There are a few ways to take new Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard’s statements on head coach Chuck Pagano. You could take them as a show of support for Pagano and the work he’s done in Indianapolis over the last few years or, as I choose to, you could take them as an acquiescence to the facts, That, for whatever reason, Pagano is still the head coach and Ballard has to deal with it for at least one more season.
“There are no other options,” Ballard said at his press conference Monday. “It’s Chuck Pagano. Chuck Pagano is a good football coach in the National Football League. Three 11-5 seasons, went to the AFC Championship Game, had two 8-8 (seasons) back to back, but he’s won 49 games. We need to keep our eye on how hard it is to win in this league.”
We have hired Chris Ballard as the Colts General Manager: https://t.co/YxMpIAxMBV pic.twitter.com/wIcpseC4zC
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) January 29, 2017
Pagano has been the Colts’ head coach since 2012, the same year he got diagnosed with cancer and missed 12 games. That season introduced Bruce Arians as NFL head coaching material as he helped the Colts to an 11-5 finish and a playoff appearance.
Pagano, without Arians, led the Colts to two straight 11-5 finishes and an AFC Championship game appearance in 2014. A game more famous for getting the Patriots busted with DeflateGate than with the Colts’ actual performance.
It’s all been downhill from there, with two straight 8-8 finishes, one due to a horrific lost year from Andrew Luck in 2015 due to multiple injuries. But this latest 8-8 season? It’s hard to argue a lot of that isn’t Pagano’s fault. On paper, it’s hard to make the case that Pagano should have been fired after this season along with former GM Ryan Grigson. But games aren’t won and lost on paper, as we’re taught every single Sunday and Pagano has blown this opportunity with the Colts. Hard.
New #Colts GM Chris Ballard signed a 5-year deal, owner Jim Irsay said at his press conference.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 30, 2017
Teams have windows and every year wasted with the wrong coach, closes it a little more. You see it all over the place. Aaron Rodgers is saddled with Mike McCarthy in Green Bay. Houston is stuck with Bill O’Brien because of two, pure-luck-related, playoff appearances. Jim Caldwell in Detroit is like the NFL’s HPV infection. Sometimes, you get stuck with a coach. A coach that can’t maximize your team’s talents, but does just enough to eke by and keep a job.
Andrew Luck is a star. A good draft and some key free agent moves would put this Colts team right back in the championship hunt. But they can’t do it without an upgrade in the coaching staff, on both offense and defense and especially the head coach.
Andrew Luck is entering his sixth year as a pro and this is his prime. He should be stacking up MVPs and Lombardis over the next four or five seasons. What’s going to hold him back?
Colts GM Chris Ballard on retaining HC Chuck Pagano: pic.twitter.com/7xywVTXyrr
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 31, 2017
Ask Aaron Rodgers. Because Mike McCarthy is an albatross made from pure, refined millstone strapped around his neck, costing him ring after ring.
Luck (and Rodgers) deserves better. Imagine, if you will, a world where Pagano was fired at the end of last season and the Colts, with Luck as a selling point, were looking at all the possible head coaching hires available. Now, imagine if they hired, say, Kyle Shanahana, the author of the best offense in the NFL to be their new head coach.
Does anyone reading this believe, for a second, the 2017 Colts wouldn’t be a much better, more dangerous, and winning team with Shanahan as the head coach? Then why the hell would you not make the move?
A presser today, but Colts GM Chris Ballard intends to keep HC Chuck Pagano for 2017, then re-evaluate for 2018, per league sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 30, 2017
A few years ago people though John Elway was nuts for firing John Fox, a head coach that got the Broncos to the Super Bowl just a year earlier. But Elway knew the window he had with Peyton Manning at QB was closing. He knew there was another coach out there that could run his team better. So he made the call, let Fox go and brought in Gary Kubiak. All that happened was the Broncos won the Super Bowl. You know, the reason you even put a team on the field.
Pagano has been OK. And OK can sometimes work. Mike Tomlin has won a Super Bowl and took the Steelers there twice. McCarthy got a Lombardi, for God’s sake. OK can work. But it’s a waste when you could have a dynasty. And a dynasty needs a great coach. Pagano’s not the guy and Ballard knows it.
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