Colts officially sign Rob Chudzinski as offensive coordinator
By Evan Reller
The Indianapolis Colts announced on Thursday they were removing the interim prefix from offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski.
The Colts coaching staff is starting to come together as the team signed Rob Chudzinski to a longterm deal making him the team’s official offensive coordinator. Chudzinski took over as OC in Week 9 after Pep Hamilton was fired.
The Colts were 5-3 with Chudzinski as the play caller. He also only had Andrew Luck as his QB for one game, a win against the Broncos during which he suffered a lacerated kidney and was lost for the year. To his credit, Chudzinski’s first win as OC was impressive as the Colts offense outplayed the NFL’s best defense.
More from Horseshoe Heroes
- Colts explored hiring former quarterback and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky
- When is the NFL Combine 2023? NFL Combine schedule, events, how to stream
- Latest NFL mock draft has Colts trading up to No. 1 for star QB
- Eagles offensive free agents that could follow Shane Steichen to Colts
- Here’s why Colts linebacker Shaq Leonard is going to love Shane Steichen
Prior to joining the Colts, Chudzinski was head coach of the Cleveland Browns for 2013. His team went 4-12 that season and featured one of the worst offenses in the league, mostly due to starting three different QBs and having nothing even close to a running game. Despite not having anything close to resembling a starting QB (Brian Hoyer and Brandon Weeden don’t count), the Browns fired him, because that’s what Cleveland does, blame the head coach for an unbelievable lack of talent.
Chudzinski was originally brought in as a special assistant to the head coach prior to the start of the 2014 season. It wasn’t clear what his role was to the team, but his expertise was clearly on the offensive side of the ball. Pagano was clearly never comfortable with Hamilton as his offensive coordinator since that move was made by GM Ryan Grigson and essentially forced upon Pagano.
Pagano now has “his guy” at offensive coordinator. The two have a long history, dating back to the late 90’s when they were both coaches at the University of Miami.
It is tough to say whether or not the Colts offense will be more or less successful with Chudzinski as the offensive coordinator. We don’t have a clear idea of what he wants to accomplish since the playbook was limited with a slowly decaying Matt Hasselbeck at QB.
Next: Colts Defensive Success Starts with Ryan Grigson
The Colts appear set at their top three coaching positions with this move and the hiring of Ted Monachino as defensive coordinator yesterday. There are some areas of concern (like offensive line and special teams coaches) that the team might address going forward.