The Indianapolis Colts have reportedly been hemming and hawing about the job security of head coach Chuck Pagano since this offseason, but the front office may very well have their hands forced on Monday if Indianapolis falls hard to the Carolina Panthers on Monday night and drops to 3-5. In fact, we're sure that'll be the case. Here's 4 Reasons Why Colts HC Chuck Pagano Is Coaching For His Job Tonight.
Staff Changes Expected
According to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, "owner Jim Irsay has grown increasingly frustrated with the Colts' dismal season, and the regression of franchise quarterback Andrew Luck, in particular, and is considering staff changes in-season should the team not pull out of its funk, according to league sources." The Colts have back-to-back games lined up with unbeaten teams (Carolina and Denver), leaving the coaching staff little room for error on Monday. If the Colts lay an egg against the Panthers, it may not even matter what happens against the Broncos next week. Heading to the bye at 4-5 (at best) is enough for heads to roll.
It's Already Trending That Way
Rumors of a rift between Pagano and GM Ryan Grigson have been echoed by several sources around the team, with the divide reportedly stemming from disagreements on personnel decision and general operational philosophy. While it's unclear whether Irsay is choosing Grigson over Pagano or if both guys' job security in jeopardy, a prime-time loss to Carolina would give Irsay ample reason to cut the cord one way or the other come the bye week.
Regression
The Indianapolis Colts loaded themselves for bear this offseason with candid hopes of finally overtaking the New England Patriots as the AFC's dominant force. Rather than weaving new weapons such as Frank Gore and Andre Johnson into the fold and creating an improved version of an already winning formula, Pagano has ham-handedly fumbled his way through the 2015 campaign and watched his team regress in several key metrics. The most key of those metrics, however, is wins and losses. 3-5 for a team with this caliber of talent is simply unacceptable.
Mental Mistakes
The Colts have been turnover prone and awful down the stretch in games this year. The only team with a worse turnover differential than Indianapolis at -8 is a putrid Detroit Lions squad (-9) who has seemingly forgotten how to the basics of how to play football. Such a sky-high amount of mistakes can't be directly attributed to Pagano, but he'll still take the brunt of the criticism if the team's turnover woes are exploited by an opportunistic Panthers defense.
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