After starting the season with Super Bowl aspirations and falling short of the playoffs, after losing their starting quarterback for nine games and watching the backups win six, after lobbying team owner Jim Irsay to keep coach Chuck Pagano, Indy's players got their wish.
"I love Chuck Pagano," punter Pat McAfee posted on Twitter shortly after Irsay made the unexpected move by giving his 55-year-old coach a four-year extension instead of showing him the door. "I think I speak for America when I say I'm extremely happy for him."
A rumored rift between Grigson and Pagano was reportedly so strained they barely spoke to one another.
It's not unusual for coaches and general managers to have vastly different opinions about players or philosophies as Irsay, a former GM, knows. It's not even the first time that's happened in Indy.
Those who work closest with Pagano have no doubt he'll do his part to fix the problems after a disappointing 8-8 season left them out of the playoffs for the first time in four years.
General manager Ryan Grigson went all in this past season by bringing in four high-priced free agents in their 30s. The gamble went bust, prompting Irsay to acknowledge his team needs to get younger and better in 2016.
The lingering question is how the Indianapolis brain trust will work behind the scenes.
"If you think I'm going to let someone bully my head coach you're wrong. You don't know me," Irsay said. "Ryan is not that type of guy. But if you think I'm going to have that in my organization,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys Outlet, you're wrong, you don't know me."
Whatever the relationship truly is, the reality is Pagano and Grigson don't need to be best friends.
Pagano had unanimous support in the locker room and a lot of support from a fan base that embraced him and his family when he battled leukemia in 2012.
Still, Irsay believes so strongly that they can co-exist because of a common goal — winning a Super Bowl — that he gave Grigson a three-year contract extension. That means Grigson and Pagano will be paired together through the 2019 season.
But to achieve the goal Irsay set years ago, multiple Super Bowl titles with Luck at the helm, the hard part is just beginning.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Now the Indianapolis Colts have something to prove.
Time will tell whether they truly have patched things up after hashing things out in meetings much of Monday.
LUCK'S HEALTH: Though Indy's playoff hopes tumbled with Luck missing the final seven games (lacerated kidney, partially torn abdominal muscle), Irsay thought Luck could have returned for the postseason — had the Colts qualified. He said Monday night that Luck might have returned this weekend and almost certainly would have been back for the divisional round. That's the most promising news about Luck's health since he got hurt Nov. 8.
NEW LINE: Expect big changes on an offensive line that didn't protect the quarterback or open running lanes. How bad was it? Indy needed five different quarterbacks, three different starters and five wins from 40-year-old Matt Hasselbeck just to avoid a losing season. Need more evidence? Running back Frank Gore called it "one of the toughest seasons" he's ever had.
Even if Pagano was the one person everyone in the locker room wanted back.
They just have to work together.
Clearly, changes are coming to a team that had one of the league's oldest rosters in 2015.

FIXING THE D: One thing that became abundantly clear in 2015 is that the Colts need more defensive playmakers While longtime pass rusher Robert Mathis played better as the season went on, safety Mike Adams continues to be a turnover machine and Vontae Davis is still an elite cover cornerback, the Colts need to find more game-changers before September.
Afterward, Grigson called Pagano a good man while Pagano,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, Irsay said, requested the extension for Grigson, unsolicited. Then Irsay,NFL Jerseys Authentic China, unsolicited, took on the suggestion that the "fractured" relationship was a result of Grigson meddling in some of Pagano's decisions.
They'll start 2016 with a healthy Andrew Luck, their coach still on the sideline and an unexpected second chance to prove they can win a championship with Pagano.
"We agree to disagree, but at the end of the day,Wholesale Authentic NHL Jerseys, you leave every meeting with a handshake and a hug and you say, 'OK, look,Wholesale NFL Jerseys 2018, it's about one thing and one thing only,'" Pagano said. "It's about the t