INDIANAPOLIS – Coach Chuck Pagano started it off when it came to talking about why the Indianapolis Colts are spending another offseason trying to fix their offensive line.
“Maybe we haven’t done a good job on our end from a coaching standpoint,” the Colts coach said. “I haven’t done a great job there. I have to do better.”
It carried over to general manager Ryan Grigson, a former offensive lineman, a short period later.
“I need to do a better job,” he said.
That was just the start from Grigson and Pagano during their media session on Thursday at the NFL combine.
The goal has always been simple been: Protect franchise quarterback Andrew Luck. But for some reason the Colts haven’t been able to figure it out and that’s why they’re in the current position of possibly using their first-round pick (No. 18) on an offensive lineman. Alabama center Ryan Kelly has been talked about as a potential pick of the Colts.
Pagano has often shied away from criticizing his players during his first four seasons as coach. That has changed. He didn’t hold back any punches in saying they have to improve the interior part of their offensive line.
“Obviously we feel great about [left tackle Anthony Castonzo] and where he’s at,” Pagano said. “He’d be the first one to tell you he can clean up some things and he’ll do that, but we feel great about the blind side and him protecting the back side of Andrew. [Right tackle] Denzelle Good has a bright future but we want to shore up the middle there and we feel really good about [left guard] Jack Mewhort, where he’s at. I think obviously his ceiling is still high and he’s got a lot of room to growm but he’s going to do nothing but get better. The center and two guard spots are the focal point.”
The Colts learned what happens when you don’t protect your franchise quarterback last season. Luck dealt with a rib and shoulder early in the season before his 2015 season officially ended when he suffered a lacerated kidney and partially torn abdominal muscle on a scramble play against the Denver Broncos in Week 9.
Colts quarterbacks were hit 118 times last season, which was second most in the NFL. Matt Hasselbeck (shoulder) and Charlie Whitehurst (groin) also suffered season-ending injuries.
“Obviously we need to protect our quarterback better,” Grigson said. “There’s a lot of different ways to do that. I think that every team in this league knows, no matter if you have a line full of ones, your quarterback is going to get hit. You have to find ways, whether it be through acquiring better talent, smarter players, schemes. There’s a lot of different ways to protect your quarterback. Obviously drafting is a very key component to building an offensive line.”
The Colts have tried – and failed for the most part – to improve their offensive line.
The draft?
Grigson has selected six offensive linemen in his four drafts. Only three of them remain on their roster, and it appears Holmes and Thornton will be backups if they’re on the roster next season.
Free agency?
Grigson’s approach hasn’t panned out. Donald Thomas and Gosder Cherilus had injury problems. A.Q. Shipley and Mike McGlynn were temporary players. Todd Herremans was simply a signing that shouldn’t have happened.
So now Grigson and the rest of the Colts scouting department is back on the prowl trying to find quality offensive linemen that are good enough to protect their franchise player.
"Maybe we haven’t done a good job on our end from a coaching standpoint," Pagano said. "I haven’t done a great job there. We’ve had a ton of different starting lineups so we can look to three or four different things and say that if this, this and this wouldn’t have happened, we might have played better up front. Again, I’m not going to make any excuses but all those guys that you talked about have dealt with different circumstances, different injuries.”
