Or Why Chuck Pagano will not coach the Colts in 2016.
The Colts season mercifully came to a close yesterday with a win over the on-the-clock Titans resulting in an 8-8 record. The Pagano-Grigson war has been waging all year, but at this point it appears the only question remaining is whether Grigson will follow Pagano out the door.
Boiled down to one point, Pagano's biggest failure as a coach is his "Run the ball, stop the run" mantra. This hasn't been true in the NFL for years and will very likely not be true again next year. The top 6 passing offenses in DVOA made the playoffs. 8 of the top 9 passing defenses made the playoffs. This is not a coincidence. True, the best teams are good at both, but if you are building a team, you absolutely must worry about the pass first.
For all his failings, I generally think he's done a good job. He got decent results with very little talent on defense, went 8-8 with garbage QB play this year and generally has his players' support. Time after time, they have acquired players to run/stop the run to fit his scheme. If Grigson also believes this, he needs to go too and I'll certain advocate that. Pagano was not taking the Colts to the promised land and they need to move on to a coach that might. Chances are it'll be someone who is more in tune to what wins in the NFL. That will make me happy. Or they'll hire Jon Gruden and I'll be forced to become a Texans fan.
