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Report: Jim Irsay will go "Big Game Hunting" in the offseason if coaching change is made


TKnight24

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I like the message I just don't like the timing.

 

Agreed.

 

If the Colts don't win tomorrow I think the story/rumors about Pagano's job security will escalate even further....creating even more of a distraction.

 

If Irsay desires a big name I wonder who he has in mind?

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I wouldn't be surprised if this is a distraction to the locker room

I just post the links to keep the forum in the loop is all. I'm just the messenger haha

I know you are! Don't worry! I saw this earlier today! It's getting rediculous! haha

The media wants it to be a distraction to the team. That's the media... They did it to the Pacers and now they are attempting to do it to the Colts.

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I don't like where this is going. Irsay is either stupid if he is letting all this stuff leak right as the season starts....Or the media has an agenda to try and derail the Colts before they even get started this season. Can't imagine how this stuff is not a distraction at some level. Colts front office really coming off as dysfunctional. That eventually leads to mediocrity. Only thing Colts can do to silence this for now is to go out and win football games.

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There's a big difference between "Could" and "Will". He "could" sell the team this off-season, that won't happen either.

 

Exactly.

 

To be honest, if we win 10 or more games and make the playoffs again, Pagano will be have other teams in the league looking at him.  I don't know if any other coach in NFL history who inherited a 2-14 team has led them to 4 straight playoff appearances -- if any have, I doubt there are more than just a couple.  It is pretty obvious that this team has had holes throughout the roster in Pagano's time here -- at pretty much every position besides QB, P, K, and longsnapper (for example, last year we had weak coverage from our ILBs, tons of injuries and lack of talent on the OL, lack of talent and injuries on the DL, lack of depth and talent at WR after Reggie got hurt, lack of talent at safety, lack of talent at RB, lack of talent at OLB with an injured Mathis, lack of depth at CB when Butler and Toler had to miss games). 

 

Sure, there will be those who say Luck carried this team (which is true in part), but let's not forget Luck has also made some pretty poor decisions to put this team in bad situations.  He is young, and I'm a huge Luck fan, but as with any QB who starts as a rookie, there will be growing pains for the first couple of years.  Look no further than the game against Philly last year.  We came off a loss, and played a very good Philly team very well.  Up by a touchdown on Philadelphia's 22 yard line, with 5 minutes left, Luck throws a pick on 3rd down on a very poorly thrown ball (it might be on Pep for allowing a pass play to be called in that situation, but even so, Luck made a very bad decision and threw a bad pass).  Had we instead ran the ball, killed some more clock, and kicked a gimme field goal, we then are up by 2 scores with under 5 minutes remaining and most likely win that game.  

 

In the blowout losses, Luck has not played all that well

 

-- last year he threw 2 picks against Pittsburgh, the first of which was returned for a TD and the second of which in the 4th quarter when we were trying to comeback.  In that game, in the 4th quarter, we were down by 1 score (42-34) and starting to get hot when Luck tripped coming out of under center and then got an intentional grounding called in the endzone for a safety. 

-- in the regular season loss the NE, we had the ball on the Patriots' 32 yard line down 7-3 when Luck threw a pick which the Pats wound up turning into 7 points, putting us in a 14-3 hole early in the game (just about no team in the NFL can afford to put themselves down to the Pats like that and expect to have a shot at winning).

--In the loss to NE in the playoffs -- Luck threw 2 picks, one of which led to a NE touchdown.  In that game, Cribbs made a terrible play early by fumbling a punt which the Pats turned into 7 points.  The next drive, we missed a field goal which the Pats turned into 7, putting us in a 14 point hole very early in the game (as mentioned above, you cannot put yourself in a hole like that vs. NE, especially in NE -- and I don't think you can blame Pagano for Cribbs' stupidity or Vinatieri's miss, especially with him having only missed once all regular season).

--In the 2012 loss to NE (I think the worse loss in the Pagano era) -- we were tied 14-14 when Luck threw a pick that got returned for a TD, in the 2nd half he threw 2 more picks, one of which was returned 87 yards for a TD which put the game out of reach.  In that game, Donnie Brown also fumbled in the 2nd half which NE turned to 7 points.

--In the loss to the Cowboys last year, Luck only played a little more than half the game, but managed to throw 2 INTs when he was in (we were getting smoked prior to that, but it was also a game that didn't really mean a whole lot).

 

In many of Luck's comeback wins, he was, at least in part, responsible for putting us in a hole to begin with - in Kansas City in the playoffs, Luck threw 2 picks in the 2nd half which KC turned into 10 points.

 

I am in no way meaning to bash Luck or blame him here -- but the fact of the matter is, he has gone through some growing pains and made some costly mistakes.  Overall, he has been great for us -- but he has still made some bone-headed decisions which cannot be fully blamed on Pagano or the coaches.  The coaches can only coach -- to some extent, bad decisions and bad plays by players on the field are a reflection of coaching, but it is not up to them to actually make plays on the field.

 

Some may say we're in a weak division.  It still doesn't change the fact that Pagano has managed to lead this team to 11 wins 3 years in a row after coming into a team which finished the prior season with a 2-14 record and needed a complete overhaul -- it's not like the team he inherited was just a player or 2 away from being a great team, without a healthy Peyton that team was pretty terrible across the board (outside P, K, Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis, Costanzo, and Bethea -- Freeney simply was not a good fit for the new defense).

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It sounds like Grigson has been forcing bad players to start this whole time to save face (harrison, dhb, richardson, etc) and no good coach will want to coach for us with Grigson hovering over their shoulder making the depth chart. Grigson needs to go if this franchise is to move forward. Theres just simply no reason to keep him around after the richardson trade.

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I don't like where this is going. Irsay is either stupid if he is letting all this stuff leak right as the season starts....Or the media has an agenda to try and derail the Colts before they even get started this season. Can't imagine how this stuff is not a distraction at some level. Colts front office really coming off as dysfunctional. That eventually leads to mediocrity. Only thing Colts can do to silence this for now is to go out and win football games.

I think the media is out to derail us. Most in the media like Andrew but most don't want to see a small market team win the SB, it's just an opinion but that's the feel I get when I watch ESPN anyway. They acted the same way when we had Peyton too.

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Big name hunting... Come on, it will just be another Dungy / Pagano clone.

 

To be honest, I'm not really sure what 'big names' I would want in Indy.

 

Saban failed last time he tried to make it in the NFL.  Urban Meyer is untested in the NFL.

 

Mike Shanahan was unsuccessful his last go round in the NFL.  Bill Cowher has been out of the league for a while.  Gruden, IMO, is one of the most overrated coaches of all time (he won Dungy's superbowl and then drove that Bucs' franchise into the ground) and has been out of the game for a while. 

 

A lot of the 'big names' who have been successful in the NFL before and are not coaching now are not coaching for a reason.  The NFL is changing more rapidly than ever with rule changes, with the league become a pass-happy league, with players being different than ever before (bigger, faster, stronger, etc., not to mention being much different to handle from a mental/social standpoint than any point in history), with very athletic QBs being very common place. 

It is my opinion that it will do us pretty much no good to go get a 'big name', especially an older coach who has been out of the league for a while.  There is a reason why coaches loss their jobs in the first place, and why several of the 'big names' are still on the market.

 

If we are to get a new coach this offseason, I hope it is an experienced coordinator from another successful NFL team that is fresh with the game and won't attempt to totally rebuild this team again.

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To be honest, I'm not really sure what 'big names' I would want in Indy.

 

Saban failed last time he tried to make it in the NFL.  Urban Meyer is untested in the NFL.

 

Mike Shanahan was unsuccessful his last go round in the NFL.  Bill Cowher has been out of the league for a while.  Gruden, IMO, is one of the most overrated coaches of all time (he won Dungy's superbowl and then drove that Bucs' franchise into the ground) and has been out of the game for a while. 

 

A lot of the 'big names' who have been successful in the NFL before and are not coaching now are not coaching for a reason.  The NFL is changing more rapidly than ever with rule changes, with the league become a pass-happy league, with players being different than ever before (bigger, faster, stronger, etc., not to mention being much different to handle from a mental/social standpoint than any point in history), with very athletic QBs being very common place. 

It is my opinion that it will do us pretty much no good to go get a 'big name', especially an older coach who has been out of the league for a while.  There is a reason why coaches loss their jobs in the first place, and why several of the 'big names' are still on the market.

 

If we are to get a new coach this offseason, I hope it is an experienced coordinator from another successful NFL team that is fresh with the game and won't attempt to totally rebuild this team again.

It's a crapshoot really. Hopefully we win it all so we don't need to have this discussion by seasons end and Pagano proves he can take us to the promise land. By the way I kind of like Gruden, I know you mentioned he's overrated but he still did win a SB in Tampa and I thought he did good in Oakland as well. He also is a big fan of Andrew's.

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I don't like where this is going. Irsay is either stupid if he is letting all this stuff leak right as the season starts....Or the media has an agenda to try and derail the Colts before they even get started this season. Can't imagine how this stuff is not a distraction at some level. Colts front office really coming off as dysfunctional. That eventually leads to mediocrity. Only thing Colts can do to silence this for now is to go out and win football games.

It's pretty clear IMO that the media does have an agenda to make things negative and distract the Colts. I think it is stemmed from the Colts pointing the finger at the Patriots. The media sure loves them some Patriots and the media has a negative outlook on the Colts because of it. There are two shows I can think of that take every chance they get to degrade the Colts and Jim Irsay. I think you are totally correct that winning will shut these media guys up for a minute till the next time they have their chance to get their digs in. Most of these media guys put out articles that goes on the front page of those $2 rag mags you see at the checkout at your local Kroger.

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Good. Bring in some people who actually know how to coach.

And bring players here to Indy.

 

We have won 11 games three years in a row.  We've advanced one round further in the playoffs each year Pagano has been here.

 

Sorry, but I think there are 27 or 28 other teams in the NFL who would be envious of what this team has accomplished in the past 3 years, especially given where we were prior to this regime (2-14, the laughing stock of the league). 

Seriously, please try to come up with a list of coaches in NFL history who have ever inherited a 2-14 team needing a total rebuild and have gone on to win 11 or more games and made the playoffs their 1st 3 seasons.

 

Sure, there are some coaching decisions which may be questionable, but every single team in the NFL has that after a loss.  No team in the NFL has been perfect since the 1972-73 Dolphins, so I'm pretty sure for the past 44 years, there has not been a single team in the league whose fans have not questioned at least some coaching decisions at least once in the season (the 2007-2008 NE Patriots being the only team to almost have that claim to fame).

 

The fact of the matter is, Pagano inherited a terrible team -- the WORST team in the league.  He changed the offensive and defensive schemes and the players on the roster he inherited were already bad (for the most part), plus they didn't fit into his schemes.  This team has been essentially entirely rebuilt since Pagano inherited it.  We've been lucky to have a very good young QB, a couple of very good legs on special teams, and a scattered group of good young players and the past 2 years it has helped to be in a relatively weak division -- it still doesn't change the fact that Pagano has won more regular season games than all but Mike McCarthy, Pete Carroll, Bill Bellichek, and John Fox over his first 3 seasons as an NFL head coach (that is right, he has more wins in the past 3 years than more than 27 other NFL coaches).  He has done this with a team with glaring weaknesses on both sides of the ball.

 

He has also only lost consecutive games once in the regular season since he has been here (due to a solid job of film study and correcting mistakes) and has advanced a round further in the playoffs each year he's been here.

 

I am pretty sure he knows how to coach.  At least a little bit.

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It sounds like Grigson has been forcing bad players to start this whole time to save face (harrison, dhb, richardson, etc) and no good coach will want to coach for us with Grigson hovering over their shoulder making the depth chart. Grigson needs to go if this franchise is to move forward. Theres just simply no reason to keep him around after the richardson trade.

You base your opinion on one bad trade? Sorry, but that is being too narrow minded. Do you seem to think that all GMs do nothing but bring in all pro players? Go ahead and overlook the good things that Grigson has done because you will find fault with that also.

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It's a crapshoot really. Hopefully we win it all so we don't need to have this discussion by seasons end and Pagano proves he can take us to the promise land. By the way I kind of like Gruden, I know you mentioned he's overrated but he still did win a SB in Tampa and I thought he did good in Oakland as well. He also is a big fan of Andrew's.

I don't buy into a coach that likes the camera better than he does coaching. Just watch his reaction when a camera gets within 50 feet of him. He turns on the lights just like a laser beam. He has the gift of gab that's for sure.

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It's a crapshoot really. Hopefully we win it all so we don't need to have this discussion by seasons end and Pagano proves he can take us to the promise land. By the way I kind of like Gruden, I know you mentioned he's overrated but he still did win a SB in Tampa and I thought he did good in Oakland as well. He also is a big fan of Andrew's.

 

I think Gruden got a lot of credit because he was a very public figure as a coach.  The media always made a big deal about him sleeping in his office, how hard he worked, his nickname "Chucky", etc..

 

He was fairly impressive in Oakland when he had a very talented team.

 

He stepped into the best defense in the NFL when he arrived in Tampa.  That was a product of Monte Kiffin and Tony Dungy building that group.  He did improve the offense in that first season and rode the #1 ranked NFL defense into the Superbowl.  He then followed up with 2 consecutive losing seasons.

 

Overall, Gruden had a .540 winning percentage as a regular season coach -- compared to Pagano's .688 winning percentage.  I don't think Gruden is a terrible coach, I think he is just a bit over-rated and over-hyped by the media.  I think there is a reason why Gruden did not remain a head coach in the NFL after going only 1 game over .500 in his 7 seasons with Tampa Bay.  I know he is a huge fan of Luck, but I think you could say that about every single person who has ever coached a down of football.

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I'd happily take a Dungy clone. Dungy>>> Pagano

Doesn't even matter. I am tired of seeing the Colts go after the quiet and reserved "good guy" head coaches. They make for a good image and just barely squeak by in categories that lead to championships.

 

If Pagano is on his way out then the Colts would be wise to go after a veteran coach that has some emotion. I wanted Rex Ryan but that ship has sailed. Todd Bowles would be able to put together a defense worth watching.

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I think Gruden got a lot of credit because he was a very public figure as a coach.  The media always made a big deal about him sleeping in his office, how hard he worked, his nickname "Chucky", etc..

 

He was fairly impressive in Oakland when he had a very talented team.

 

He stepped into the best defense in the NFL when he arrived in Tampa.  That was a product of Monte Kiffin and Tony Dungy building that group.  He did improve the offense in that first season and rode the #1 ranked NFL defense into the Superbowl.  He then followed up with 2 consecutive losing seasons.

 

Overall, Gruden had a .540 winning percentage as a regular season coach -- compared to Pagano's .688 winning percentage.  I don't think Gruden is a terrible coach, I think he is just a bit over-rated and over-hyped by the media.  I think there is a reason why Gruden did not remain a head coach in the NFL after going only 1 game over .500 in his 7 seasons with Tampa Bay.  I know he is a huge fan of Luck, but I think you could say that about every single person who has ever coached a down of football.

I also have read where there is a lot of Guden's ex players who don't care for him at all. Some say he lies and is very two faced to his players. It wasn't a coincidence that after the Bucs super bowl win that the Bucs defensive players contacted Dungy and not Gruden.

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Exactly.

 

To be honest, if we win 10 or more games and make the playoffs again, Pagano will be have other teams in the league looking at him.  I don't know if any other coach in NFL history who inherited a 2-14 team has led them to 4 straight playoff appearances -- if any have, I doubt there are more than just a couple.  It is pretty obvious that this team has had holes throughout the roster in Pagano's time here -- at pretty much every position besides QB, P, K, and longsnapper (for example, last year we had weak coverage from our ILBs, tons of injuries and lack of talent on the OL, lack of talent and injuries on the DL, lack of depth and talent at WR after Reggie got hurt, lack of talent at safety, lack of talent at RB, lack of talent at OLB with an injured Mathis, lack of depth at CB when Butler and Toler had to miss games). 

 

Sure, there will be those who say Luck carried this team (which is true in part), but let's not forget Luck has also made some pretty poor decisions to put this team in bad situations.  He is young, and I'm a huge Luck fan, but as with any QB who starts as a rookie, there will be growing pains for the first couple of years.  Look no further than the game against Philly last year.  We came off a loss, and played a very good Philly team very well.  Up by a touchdown on Philadelphia's 22 yard line, with 5 minutes left, Luck throws a pick on 3rd down on a very poorly thrown ball (it might be on Pep for allowing a pass play to be called in that situation, but even so, Luck made a very bad decision and threw a bad pass).  Had we instead ran the ball, killed some more clock, and kicked a gimme field goal, we then are up by 2 scores with under 5 minutes remaining and most likely win that game.  

 

In the blowout losses, Luck has not played all that well

 

-- last year he threw 2 picks against Pittsburgh, the first of which was returned for a TD and the second of which in the 4th quarter when we were trying to comeback.  In that game, in the 4th quarter, we were down by 1 score (42-34) and starting to get hot when Luck tripped coming out of under center and then got an intentional grounding called in the endzone for a safety. 

-- in the regular season loss the NE, we had the ball on the Patriots' 32 yard line down 7-3 when Luck threw a pick which the Pats wound up turning into 7 points, putting us in a 14-3 hole early in the game (just about no team in the NFL can afford to put themselves down to the Pats like that and expect to have a shot at winning).

--In the loss to NE in the playoffs -- Luck threw 2 picks, one of which led to a NE touchdown.  In that game, Cribbs made a terrible play early by fumbling a punt which the Pats turned into 7 points.  The next drive, we missed a field goal which the Pats turned into 7, putting us in a 14 point hole very early in the game (as mentioned above, you cannot put yourself in a hole like that vs. NE, especially in NE -- and I don't think you can blame Pagano for Cribbs' stupidity or Vinatieri's miss, especially with him having only missed once all regular season).

--In the 2012 loss to NE (I think the worse loss in the Pagano era) -- we were tied 14-14 when Luck threw a pick that got returned for a TD, in the 2nd half he threw 2 more picks, one of which was returned 87 yards for a TD which put the game out of reach.  In that game, Donnie Brown also fumbled in the 2nd half which NE turned to 7 points.

--In the loss to the Cowboys last year, Luck only played a little more than half the game, but managed to throw 2 INTs when he was in (we were getting smoked prior to that, but it was also a game that didn't really mean a whole lot).

 

In many of Luck's comeback wins, he was, at least in part, responsible for putting us in a hole to begin with - in Kansas City in the playoffs, Luck threw 2 picks in the 2nd half which KC turned into 10 points.

 

I am in no way meaning to bash Luck or blame him here -- but the fact of the matter is, he has gone through some growing pains and made some costly mistakes.  Overall, he has been great for us -- but he has still made some bone-headed decisions which cannot be fully blamed on Pagano or the coaches.  The coaches can only coach -- to some extent, bad decisions and bad plays by players on the field are a reflection of coaching, but it is not up to them to actually make plays on the field.

 

Some may say we're in a weak division.  It still doesn't change the fact that Pagano has managed to lead this team to 11 wins 3 years in a row after coming into a team which finished the prior season with a 2-14 record and needed a complete overhaul -- it's not like the team he inherited was just a player or 2 away from being a great team, without a healthy Peyton that team was pretty terrible across the board (outside P, K, Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis, Costanzo, and Bethea -- Freeney simply was not a good fit for the new defense).

I stopped reading when you said Luck "tripped" vs the steelers. Unless "tripped" means a rookie lineman stepped on his foot.

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I think Gruden got a lot of credit because he was a very public figure as a coach.  The media always made a big deal about him sleeping in his office, how hard he worked, his nickname "Chucky", etc..

 

He was fairly impressive in Oakland when he had a very talented team.

 

He stepped into the best defense in the NFL when he arrived in Tampa.  That was a product of Monte Kiffin and Tony Dungy building that group.  He did improve the offense in that first season and rode the #1 ranked NFL defense into the Superbowl.  He then followed up with 2 consecutive losing seasons.

 

Overall, Gruden had a .540 winning percentage as a regular season coach -- compared to Pagano's .688 winning percentage.  I don't think Gruden is a terrible coach, I think he is just a bit over-rated and over-hyped by the media.  I think there is a reason why Gruden did not remain a head coach in the NFL after going only 1 game over .500 in his 7 seasons with Tampa Bay.  I know he is a huge fan of Luck, but I think you could say that about every single person who has ever coached a down of football.

Yeah you bring up some valid points. I really would just like to see Pagano succeed and prove the doubters wrong. I have some friends that give him little credit though and say we should've kept Arians instead and let Pagano go. Arians actually should credit for season 1 as he was the Coach on the field for most of the season but I like Pagano, just not sure we can win a SB with him.

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I think Gruden got a lot of credit because he was a very public figure as a coach.  The media always made a big deal about him sleeping in his office, how hard he worked, his nickname "Chucky", etc..

 

He was fairly impressive in Oakland when he had a very talented team.

 

He stepped into the best defense in the NFL when he arrived in Tampa.  That was a product of Monte Kiffin and Tony Dungy building that group.  He did improve the offense in that first season and rode the #1 ranked NFL defense into the Superbowl.  He then followed up with 2 consecutive losing seasons.

 

Overall, Gruden had a .540 winning percentage as a regular season coach -- compared to Pagano's .688 winning percentage.  I don't think Gruden is a terrible coach, I think he is just a bit over-rated and over-hyped by the media.  I think there is a reason why Gruden did not remain a head coach in the NFL after going only 1 game over .500 in his 7 seasons with Tampa Bay.  I know he is a huge fan of Luck, but I think you could say that about every single person who has ever coached a down of football.

I also think he has realized how stress free and how high paying being a TV guy is.  There is a reason why you haven't seen him or Cowher step back into coaching and it's not because they didn't have chances. 

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Yeah you bring up some valid points. I really would just like to see Pagano succeed and prove the doubters wrong. I have some friends that give him little credit though and say we should've kept Arians instead and let Pagano go. Arians actually should credit for season 1 as he was the Coach on the field for most of the season but I like Pagano, just not sure we can win a SB with him.

I really doubt Arians would have taken the Colts job had they fired Pagano, the guy who brought him back into coaching when everyone else had given up on him and he was ready to retire, to give it to him.  Not to mention firing your coach when he beat cancer is a toxic black eye that would have made a lot of people just flat out tell the Colts no because of how they do business. 

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I really doubt Arians would have taken the Colts job had they fired Pagano, the guy who brought him back into coaching when everyone else had given up on him and he was ready to retire, to give it to him.  Not to mention firing your coach when he beat cancer is a toxic black eye that would have made a lot of people just flat out tell the Colts no because of how they do business. 

Very true, that would've looked bad image wise.

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