Colts Gab

It seems like the pension change that the NFL is putting forth is officially costing the Colts two of their coaches. The Indy Star reports that both offensive coordinator Tom Moore and O-line coach Howard Mudd are calling it quits.

The league passed a ruling that allowed teams to revise their pension plans. Under the current bylaws, the coaches could take a lump sum of their retirement money, whereas they ran the risk of having their pensions reduced had they stayed on.

It’s a huge blow to the club to lose both, as Moore has been around a number of years and was a big part of the development of QB Peyton Manning. Assistant OL coach Pete Metzelaars and WR coach Clyde Christensen are expected to take over as OL coach and offensive coordinator.

One would think that with the promotion of Jim Caldwell to the head coaching position that there would be a seamless transition and very little turnover in the personnel department; if you thought that, then you thought incorrectly.

Actually, there have been some coaching changes, both for real and some that are rumored; Ron Meeks, who used to run the Colts’ defense since 2002, resigned and took the same job with the Carolina Panthers. Russ Purnell, who had been in charge of the Colts’ special teams, went to Jacksonville and is now their special teams coach.

Meanwhile, wide receivers coach Clyde Christensen is rumored to be going to the San Francisco 49ers as their offensive coordinator. In a sense, I can understand why the Colts let go of Purnell; punt and kickoff coverage has been a decided weakness of the Colts for several seasons, as evidenced by their stats.

They allowed a whopping 24.3 yards on kickoff returns and 9.2 yards per punt return (ranked 24th and 15th respectively). In addition, they averaged 20.8 yards per kickoff return and 6 yards per punt return (ranked 28th and 32nd respectively), not to mention that they ranked 30th in the NFL in kickoff return differential and 27th in punt return differential. So you can see why the special teams coaching change was not a complete surprise – after all, numbers do not lie.