Cullen Jenkins painted a different picture of Jim Washburn than the one that has been circulating this week. Rather than an out-of-control, divisive figure, Jenkins sees his former defensive line coach as a misunderstood motivator with the best of intentions.
“Wash was a good coach. He just wanted the best for us,” said Jenkins. “People may not agree with his ways or saw what his goals were for us — I’m talking about people from the outside looking in — but Wash was a good coach. He had us motivated and playing hard.”
Washburn was fired following the loss to Dallas Sunday. His replacement, Tommy Brasher, got to work with the team for the first time on Wednesday. It is a tough situation for both Brasher and the players, who have seen more than their share of changes in recent weeks.
“I’m not sure what went on upstairs or what the communication between the different coaches was. You know, that stuff happens,” said Jenkins. “It happened with Juan [Castillo] earlier this year, [Jason] Babin and then Washburn. Whatever the reasons are it’s just something that happens, especially when you’re not winning things like this happen a lot.”
Stories began to surface upon his termination that Washburn was disrespectful to Castillo and was not working in sync with the rest of the coaching staff. Jenkins said he didn’t really see that.
“Wash with his personality, he’s just a fiery person. If you really know him you know he’s a good-hearted person, he speaks highly of all the coaches when he talked to us, so we never sensed anything like there was anything personal or anything like that,” he said.
But clearly something prompted Andy Reid to make a move with just four games remaining.
A couple of the defensive linemen Wednesday talked about the difficulty of switching up styles and scheme this late into the year. It is just the latest curveball in a season full of them.
“Tommy had an opportunity to meet with all of them, sit down and talk with them over the last couple days,” said Reid. “It’s a good group, and so they are on board and they are going to work hard; that’s their nature. I’m not worried about that.”
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