Jason Babin has made more news since he left the Eagles than he did in this miserable season when he was lining up at defensive end in the now departed ‘Wide Nine’ alignment.
Babin, now playing in Jacksonville after being shown the door, followed a week later by defensive line coach Jim Washburn, the architect of the gimmicky Wide NIne, apparently just couldn’t resist taking another shot at Philly.
Only this time he was not aiming at the fans, with whom the one-time Pro Bowler had something of a love-hate relationship.
No, this time he was harpooning the front office, partly in defense of the guy whose defensive scheme rocketed him to All-Star status, and made him a boatload of money along the way.
“They don’t have amicable splits with people,” Babin said during a conference call. “You saw how dirty they did (Washburn) with leaking out the false stories and the way they talked about him on the way out. It’s kind of a big socialistic system that they have. I didn’t really care.”
Well, apparently he cared enough about it to address one more time.
Babin was pretty much a non-descript pass-rushing defensive end in his first go-round with the Birds. But after being released he found a little slice of heaven in Tennessee with Washburn. The hell-bent, get to the QB at all costs system personified by the Wide Nine rocketed Babin to superstar status. He signed a five-year, $28 million deal to come back to the Eagles. Washburn also came to Philly.
It may be one of the biggest mistakes Andy Reid made during his tenure here. The decision to bring in Washburn, with Babin in tow, was made before the Eagles had hired a defensive coordinator to replace Sean McDermott, who lasted just one season trying to fill the legendary shoes of the late Jim Johnson.
Suddenly, no one wanted to take the Birds’ defensive coordinator job. Several “name” candidates backed away. Reid, in maybe the signature move of the end of his reign in Philly, instead turned to longtime pal and offensive line coach Juan Castillo.
We all know how that worked out. It didn’t help that Washburn apparenly openly mocked Castillo to his players - including Babin - along the way.
Babin is now gone. So is Washburn. Reid likely will follow, presumably sometime soon after the Eagles walk off the field against the Giants in North Jersey Sunday afternoon.
If you’re looking for the biggest mistakes of the Reid era, you can put Babin/Washburn right up there at the top of the list.
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