Colts: Chuck Pagano Admits Andrew Luck Saved His Job Multiple Times

Former Colts head coach Chuck Pagano has now admitted that he wouldn’t have lasted very long in Indianapolis without Andrew Luck.

After Colts fans waited a few years for the move to be made, Chuck Pagano was finally fired after going 4-12 in 2017.

Pagano finished his tenure in Indianapolis with a record of 53-43 and three playoff appearances, but he has now given most of the credit for that success to his franchise quarterback Andrew Luck.

Pagano appeared on Fox Sports 1’s “First Thing’s First” and said, “I love Andrew Luck. He got me more years than I probably deserved. He’s a phenom.”

Pagano and Luck became Colts during the same offseason before the 2012 regular season, and they made the playoffs in three straight years together going 11-5 in each of those three seasons.

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However, it’s worth mentioning that interim head coach Bruce Arians led Indianapolis for much of the 2012 season as Pagano was battling cancer.

The last three years of Pagano’s tenure were fairly rocky, and that can be explained, in part, by Andrew Luck’s absence.

Luck was only healthy for seven games of the 2015 season in which Pagano and the Colts limped to an 8-8 record. Although, they went 6-3 in the games that Luck missed.

The Colts went 8-8 again in 2016 with a healthy Luck, but the wheels fell off in 2017 winning only 4 games as Luck missed the entire season.

It is sometimes difficult to divide the credit between the coach and a quarterback when the team is wining, but it was pretty clear that Indianapolis’ success during the early years of Pagano’s tenure was mainly due to the brilliance of Andrew Luck.

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It’s nice to see that Pagano is so self-aware in giving Luck the credit he deserves.

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