Steve Spagnuolo, the Eagles, and are Rams making the right moves?

The New Orleans Saints probably didn’t expect to be thrust into the search for a new defensive coordinator almost immediately after their divisional round loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

But it’s likely they would have looked at replacements to Gregg Williams at some point this off season, regardless of the early departure.

Williams was in the final year of his contract with the team, and as linebacker Scott Shanle put it recently, opposing offenses had figured out his defensive game plan and the “blitz, blitz, blitz” scheme he deployed had failed the Saints too many times.

Essentially the decision was made for the New Orleans front office on what to do with Williams when he was recruited by his good friend Jeff Fisher to become the new defensive coordinator of the re-building St.Louis Rams.

Fisher took over in St.Louis when the team fired Steve Spagnuolo after three mediocre seasons and a 10-38 record overall.

Upon his firing Spagnuolo immediately became the best defensive coordinator on the market.

According to the experts he was locked into the rejoin the Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff, considering the future of current defensive coordinator Juan Castillo was in flux.

It’s a move that made sense for Spagnuolo, having spent seven seasons there as an assistant coach before moving on to become the New York Giants defensive coordinator in 2007.

The Eagles struggled mightily last season (8-8), moreover they struggled on defense under first year defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, a converted offensive line coach that favored the rare “Wide 9” defense.

Early on his scheme was exposed, and fans wanted his head in the worst way.