Indianapolis Colts Will Miss Bruce Arians
The past year has been full of emotion for the Indianapolis Colts. From the loss of Peyton Manning, to the loss of Chuck Pagano, and now to the loss of former offensive coodinator Bruce Arians, the past year has had its fair share of emotional ups and downs for this franchise. Just as they did at this time last year, the Colts will have to move on and make adjusments to prosper in the future.
When Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia, Arians took over the head coaching duties, helping the Colts to a inspiring and improbable turnaround season. In an odd twist of fate, an illness kept Arians off the field for the Colts’ final game of the season. It’s not too much of a surprise, but is still a bit disheartening, that Arians had such an impactful but short stint in Indianapolis.
Arians had been involved in coaching at the college and pro level for nearly 40 years, including two separate times with the Colts, but had never been offered a head coaching job. Several teams interviewed Arians over the past few weeks, including the Chicago Bears and San Diego Chargers. As those jobs dwindled down in availability, Arians actually found himself getting signed on with the last open job. The Arizona Cardinals announced Arians as their new head coach last weekend.
Arians will have a tough job ahead of him. One tough spot for the Cardinals is their current quarterback carousel. Arians will have his hands full trying to find a solid signal caller to mentor and fill into that spot full time in Arizona. Arians also brought over one of his Colts staff to help him along in Arizona. Harold Goodwin, former offensive line coach for Indianapolis, was brought along to be the new offensive coordinator for the Cardinals.
A changing of the guard is never easy, especially when it’s a loss of suc a significant part of a team’s success. Losing Goodwin might end up being a good thing, as many issues for the Colts last year were attributed to the offensive line. The loss of Arians will time some time to move on from, and some time to adjust to a new scheme. We will look closely to see what occurs, and how this team will try to improve from last season, with a new offensive coordinator.