Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Familiar Birds brought on to expand nest of Howie helpers
Former Eagles Connor Barwin, Brent Celek and Darren Sproles have been added to the Birds’ football operations department, and the team has hired a new sports science and sports medicine director.
Barwin is special assistant to Eagles general manager Howie Roseman. Celek and Sproles are personnel consultants.
Let’s take a wild guess and say that Barwin, a 3-4 defensive end will specialize in scouting defensive personnel, Celek, a career tight end, will concentrate on the offensive side and Sproles will focus on running backs and special teams.
All are fiercely loyal to the Eagles, the No. 1 attribute demanded by Roseman as he continues to branch out on his own after losing football mind Joe Douglas and handful of assistant coaches who had no problems finding jobs upon their dismissals.
Though the proof is in the pudding, Barwin, per sources, is considered the biggest get. Highly organized, motivated and tireless, he’s been involved studying film and targeting areas of concern since before the Senior Bowl, when it became obvious that he was on the payroll.
Barwin, 33, last played for the New York Giants in 2018. He certainly should have no problem identifying pass rushers, having recorded 56.5 sacks in a 10-year career, including 14.5 in 2014 with the Birds.
Celek, 35, resides in West Chester and dabbled in real estate after stepping away from the game following the Eagles’ 2017 Super Bowl season. His “detoxification” from football wore off, however, and the former ironman through 11 seasons with the Birds has returned to the fold.
Sproles, 36, just can’t get away from the game. That’s what 14 NFL seasons, including six with the Eagles, do to a running back-kick returner who ranks among the top five in the league in career all-purpose yards.
The Eagles added Jeremiah Washburn, the son of former Eagles defensive line coach Jim Washburn, as director of player personnel-senior defensive assistant. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz worked with Jim Washburn with the Tennessee Titans.
Jim Washburn, you may recall, was hired by the Eagles before then head coach Andy Reid had a defensive coordinator. Reid was so adamant about having an assistant he could trust that he made offensive line coach
Juan Castillo the defensive coordinator. Reid eventually fired Castillo and Washburn, the latter of whom got into a sideline scrum with then offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.
Jeremiah Washburn is experienced in coaching and scouting, per the Eagles, who hired him as advanced projects coordinator last year. He’s supposed to fill the shoes of Andrew Berry, who left to become GM of the Cleveland Browns.
Washburn served as an offensive line coach for the Miami Dolphins (2016, 2018), Chicago Bears (2017) and Detroit Lions (2009-15). He also worked for the Baltimore Ravens as a personnel assistant from 200304 and an area scout from 2005-08.
The Eagles hired Tom Hunkele as their sports medicine director, and he has a history with the Eagles and the area, having grown up in Reading and worked for NovaCare Rehabilitation from 2000-05.
Formerly with the Minnesota Vikings, where he spent 14 seasons, Hunkele most recently was coordinator of rehabilitation and assistant athletic trainer, working with former Eagles assistant trainer and current Vikings head trainer Eric Sugarman, a product of West Chester University. Sugarman almost single-handedly rehabbed Terrell Owens from a fractured fibula late in the 2004 regular season to a near-MVP performance in Super Bowl XXXIX.
Ted Rath will be the director of sports performance, a job previously held by Shaun Huls, the guy who trained Navy SEALS. Huls was brought in by former Eagles head coach Chip Kelly.
Rath worked with the Los Angeles Rams the last three seasons as strength and conditioning coach. He has 11 years of NFL experience.