FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The trendy pick in the AFC South this season is the Houston Texans, either as the division champion or playoff contender, and the club they're supposed to supplant is -- Indianapolis?
You heard me. Mostly because Tony Dungy is gone but partly because the Colts just subtracted two of the league's top assistants, offensive line coach Howard Mudd and offensive coordinator Tom Moore.
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| Jim Caldwell is expected to fill Tony Dungy's shoes nicely, his boss says. (AP) |
"I've talked to them," said Irsay at this week's league meetings, "and know they would like to come back and do it and be part of it. They're going year to year [as far as their futures], but they want to be part of it, and I'm for that."
So am I. So should anyone who appreciates what the Colts accomplished in the past seven seasons, which is to win the division five times, reach the playoffs all seven years and win a Super Bowl. That is remarkable, and it was achieved in the seven years that Dungy led the club. But he's gone, replaced by Jim Caldwell, and two of his most valued assistants were supposed to leave, too, after a flap over the league's new pension plan.
Essentially, Mudd and Moore bowed out because they weren't sure they could get lump-sum payments from clubs that employed them before Indianapolis and clubs that now have opted out of the league-run program. Irsay tried to talk each out of his decision, but he failed. So he tried another approach, which was having each work as a part-time consultant, and that seems to have worked.
Now, he's confident he ... and his club ... have the ammunition to make another run at the playoffs and a Super Bowl, and he might be right.
"If I really felt they didn't want to coach," said Irsay, "or if I really didn't think they were ready to get after it I wouldn't have done this. But they are. They are passionate about coming back this year.
"This thing [the pension controversy] has thrown them for a loop, but I told them, 'Look, guys, I don't care about 2008 and 2010. This is all about '09, and we're really focused about getting after this thing. As an owner, you're not going to have a chance like this -- I mean, with this group of guys -- every year. The gods of fate determine injuries, but going in with the draft we had -- with Donald Brown and the tackles we got -- and with the players we already have I really like the football team.
"I like Jim Caldwell, too, and his leadership and what he's bringing. Tony isn't around, because it's Jim's team now, but Tony is around in the sense that his influence and his leadership are with all of us and with the players on the team. So it's about as ideal as you can get."
I don't know about that. Tennessee is still in the division, and the Titans had the best regular-season record in the game last season. Jacksonville looks to be better. And Houston has some people convinced this is the season they break through to January.
Maybe. But they still have to go through Indianapolis to get there. Thanks to Irsay's idea, the team should have two of the most important components to all those years of winning -- and I'm not talking about Peyton Manning.
Naturally, Manning's involvement is essential to the success of this club. The Colts didn't win before he arrived, and they've been almost bullet-proof in his 11 seasons there. But Manning has a close relationship with Moore, and the two never worked better than in their second-half come-from-behind defeat of New England in the 2006 conference championship game when the Colts put 32 points on the board. Think about that for a moment: 32 points in one half against a Bill Belichick-coached club to pull out a 38-34 decision. Now tell me how fortunate the Colts are to have Moore and Mudd back.
I don't care that they're not full-time. They're around. They will be heard. They can have an impact. And they will soften the blow of losing one of the game's finest head coaches.
"We anticipated losing Tony and Marvin [Harrison]," said Irsay, "but in terms of a transitional year we know the big thing is Tony. You know your head coach, but history says there's always that carry-over aspect when your head coach leaves. With how much we think of Jim Caldwell and how much he's close to Tony and how much he's prepared for this job and how he has Peyton there ... we think we'll be OK.
"But it's not just Peyton. We have
Now they have Howard Mudd and Tom Moore, too, and I can't emphasize the importance of keeping them on the field. All I know is that when Dungy took over in 2002 one of his first decisions was to retain both, and I think now you know why. Not only are they experienced, they're two of the best in the business. To lose them because of a pension plan not only would have been sad, it might've been a body blow that crippled this team.
That's not a knock on their replacements, Pete Metzelaars and Clyde Christensen. It's just a recognition of the obvious. Mudd and Moore are valued coaches who shouldn't have to go away. Now, thanks to Irsay, they don't.
"They're long-time friends," said Irsay. "I told them, 'It's business, but be rational. No one is trying to stick it to you. Don't make it 'us against the world' and the big-bad owners. That's not the case. There is uncertainty, but that's life. I'm not going to let anything happen to you that's unjust.'"
What seemed unjust was having Moore and Mudd leave. Now that doesn't have to happen. Now, maybe neither does the Colts' decline.
Gnotorious1 
