Former Eagle Mayberry backs Castillo move

DALLAS - Jermane Mayberry met Juan Castillo when Mayberry was a 17-year-old recruit and Castillo was offensive line coach for Texas A&M-Kingsville, which was recruiting the young lineman from Floresville, Texas.

"The biggest thing is his sincerity," Mayberry said yesterday, when asked what first impressed him about the coach he worked with in college and then for 9 years with the Eagles. "He comes across as, and he is, a very sincere person. He's very honest . . . I think that's what drew me close to him."

Mayberry, who now lives in the Austin, Texas, area, knows Castillo about as well as anyone who ever played for him. But Mayberry acknowledged even he was surprised when his wife, Danielle, saw the crawl at the bottom of their TV screen Wednesday evening and told Mayberry what Andy Reid had done.

"He always taught us to be the aggressor, and to have that mentality. So I think from a personality standpoint, it's a great fit," Mayberry said. "I'm not surprised from the standpoint of him being qualified or able to do it . . . He knows football . . . You're just flipping the role, but you're essentially doing the same thing," designing blitzes instead of figuring out how to stop them.

In making the announcement Wednesday, Reid stressed how Castillo continually felt miscast as an offensive coach and repeatedly asked to change sides. Mayberry said he never knew that, but "I know he's always had a passion for defense."

What will a Castillo defense be like?

"I think they'll be aggressive. I think they'll be fundamentally prepared . . . I think they'll work really, really hard. Those are the things he builds his units around," Mayberry said.

Castillo's public image since taking over the offensive line the year before Reid arrived, after 2 years in other roles on Ray Rhodes' staff, has been as a mechanic, not an engineer, a coach who puts a lot more energy into how guys set their feet than into theory. Mayberry said that image sells Castillo short.

"Usually, when putting together a game plan for each and every week, the run game comes back to the offensive line coach," Mayberry said. He said Castillo normally would be asked what would work best against a certain defensive front.

"I think that's one of his strengths," Mayberry said, "understanding what's the best way to attack a certain look."

Talking to Mayberry about Castillo was reassuring, but the fact remains that the Eagles are doing something nobody interviewed at Super Bowl week yesterday could ever remember happening in the NFL.

Esteemed Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said even if he couldn't come up with a specific instance, "people move back and forth all the time from one side of the ball to the other."

But would LeBeau ever think an o-line coach could run the defense?

"What I think doesn't matter," he said. "What's important is that they think he can."

Steelers offensive line coach Sean Kugler played for o-line coach Andy Reid at UTEP in 1987 and '88. Kugler recalled razzing Reid about never bringing in doughnuts for the line - "we used to always kid him that he ate 'em on the way to work," Kugler recalled. But Kugler has a lot of respect for the Eagles' head coach, and for Castillo.

"He knows what type of pressures defeat protections, how run fits, how coverage fits. It's probably not as far out as it seems on paper," Kugler said. "A lot of it, again, is a guy's determination . . . It'll probably be a hard transition, but I bet it gets done."

So, maybe Kugler will replace LeBeau if LeBeau, 73, retires after Sunday's game?

"No," he said. "There'd be more than a few scratched heads if they ever did that. I have no aspirations to do that."

An Eagles spokesman indicated yesterday that Michael Vick probably will not attend a Super Bowl party being promoted under his name tonight in Dallas.

"Dallas Dynasty 2011" is an event being billed as the "premier A-list high society event of the 2011 Super Bowl." The party is listed as running from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Jeff Skaggs, owner of the Deux Lounge in Dallas, told TMZ.com, that among the precautions being taken is that he has hired three off-duty SWAT team members to patrol the area during the party, which presumably would prevent a repeat of the gunfire at Vick's 30th birthday party last summer. According to the report, Vick will have his own security team, the NFL is providing a security team, the club is bringing in extra members of its security team. Also, guests will be searched and wanded on the way in.

In other news, the Eagles quarterback was named the Comeback Player of the Year last night at the NFL Players PULSE awards, presented at the Hyatt Regency Dallas. *

For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.

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