the Chargers in 2013 under Mike McCoy (along with Frank Reich, Shane Steichen and Jason Michael).
Eagles linebackers were universally terrible this past season. In Pro Football Focus’s grading system, the Eagles didn’t have an off-ball linebacker ranked among the top 50 in the NFL. The only linebackers under contract for 2024 are Nakobe Dean, who missed most of the year with two foot injuries, and Ben VanSumeren, an undrafted rookie who played 50 snaps late in the season.
Caldwell, 52, spent the last two years on the Jaguars’ coaching staff under his former Eagles teammate, Doug Pederson, but Jags’ entire defensive coaching staff was fired after Jacksonville lost five of its last six games, allowing an average of 29 points in those five losses.
Andy Reid hired Caldwell as an entry-level quality control coach in 2008 and promoted him to assistant linebackers coach in 2010 and then linebackers coach in 2011.
NFL
When Reid’s staff was fired after the 2012 season, Caldwell joined Bruce Arians’ staff in Arizona as inside linebackers coach, working under defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, who he worked with in 2012 with the Eagles.
When Bowles was named head coach of the Jets in 2015, he brought Caldwell along as assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach. When Bowles was fired after the 2018 season, he and Caldwell both rejoined Arians in Tampa, and Caldwell won his first Super Bowl ring when the Bucs beat the Chiefs 31-9 in Super Bowl LV in Tampa after the 2020 season.
Pederson gave Caldwell his first defensive coordinator opportunity in 2022, and Jacksonville’s defense was ranked 12th in the league that first year and 17th this past season.
Caldwell was originally a 3rd-round pick of the Browns in 1993 and played three years in Cleveland under head coach Bill Belichick. He spent a year with the Ravens and a year with the Cards before joining the Eagles under head coach Ray Rhodes in 1998.
In his four years with the Eagles – the last three with Reid – he started 29 games and had three interceptions, three forced fumbles and five sacks. He played two more years in the NFL – one each with the Bears in 2002 and Panthers in 2003.
Caldwell was originally a 3rd-round pick of the Browns in 1993 and played three years in Cleveland under head coach Bill Belichick. He spent a year with the Ravens and a year with the Cards before joining the Eagles under head coach Ray Rhodes in 1998.
In his four years with the Eagles – one under Ray Rhodes, three with Reid – he started 29 games and had three interceptions, three forced fumbles and five sacks. He played two more years in the NFL – one each with the Bears in 2002 and Panthers in 2003.
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