You have the live up to some pretty lofty standards to make it in the NFL. Look at the Indianapolis Colts. In 2012, the team brought on new head coach Chuck Pagano, general manager Ryan Grigson and quarterback Andrew Luck. They've posted a winning record every year since and were just a few plays away from the Super Bowl last season.
Yet still it may not be enough to save Pagano's job.
The Colts have not made any serious attempts to extend Pagano, who is entering the final year of his contract. If Indianapolis doesn't take a step forward in 2015 i.e. Super Bowl, Paganao could be gone.
"Pagano's future is obviously quite nebulous at this time," Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports wrote. "The Colts have dangles only a modest one-year deal before him, and it remains to be seen how impactful the team's new additions will be after some less-than-fruitful acquisitions the past two years following a blockbuster 2012 offseason.
"There is consistent chatter around the league about tension between Pagano and general manager Ryan Grigson, and [Jim] Irsay's ungraceful handling of the coach's contract situation might mean he'll have to pick only one man to remain should this season result in anything less than a Super Bowl appearance. Grigson has a very strong relationship with the Irsay family and is signed through 2016, which could be a strong indication of how Irsay is leaning."
The Colts are easy favorites to be among the last teams standing in the AFC this season. Luck keeps getting better and the offensive additions around him - Andre Johnson, Frank Gore, Phillip Dorsett - give Indy a deep collection of skill position players. The abysmal condition of the AFC South is also working in the team's favor.
But this is the NFL and anything can happen. If the Colts come up short, expect Irsay to offer someone as the sacrificial lamb and that someone could be Pagano.
