How Rob Chudzinski Can Fix the Indianapolis Colts Offense

An impossible task. 

That's what the Indianapolis Colts new offensive coordinator, Rob Chudzinski, has on his plate. 

The Colts fired former offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton earlier this week, replacing him with Chudzinski, a long-time friend of head coach Chuck Pagano and an associate head coach in Indianapolis over the last year and a half. 

Chudzinski's familiarity with some of the Colts players runs even deeper, having coached on the 2001 University of Miami team as the offensive coordinator, a team with Andre Johnson and Frank Gore on the roster. Chudzinski also had the opportunity to coach players like D'Qwell Jackson and Mike Adams in Cleveland. 

But even with familiarity with the players and organization, Chudzinski's task of fixing the most disappointing offense of 2015 will be incredibly difficult. 

For starters, the Colts go up against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, including the Broncos' No. 1-ranked defense. While the season is only halfway complete, some, including Pagano, have already begun comparing it to historically great units. 

The offensive coordinator change coming at midseason means there is already limited time to make changes to an offense. Going up against an opponent like Denver complicates things even further. According to Pagano, per Colts.com, that means that Chudzinski's alterations to the offense will come gradually: 

"

The timing is very, very difficult... As far as coming in and putting in a whole new offense and things like that, that would be ludicrous, to say the least, and not fair to our players, and our coaches... We're going to try to clean things up that need to be cleaned up, fine-tune some things, simplify and give these guys a chance to go out there and execute at a high level, a chance to not think and just play.

"

Still, the Colts wouldn't have made the change, a drastic move midseason, if Pagano (along with general manager Ryan Grigson and owner Jim Irsay) didn't think adjustments were possible. 

So what can we expect from Chudzinski? What kind of tweaks are feasible in order to make the Colts offense a more consistent unit? We know that Andrew Luck has to play better, but how can the offense shift to make his burden a bit lighter? 

Tempo, Tempo, Tempo

If you look at the raw numbers, you might not understand why there has been some concern over the tempo of the Colts offense. 

The Colts currently rank seventh in the league in plays per game, averaging more than 67 plays per contest, compared to the league average of 64.6 plays. This would seem to indicate a high-tempo offense, but there are several factors at play here.

First of all, the Colts just played in an overtime game against Carolina that featured 15 snaps for the offense. Taking those out of the Colts' total would give them an average of 65.4 plays per contest, much closer to the league average. After adjusting the whole league for overtime, Indianapolis falls down to 10th. 

And the problem isn't that the Colts haven't tried fast offenses, but they often haven't gone to it until after a big deficit has already occurred, as they try to play quickly to make a comeback. 

With Andrew Luck seemingly only playing well in those fourth-quarter comeback situations this season, it makes sense that the team try to go into hurry-up mode earlier in order to get the fourth-year quarterback into a rhythm. 

According to Mike Wells of ESPN.com, at least one person within the organization claimed to have been asking Hamilton to play with more speed for several weeks prior to the firing but had not felt that their suggestions were being well-received.

It seems unlikely that the Colts shift to a hurry-up offense full-time, a sort of Philadelphia-lite, so to speak. The Colts probably aren't equipped to do that from a communication or conditioning standpoint. But don't be surprised to see the team try to take the Broncos by surprise by trying a speed offense early in the game. 

Focusing on the Tight Ends

It's no secret that Chudzinski loves his tight ends. 

Not only was Chudzinski a tight end himself in college, but he's had success coaching athletic tight ends at every level. From coaching Jeremy Shockey and Kellen Winslow at Miami to Antonio Gates and Greg Olsen in the NFL, Chudzinski knows how to get the most out of athletic tight ends. 

For the Colts, this could be critical. 

During the Colts' most successful periods last season, both Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen were key cogs in the offense. The two combined for over 1,100 yards and 16 touchdowns last season. This year, however, the two have seen inconsistent usage at best. 

Year	Targets	Receptions	Yards	Yards/Rec.	TDs
2012	114	71	802	11.30	5
2013*	89	53	628	11.85	5
2014	142	80	1,169	14.61	16
2015 (Pace)	116	76	666	8.76	6

Allen has only been targeted 14 times this season, and while Fleener is in the top 15 in the league for targets and receptions, his paltry 8.9 yards per reception ranks 41st among tight ends, indicating the limitations there (last season, Fleener averaged over 15 yards per reception). 

The biggest difference in this year's season has been the inability to get the tight ends involved down the field and in the red zone, something that Chudzinski has done quite well. While Hamilton had the tight ends often limited to the flats as safety valves or as deep threats off of play action (more last year), Chudzinski tends to follow Norv Turner's lead in using the tight end to work the seams and middle of the field. 

Norv Turner's Air Coryell offense has always featured route combinations that are spaced well across the field, both horizontally and vertically. Chudzinski probably won't be implementing that kind of offense right away, but he may lean toward those kind of plays more often than Hamilton did. 

Fleener stands to be the more immediate beneficiary, given his more consistent involvement this season, but Allen could really see more usage there with Chudzinski at the helm, given his reliability in the middle of the field as a receiver. 

Offensive Rhythm and Identity

Who are the Colts, as an offense? 

The biggest issue the Colts have had with Pep Hamilton over the last two-and-a-half years is their lack of offensive identity. Hamilton tried to have the offense do everything under the sun, whether it be trick plays, power running, play action, empty backfields, shotgun draws, screens, vertical routes, horizontal spacers or anything else. 

The Colts never really mastered one thing, and the inconsistencies from drive to drive always haunted them. 

With Chudzinski at the helm, the Colts have to figure out what they're good at.

Part of that includes a balance and natural feel for play-calling that fits with the personnel, another issue that Hamilton faced in 2015. 

At times, the Colts would completely abandon the run (see the 26 consecutive passes against New England despite never being down more than two scores). At other times, they would lean on the run too heavily, and it would come back to bite them (see multiple drives against the Panthers with five or six consecutive runs only to get stuffed on 3rd-and-short). 

A good play-caller knows his personnel and knows how to string a series of play-calls together to get defenses to make mistakes. The lack of rhythm severely hurt the Colts' ability to do this in the first half of 2015, but there is hope that Chudzinski can infuse more rhythm into the offense, given his reputation as a play-caller.

Chudzinski has been an offensive coordinator for four years in the NFL and led three of those teams to top-10 finishes in Football Outsider's DVOA. That included Cam Newton's rookie and sophomore years in Carolina, as well as the 2007 season in Cleveland, with Derek Anderson at quarterback.

Optimism is hard to find in Indianapolis these days, understandably. But with Chudzinski at the helm of the offense, there is at least hope for change. Whether or not that actually materializes is yet to be seen.