At the NFL owners’ fall meetings in Houston, Texas, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has reportedly said that he still has ‘full confidence’ and support in his general manager Ryan Grigson and head coach Chuck Pagano:
#Colts owner Jim Irsay here in Houston talking about a "gut wrenching" loss. Says he has "full confidence" in the leadership, coach & GM.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 18, 2016
Jim Irsay supports Pagano & Grigson. Said decision to retain them was well thought out and long term. believes with Luck have right pillars.
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) October 18, 2016
While the Colts have fallen to 2-4 and are in last place in the woeful AFC South–following Sunday night’s late game collapse to the Houston Texans, Irsay still apparently believes that both Pagano and Grigson are the ‘right men’ for the job.
Despite significant criticism falling upon the Colts leadership in recent weeks, Irsay appears to be willing to stay the course–at least at this time. It’s uncertain whether that will be the right decision long-term. Time will ultimately tell.
The Colts owner has rarely made a significant midseason move in his past 19 seasons running the team, and to be honest, such a move wouldn’t realistically help the team much this season. It’s worth playing the season out and seeing where the chips fall.
However, whatever the case may be, the Colts clearly have their work cut out for them for the remainder of the season, as the team is tied for the 6th worst record in all of football and is staring at a Top 10 NFL Draft pick right now.
The team could clearly use a spark–any spark to save their season.
While the Colts offense has shown signs of significant life–averaging 26.7 ppg (7th), the defense is currently among the league’s worst, allowing an average of 29.0 ppg (28th) and 411.2 ypg (30th) after 6 games respectively.
After 5 seasons of the current regime, the Colts have the same re-occurring issues of a mediocre defense (even worse this season), poor pass protection, and this year–for the first time, a failure to actually close out games.
Some of that falls squarely on the players’ shoulders for simply not performing; however, with all three combined together for the Colts, it’s not a recipe for success–in fact, far from it.
The Colts have had the luxury of beating up on the lowly AFC South in the past; however, the team is now 0-2 in the division. If the team fails to win at Tennessee on Sunday, it’s fair to question whether their playoff hopes are realistically shot–already with 5 losses after just 7 games and soundly in the cellar of the worst division in football.