THE LAST TIME the Wide 9 was seen in these parts, it was helping grease the skids for Andy Reid's firing and being excoriated as a bad awful defensive alignment that seemingly sacrificed everything else for the sake of sacks.
The Wide 9, a deployment in which the defensive ends line up near the mezzanine-level concession stands so they can burn rubber around the offensive tackles and beat them to the quarterback, was brought to the Eagles in 2011 by Jim Washburn, who was hired as the team's defensive line coach shortly after Reid came up with the really, really dumb idea to make his longtime offensive line coach, Juan Castillo, his new defensive coordinator.