Freeman, Lindley Take Snaps At Colts Practice

The Colts will reportedly fire coach Chuck Pagano if the team fails to make the playoffs, according to an ESPN report Thursday afternoon.

General manager Ryan Grigson’s future is uncertain, but he will at least help in searching for Pagano’s replacement.

According to ESPN, the Indianapolis Colts plan to move on from head coach Chuck Pagano following the 2015 season.

Things have been so bad for the Colts this season that they lost practice squad quarterback Alex Tanney when the Titans (3-12) signed him to the active roster and receiver Griff Whalen, their No. 1 emergency quarterback, when he was put on injured reserve last week.

The situation between Pagano and Grigson has been described as “toxic,” so the contents of this report are not too surprising. Irsay has enough evidence to decide whether to keep Pagano, general manager Ryan Grigson, both or neither.

Irsay is expected to be involved in the coaching search.

Chuck Pagano is more anxious about trying to find a starting quarterback than he is about whether or not he’ll still be Colts head coach next week. The 40-year-old Hasselbeck filled in nicely, winning his first four games before losing three of the last four and leaving all four with injuries.

Indianapolis heads into its regular-season finale with a 7-8 record and needs nine results Sunday to go its way, including a win over the Tennessee Titans and a loss by the division-leading Houston Texans, in order to claw its way into the postseason. The team opened the season with high expectations – many were saying Super Bowl matchup – and yet they enter Week 17 with virtually no chance of making the playoffs. Pagano, whose contract expires after the season, insisted he’s fighting hard to remain Colts coach next season….

No. 1 quarterback Andrew Luck has not been ruled out, but he has missed the past six games recovering from a lacerated kidney and torn abdominal muscle – the franchise player certainly wouldn’t be at 100 percent. An injury to his right shoulder and ribs kept him out of two earlier games.

With the Colts facing such long odds, the more likely scenario is that Pagano will be coaching his last game with Indy when the Colts host the Titans on Sunday.

“We’ve been through worse”, coach Chuck Pagano said.

“Obviously, they have scaled back the offense for us but it was a way to tell them what we excel at and the plays we are comfortable with”.

If the Colts were to pull off a miracle playoff push, the next Colts home game would on January 9th and the current average ticket price is $174.82 with a get-in price of $61.