The Colts are relaxed, healthy and ready to grow from the 'valley' of 2015
General manager Ryan Grigson and coach Chuck Pagano have hit the reset button
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11 min read
ANDERSON, Ind. -- In 2015, bashing the Colts became a cottage industry.
They entered the offseason shuddering from a blowout playoff loss to the Patriots, one that ushered "Deflategate" into the national lexicon, no less, and ended the season hobbling to find enough bodies to put together a roster. And in between their franchise quarterback could barely move amid his various injuries, their run of 16 straight wins within the AFC South came crashing down and it was a mighty struggle to finish with a .500 record.
Coach Chuck Pagano and much of his staff feared for their job security. Everyone in the organization began looking over their shoulders when owner Jim Irsay started rambling irrationally in the spring about the need to win a Super Bowl right freakin' now -- oh, and then also win multiple titles in rapid succession. Suddenly, the narrative of a spunky team on the rise shifted to one of Super Bowl-or-bust mode.
The Super Bowl proved to be far out of reach. The Colts were playing catch-up from Week 1, when they got drilled by the Bills, and never looked the part of a playoff factor, much less a championship team. By midseason, with Andrew Luck essentially in a lost year, it seemed like the entire franchise was suffocating. Irsay had quite the mess on his hands, one largely of his own making.
That he ended up sticking with the program, and rewarding general manager Ryan Grigson and Pagano with hefty new contracts, was one of the bigger surprises of the winter, but it just might prove to be one of his most shrewd and calculated decisions as well.
Starting fresh
While it's become vogue to hype the likes of the Jags or the Texans and bemoan the state of the Colts, as they conclude their first week of camp here at Anderson University, I wouldn't bet against this outfit restoring their place at the top of this division. The vibe around here is far more relaxed and comfortable than it was a year ago. There is optimism about the upgrades Grigson has made to the roster and the considerable changes Pagano has made to his staff (12 new coaches).
"It is kind of like that," Grigson said when I asked if this felt like a new beginning of sorts. "I don't want to say we hit the reset button -- you hear people say that all of the time. But it feels like that to a degree because our philosophy has somewhat shifted because of the resources that we actually have now are not what they were before. It puts us in position to be more traditional in our approach and to grow from the ground up with our youth and development, because we've made significant investments with our own now. So we're in a good place with that and we aren't sort of in turbo mode like we were before."
"There is a new feeling, no doubt about it," Pagano said. "I'm grateful to be back and I'm grateful to have another opportunity to continue what we started here. We've got a great group of guys. We're just taking this thing one day at a time. We're not going to talk about anything other than what's happening today, and try to come in and do the very best that we can do in all facets of the program and get better every single day. Our vision and our goal has not changed; everybody has that same vision and same goal. But it's not something that other than Day 1 when you put up your goals, you talk about.
"After that you just have to work and put your time in and if you do that day after day and you don't get ahead of yourself, everything else will take care of itself. We're in a good place. We're a good football team. I'm excited about our coaching staff, and there are no egos. It's not about me. It's not about Ryan. It's not about the QB. It's not about the offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator. It's about the shoe (the horseshoe, the Colts logo)."
Suffice to say, no one is making Super Bowl proclamations this summer. Everything been dialed back some, from the very top of the organization on down. For good reason.
I suspect this team ends up looking much more like the one that made a run through the 2014 postseason than the one that limped and lurched all through 2015. I'm not guaranteeing a Super Bowl under their watch -- it's kinda silly to do that about any tandem in this highly competitive league -- but ultimately their accomplishments far outweighed their blemishes.
The reality is Irsay should've just gone ahead and re-empowered them right after the 2014 season anyway, rather than orchestrate the awkward lame-duck year for the coaches in the first place. Because amid all of the piling on in 2015 -- and much of it for good reason -- it was easy to lose sight of just how barren this team was when Grigson and Pagano arrived in 2012, of just how green both of them were at their respective jobs, and of just how quickly they turned that around and put the organization in position to compete for years to come.
Building a contender in Indianapolis
With all of the injuries and dysfunction and the downright bizarre in 2015 (faux allegations about hiding Luck's condition on the injury report; being at the heart of the whole overblown Deflategate scandal), it's easy to obscure how far the Colts have come.
When Grigson was hired, he had spent much of his career as a regional scout, possessing a keen eye for talent but still raw and limited in his administrative skills, as he had not had to deal with the salary cap, agents or a coaching staff. And Pagano had just served one year as Baltimore's defensive coordinator after a lifetime as a position coach in the pro and college game. Up until the Ravens' playoff run, his name was never mentioned as a head coaching candidate.
Oh, and Irsay had finally tossed aside Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian as the heavy-handed boss of all things football, and he had just waved goodbye to Peyton Manning as well. The Colts were coming off a 2-14 season and there were quiet concerns about attendance in the beautiful new stadium.
That was the climate in which Irsay entrusted all football matters to two individuals who were clearly going to have to grow into their roles. He was smartly trying to cultivate something stable for the long haul. When you view Grigson/Pagano through that prism, even with all of the challenges of 2015, it's hard to argue that they have not been a distinct success, following a trajectory even Irsay would have to approve of.
"It's really been like dog years for me," Grigson said. "I feel like through my mistakes and my failures and the things I've done wrong I've learned invaluable lessons. And you just acquire more wisdom with each passing day from your mistakes. All you can do is just keep dusting yourself off; it's no different from what Chuck tells the players and from what I tell my kids. And that's just how I tend to go about things and it gives me energy and it drives me because I do want to be the best I can possibly be.
"It was spelled out very clearly when I met with Jim when I was interviewing about exactly what the expectations were for a general manager within in this structure and within in this organization historically (the GM has tended to wield consider authority with Irsay). I knew what I was getting into."
And, despite Pagano battling cancer, they won the division in their first year together and made the playoffs each of the first three years, and won at least one playoff game in 2013 and 2014. Hence the decision to iron out any differences and bring both men back with long-term contracts.
Getting back to winning consistently
Since the start of the 2012 season, only Denver (50), New England (48), Seattle (46) and Cincinnati (43) have won more games than the Colts, whose 41 regular-season wins are tied with Green Bay and Carolina in that span. And, of course, the Broncos, Patriots and Seahawks are the only teams to have won the Lombardi in that span. Those teams, and the Steelers, are the only franchises in the NFL not to have a season below .500 in that span.
As easy as it is to make light of some of Indianapolis's ugly defeats last season, Grigson was forced to sign potential starting quarterbacks off the street down the stretch from week to week with his team still mathematically alive for the postseason. The Colts fought hard late despite their coach's tenuous mandate from ownership.
"It's about the foundation," Pagano said. "Did we go through some tough times in each of those seasons? Absolutely. We had tough losses. Year 1 was Year 1. But that foundation was laid and it was laid on rock and not sand, and we told them from the get go there was going to be adversity. And success sometimes is harder to handle than losing, because if you start listening to all the pundits and you think you're really good, that's when you get your ass humbled in a hurry ... The foundation is set, and I think everybody learned a ton from what we had to go through ...
"And this is a team that's had success. We beat the team that won the Super Bowl (the Colts beat the Broncos in November). In 2013, we beat Denver, we beat Seattle that year, the only team in the final four we lost to that year was New England; we beat three of the four. So this team knows what it takes from a preparation standpoint. Now we've got to do it on a consistent basis and try to eliminate the sins. The negatives. The enemy is always in your own camp, it isn't the opponent."
It's hard to imagine a situation as dire as 2015 occurring again this year. It's also difficult to think Luck would play as poorly as he did early in the year, when it seemed he was feeling the burden of unrealistic expectations. At times, it looked like he was trying to win the Super Bowl in September. The Colts, logically, have to be in a better place already for several reasons. It can't be that bad again.
"I'm Catholic, so I'm always waiting for a shoe to drop," said Grigson, who was named the NFL Executive of the Year after his first season at the helm. "So you just try to prepare daily for that, because you just never know what's coming. It was a doozy last year on a lot of levels but Chuck and I are so new to this thing, still only four years in, and for us to grow you have to be hit with some things. Now we had a baptism through fire in these four years but it's life, and it's this game, and there are no absolutes ... We're stronger for what we've been through collectively, there's a lot of depth in that relationship and we're stronger for it. We kind of are equipped to handle things."
I'd also add that while the AFC South will perhaps be much bigger and badder and actually live up the hype (color me a skeptic on that), it also stands to reason that the Colts will be much more formidable themselves. Luck, set to make $75 million over the next three years, will be better. I'd put my money on him, Grigson and Pagano rewarding the owner's investment.
"Despite all the adversity we've been through the last four years, it's been so fun and so rewarding," said Grigson, who takes a cerebral approach to the game and is not the gruff, hulking caricature some would make him out to be. "And even last year, with all of the baloney out there and all of the stuff going on, I just felt so proud of this team for what we endured together, Chuck and I.
"It wasn't good enough, but for what we went through and what we were hit with, to be as close as we were to being in the dance. It was something you don't want to say you can build off, because it wasn't a winning season and it wasn't good enough. But there were some key components from that season that we will build on from a character aspect and from these guys knowing what we endured last year ...
"I read somewhere that nothing grows on the mountain top, everything grows in the valley. And we were in a valley last year, and I feel like we have to draw on that adversity."
More notes from Colts camp
- Look for converted tackle Denzelle Good to emerge as the team's starting right guard. He's generating a strong buzz and will be given every chance to show he can do the job. If he continues on the path he's on, it'll be his job as part of a revamped line that demanded quite a bit of attention in the offseason.
- Tight end Jack Doyle continues to push for a bigger role, while top tight end Dwayne Allen is having a stellar camp so far. Doyle is a deep sleeper who could have a chance to make more plays than some would think.
- Big practice for T.Y. Hilton on Thursday; no one could guard him. Having Luck back should be a boon for him.
