Colts owner Jim Irsay introduced new General Manager Ryan Grigson at a press conference today, and he said he expects the two of them to get to work quickly on assessing whether head coach Jim Caldwell will remain in place.
Irsay said he doesn’t have a timeframe in place for a decision, but he expects to work with Grigson over the weekend and come to a decision next week. Irsay said he believes the two of them will get on the same page, but ultimately the owner would make the final call about the head coach.
“As an owner I always have final decision on those things but I very rarely use that,” Irsay said.
Irsay said he’s confident he has the right man in place to re-build the roster of a franchise that suddenly went from the NFL’s most consistent playoff team to the NFL’s worst team.
“I picked Ryan because I felt he had a vision, that he had an intelligence, that he had a depth of perception and awareness, that he was capable of taking it up to the next level,” Irsay said.
As for Grigson, he said he knows Caldwell only by reputation.
“I’d never met Jim Caldwell until today,” Grigson said. “I’ve heard nothing but good things.”
After determining who the head coach is, the Colts’ next big offseason question will be what to do about Peyton Manning, who’s due a $28 million bonus in early March. Grigson said he has not talked to Manning and has not even begun the process of evaluating whether Manning will be with the team.
“I just got here,” Grigson said. “There’s so many things that we have to go over. It’s unfair to comment. It’s frivolous for me to comment on these things.”
And the third big decision this offseason, what to do with the first overall pick in the NFL draft, wasn’t even addressed. The Colts have other decisions to make first, starting with the future of Caldwell.