According to ESPN’s Mike Sando, Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski has been named in his next wave of potential NFL head coaches:
"Rob Chudzinski | Indianapolis ColtsCurrent position: Offensive coordinatorAge: 48Owners seem to love “hot” offensive coordinators, and Chudzinski could become one again while working with Andrew Luck. Owners also seem OK with giving former head coaches a second chance. Chudzinski survived his lone year as head coach in Cleveland (2013) and now there’s some distance between him and the experience."
While Chudzinski has the talent offensively to make the Colts one of the league’s best, he’ll have to help turn around star quarterback Andrew Luck, who struggled last season–throwing for just 15 touchdowns to 12 interceptions, a career passer rating low of 74.9, and was 2-5 in starts on the year.
Some of that can be attributed to Luck battling injuries–suffering from torn cartilage in two of his ribs early in the season. However, Luck has to regain his prior elite form and continue to improve as a young quarterback for Chudzinski to be considered a realistic head coaching candidate again.
Still, with a rejuvenated Luck in the fold, as well as playmakers such as T.Y. Hilton, Frank Gore, Donte Moncrief, Dwayne Allen, and Phillip Dorsett, the Colts definitely have enough talent to make some noise and return to being one of the best scoring offenses in football.
With Luck missing 9 games because of injuries, the Colts offense only averaged 20.8 ppg last season, which was the 9th worst in the entire NFL.
However, the potential is there as the team is just one season removed from averaging 28.6 ppg in 2014–6th best in the NFL, when Luck threw for a league-leading 40 touchdown passes and was 3rd in the NFL with 4,761 total passing yards.
One reason for hope among Colts fans is that with the addition of 1st round pick Ryan Kelly, the team will finally have a legitimate center who can anchor the interior of their offensive line for the next decade.
Not to mention, the team has also added offensive line coach Joe Philbin, who’s said to be something of a guru coaching the big uglies in the trenches, as well as other young offensive line talent throughout this year’s NFL Draft.
Simply put, the team has made significant strides in shoring up their once woeful offensive line.
While Chudzinski only went 4-12 in his only stint as an NFL head coach with the Cleveland Browns in 2013, there’s only so much someone can do when Jason Campbell (8 starts), Brandon Weeden (5 starts), and Brian Hoyer (3 starts) are your starting quarterbacks.
A silver lining of that disappointing season is that the Cleveland Browns actually were 11th in passing yards with 4,047 total passing yards.
It’s worth noting that Chudzinski has always had a proven track record of coaching successful tight ends such as Antonio Gates, Greg Olsen, Jordan Cameron, and Kellen Winslow Jr in previous coaching stops.
However, not only has Chudzinski always been highly regarded for his ability to maximize his tight ends’ production, but he’s also had some prior success with young star quarterbacks–namely as Cam Newton‘s offensive coordinator with the Carolina Panthers from 2011-12 (per ProFootballTalk):
"Newton then relayed a story that when the lockout briefly lifted in 2011, Chudzinski brought Newton in for a meeting and gave him a sheet of paper laying out “the blueprint of success for Cam Newton.”Newton said it’s something he still carries around with him in his wallet every day.“He gave me the things that I had to do to one, gain the trust of my teammates, gain the trust of the people in the organization as well as the fans but most of all gain the trust of myself. I appreciate him for that,” Newton said."
If Chudzinski can have a similar positive impact on his new star quarterback Andrew Luck, then it will go a long way toward him actually receiving serious future NFL head coaching interest.
However, right now, he clearly has his coaching work cut out for him, and it starts with getting back #12 to his familiar ‘self.