You’ll have to pardon Rob Chudzinski if he’s not freaking out about having to play 40-year-old Matt Hasselbeck for the next few weeks.
Because he’s getting kind of used to constant change.
First he was the Browns coach, then he wasn’t, fired after a year. Then he was a consultant with the Colts, and then he wasn’t, promoted to coordinator when Pep Hamilton was fired. And then he had Andrew Luck, and then he didn’t, with Luck’s lacerated kidney taking away the starting quarterback he’d have worked with.
“I think you just get used to the fact that that’s what it is,” Chudzinski said, via Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star. “You embrace the change and you embrace the challenge. I think if you go at it from that perspective, that’s how you can succeed.
“If you worry about what’s happened or what’s happening, you get caught up in why. . . . That’s how you’re not able to overcome those kinds of things.”
So while Hasselbeck can’t do all the things Luck can, Chudzinski is hoping he can trade on the veteran’s experience for now.
“Everybody has some things that they do well, and Matt is the kind of guy who can do a lot of things really well,” Chudzinski said. “He’s had the kind of career that shows that. He’s played in different offenses for different people. He’s real flexible. His football knowledge makes it easy to be able to relate. We’ll do what we do with everybody, which is try to feature their strengths and highlight their strengths.
“But Matt still gives us the ability to do a lot of different things.”
Because as Chudzinski has learned in recent years, being able to adapt on the fly is the key.