Former Indianapolis head coach Chuck Pagano spent six years with the position for the franchise prior to his firing earlier this year after the 2017 season. After initially experiencing much success with the team that saw them reach the playoffs in three straight years, it was the opposite over the last three missing the playoffs in each campaign.
During an appearance on FS1's First Things First on Monday, Pagano voiced much praise toward Pro Bowl quarterback Andrew Luck while admitting that he believes that the 28-year-old may have extended his time with the team a little further than it should have been. (h/t Zak Keefer of Indy Star-News)
Former #Colts coach Chuck Pagano was on @FTFonFS1 this morning, and did discuss Andrew Luck. "He's ripped … I expect Andrew to be the old Andrew and come back and play great football." Pagano joked that "He got me more years than I probably deserved…" https://t.co/lQdIPa4VjO
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) June 4, 2018
Pagano had seemingly been on the hot seat for his job over the last two seasons, but Luck played a big part in helping keep him aboard through that stretch. Luck has been the major glue piece for the Colts that became more evident when he went down with the shoulder injury that required surgery that forced him to miss the entire 2017 season and put Jacoby Brissett under center for the entire year.
It had become clear that Colts didn't exactly have a stable future beyond Luck that included Pagano no longer being viewed as the long-term answer at head coach. However, the injury to Luck had put the franchise in the bind over this year that put them in a bit of a holding pattern. It was simply a matter of time before Indianapolis was going to move on from Pagano that came to a head after this past season and led to the hiring of Frank Reicht in his place.
All of this further underlines that Luck has been the glue to the franchise when he's on the field as he wasn't particularly playing with enough talent around him with porous play up front on the offensive line that led to him shouldering a huge load offensively to help make the team's shortcoming on the roster. His level of impact had become even more clear this past season with him on the sideline and the team struggling tremendously in his absence.
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