The issue with Lou Anarumo with the Indianapolis Colts isn't how productive his defense is. The problem is that in the one season Anarumo has spent in Indy, he has never had his entire toolbox available. He has always been missing a key player or three.
The true indication of how good a coach Anarumo might be lies with his former team, the Cincinnati Bengals. Without Indy's current DC, Cincy has been atrocious defensively. Its offense has been fine, even while missing quarterback Joe Burrow for most of the year. It is Anarumo they have missed most.
The Colts' defensive coordinator never had a unit that was elite with the Bengals, but his direction this year, coupled with Cincinnati's awfulness, implies Lou Anarumo is better than the parts of the sum given him. If he he only had talent, he could work wonders.
Indianapolis Colts might need to hire Lou Anarumo's replacement this coming offseason
In other words, he is the type of coach who might take a group of players and have them be better than they should be. This is why he is getting some talk about being one-and-done with the Indianapolis Colts and being a head coach for some team in 2026. The Harvard football coach believes in him anyway.
Tim Murphy has been the football coach of Harvard since 1994. That isn't a joke. He has been one of the more unsung coaches in college football for the last three decades. His career record with the school is 200-89, and he has had one losing season since 1998. He knows ball, and he knows good coaches.
Lou Anarumo was one of his coaches from 1995 to 2000, and the respect from Murphy about Indy's DC remains strong. A recent article from Sports Illustrated's Conor Orr about potential NFL head coaching hires in 2026 proves that to be the case.
Orr cites Murphy as saying about Anarumo, "Staten Island in the best possible way." Indianapolis's defensive coordinator is originally from Staten Island, but Murphy meant even more.
The Indianapolis Colts' defensive coordinator has a way of looking at the players given to him, which might not have ever been great, and meshing them into something akin to quality.
The Cincinnati Bengals were obviously better than their parts in the previous seasons, and without Anarumo, even elite edge rusher Trey Hendrickson has diminished (17 sacks in 2023 and 2024 to just four in seven games this season).
Should Lou Anarumo leave, the most obvious choice is the New York Giants. He has a previous working relationship with Giants general manager Joe Schoen when both were with the Miami Dolphins. The Colts might very well be looking for a new defensive coordinator this coming offseason.