Report: Colts, Chuck Pagano expected to part ways after season finale
Chuck Pagano is expected to coach his last game for the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, NFL Network reports.
Team owner Jim Irsay has been making phone calls preparing to replace Pagano, according to the report.
The Colts are wrapping up a brutal season that never saw star quarterback Andrew Luck take the field and finds them in the AFC South cellar at 3-12. It’s Pagano’s sixth season in Indianapolis, where he has compiled a 52-42 record.
The Colts won 11 games and made the playoffs in each of Pagano’s first three seasons, including two division championships. They advanced to the AFC championship game in the 2014 season, where they lost to the New England Patriots in the game that spawned the deflate-gate scandal.
The Colts missed the playoffs, posting 8-8 records each of the past two seasons before the wheels fell off this year.
Pagano has been tied to Luck his entire time in Indianapolis. They both joined the team in 2012. He missed most of the 2012 season after being diagnosed with leukemia, but returned late to take the reins back from offensive coordinator Bruce Arians after his cancer went into remission.
The Colts have had high expectations since drafting Luck to succeed Peyton Manning in 2012. With the team nowhere near its Super Bowl expectations the past three seasons, Pagano’s time appears to be done.
