Eagles coach Andy Reid on Wednesday denied reports that Eric Mangini turned down a defensive consultant's role with the team, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
According to ESPN's Sal Paolantonio on Wednesday, Mangini, the former New York Jets and Cleveland Browns coach, was Philly's top choice for the role -- a role the Eagles deny even exists.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer went a step further, reporting that Mangini not only nixed the consulting gig, but balked at taking the team's defensive coordinator job before the season, presumably before it was offered to Juan Castillo.
An ESPN spokesman on Wednesday said Mangini denied the network's report.
One would imagine that Paolantonio could have dialed up Mangini himself, seeing as they both work for ESPN, but Reid called the reports "all fabricated" and denied ever discussing a consultant's role with anyone.
With the reports came inevitable snickers about why the Eagles would want to hire a coach who's been fired twice since 2008.
But Patriots coach Bill Belichick -- a "genius," right? -- saw enough in Mangini to make him New England's defensive coordinator in 2005.
When Rex Ryan took over the Jets in 2009, he benefited from players acquired during Mangini's up-and-down tenure, guys like Darrelle Revis, David Harris, Nick Mangold, D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Dustin Keller. Ryan adopted a team that was 9-4 at one stage in 2008 under Mangini -- a season that collapsed, in a sense, on the arm of Brett Favre. In Cleveland, amid a firestorm of haters, Mangini cleaned up a locker room in disarray and again made his successor's job that much easier.
Whether or not Philly pursued Mangini, it's interesting that his name came up. One thing's for sure, if the Eagles didn't pursue a defensive consultant, they might want to think about it.
