The Chicago Bears have begun to retool their coaching staff over the past week. After cutting loose three offensive assistants, they hired their first replacement when longtime NFL veteran Juan Castillo agreed to become their offensive line coach. If experience was something Matt Nagy wanted, he couldn’t have found anybody better. Castillo has held the title of offensive line coach a total of 17 seasons in the league between 1998 and 2017 for three different organizations.
A lot of success was had during that time including seven rushing attacks that finished top 10 in yards. Not to mention two Super Bowl trips and a Lombardi trophy. This guy has seen what great blocking is supposed to look like and how to get there. If that weren’t enough, it’s also not the first time he’ll be walking into a situation where the offensive line suffered a significant regression.
Looking back over his history, he developed a bit of a knack for quick turnarounds.
Juan Castillo has a reputation for turning around bad lines
One does not last over two decades in the NFL without being fairly good at your job. Castillo has proven his mettle with multiple organizations. Not only that, he had a solid reputation for working instant results for struggling units. Even when the talent available wasn’t the best.
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Philadelphia
- 1997 – 64 sacks allowed
- 1998 – 56 sacks allowed with three new OL starters
Castillo was tight ends coach in ’97. He did a good enough job that the team trusted him to somehow fix a leaky offensive line the next year. He proceeded to move the left tackle to left guard, start a rookie at left tackle, and the right tackle was replaced with a 34-year old playing in his final season. It wasn’t perfect but the Eagles gave up eight fewer sacks despite having to protect the likes of Bobby Hoying, Koy Detmer, and Rodney Peete.
Baltimore
- 2013 – 48 sacks allowed and 30th ranked run game
- 2014 – 19 sacks allowed and 8th ranked run game
Easily the most impressive job Castillo delivered though came in 2014. In 2012 and 2013, he’d been the run game coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. After a dismal showing in ’13 though, he was put in charge of the offensive line. The group rallied to have a terrific season, giving up an insane 29 fewer sacks than the year before. It’s worth mentioning he also replaced three starters that time around too.
There is nothing about the Bears’ issues up front that will scare him. He’s seen everything there is to see and he’s gotten decent results out of groups with far less talent than they have.
