Jeffrey Lurie thinks the world of Juan Castillo.

But Lurie awkwardly danced around the painful issue of whether he supported Andy Reid's decision to turn the offensive line coach into a defensive coordinator this season.

Castillo was in tough spot.

“What Andy did is he made – and I can’t speak for him - but I know in our discussions that he made a list of all of the top people that he was looking at to replace Sean McDermott as defensive coordinator," Lurie said Tuesday. "And things happen, circumstances happen and if changes don’t happen on other teams than certain coaches aren’t available. And he became very, very interested in Juan because he knew what he could accomplish. Whether he could accomplish it fast enough is an interesting question and he didn’t, the whole team didn’t, in terms of early in the season. 

"So I think when you analyze any decision of who’s going to coach that there’s a lot of hidden background in terms of where did that decision come from, the reason for it, what was the search process, who was truly available, and then move forward. And look, with Juan Castillo I will just say anyone who’s known this man for 17, 18 years as we all have. Incredibly impressive man, incredible family, incredible coach. And was he put into a situation where he couldn’t succeed early in the season?"

Follow Bob Grotz on Twitter.