Mike Caldwell, who played linebacker for the Eagles for four years and coached here for five years, is the latest candidate to surface for the Eagles’ defensive coordinator vacancy, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Fowler reported that Caldwell will interview for the opening that became available when the Eagles cut ties with both 2023 defensive coordinators, Sean Desai and Matt Patricia.
Caldwell, 52, spent the last two years on the Jaguars’ coaching staff under former Eagles teammate Doug Pederson, but the 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.
He is the second official candidate for the defensive coordinator opening that’s been identified. Ron Rivera – Caldwell’s position coach with the Eagles from 1999 through 2001 – is the other one.
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.
When Reid’s staff was fired after the 2012 season, Caldwell joined Bruce Arians in Arizona as inside linebackers coach, working under defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, who was also on Reid’s Eagles staff in 2012.
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.
The Eagles are looking for their fourth defensive coordinator in three years after losing Jonathan Gannon to the Cards following the Super Bowl last year and using both Sean Desai and Matt Patricia this year with disappointing results.
It may be too early to discern a trend, but Caldwell and Rivera have several things in common that could give us a sense of what Jeff Lurie is looking for in a coordinator or what Nick Sirianni presented to Lurie that he wants in a DC.
Rivera and Caldwell both played linebacker, both spent at least nine years in the NFL, both coached early in their career under Andy Reid, both won a Super Bowl either as a player or a coach and both have coached in the league for at least 15 years.
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 Andy 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 played college football at Middle Tennessee State, also the alma mater of Reed Blankenship and Kevin Byard as well as former Eagles David Little, Kelly Holcomb and Don Griffin.
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