Rich Hofmann: Eagles' line is all that matters to Jim Washburn

JIM WASHBURN WAS telling a story the other day, a story about himself, laced with equal parts down-home, self-deprecation and what-the-hell. It is what the Eagles defensive line coach does.

It was a story from back in 1999, when Washburn was interviewing for a defensive line coach job with Jeff Fisher, then the coach of the Tennessee Titans.

"It was me and him and Gregg Williams ooh, I shouldnt have said that," Washburn said, smiling. Williams, of course, is the man who was banished by the NFL for running a bounty program in New Orleans. Back then, Williams was the Titans defensive coordinator.

Washburn figured that Williams name isnt meant for polite NFL society at this point. So then he made sure to say it again.

"Me and him and Gregg Williams in Mobile, interviewing for a job," Washburn said. "I was coaching at the University of Houston. Jeff goes, You want to be the head coach someday, right? I said, Oh, no. He said, You want to be the coordinator, right? I said, No, I already did that and I was terrible.

He said, Oh, I got it. You want to be the best defensive line coach in the league, dont you? I said, Nah, Im not really interested in that. He said, What do you want to be? I said, I just want to coach the best defensive line in the league. Its not about me. I could care less. I just want to coach guys.

Thats the reason I came here," he said. "Because I knew this: theyre going to give you tools here. Some places, they dont. Some places, they dont have the contingency plan. If somebody gets hurt, they dont have a way to plug somebody in. Here, theyre going to get you players ... Thats all a life-timer like me, a position coach, can ask, is to have the tools. Theyre going to do that."

He has an overstocked cupboard this year, Jim Washburn does. In his second season on the Eagles staff, with the additions of draft choices Fletcher Cox and Vinny Curry, it is hard to imagine that, barring an injury, the Eagles arent going to have to let go of a good player or two from among Washburns group.

He calls Cox and Curry "sudden" and "quick" and "twitched-up dudes." He says Brandon Graham, a year removed from knee surgery, looks like a different player. When he talks about his bunch, led by Trent Cole, he lays it on pretty thick, and he realizes what he sounds like, and so he prefaces many of his comments with, "This is not the company line, or anything else ..."

Still, he keeps going.

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Rich Hofmann: Eagles' line is all that matters to Jim Washburn