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May 19, 2009

Caldwell confident new assistants can get job done

By Tom James

INDIANAPOLIS — Next man up.

That was the familiar slogan that former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy often used when talking about backup players filling in for injured offensive and defensive starters.

Dungy’s replacement, first-year head coach Jim Caldwell, is using the same idea when it comes to replacing veteran offensive assistant coaches Tom Moore and Howard Mudd. Moore and Mudd both retired last week, allowing Caldwell to promote assistant head coach Clyde Christensen to offensive coordinator and Pete Metzelaars to offensive line coach.

And while there’s a chance that Moore and Mudd could return to the team in unspecified advisory roles sometime in the near future, the transition to Christensen and Metzelaars has been a relatively smooth one so far.

“We feel that where we are now, the great thing about it is the fact that our team has always been great in terms of transitions,” Caldwell said. “Year in and year out, I think a lot of people have certainly taken notice of the fact that we may have a guy that’s injured and then it’s required that someone step in and do a job for them. You can go back for quite some time and see that we typically make those transitions fairly well.”

Losing two quality assistants like Moore and Mudd doesn’t make the team’s offseason preparations any easier.

“Tom and Howard are two of the best coaches that have ever coached in this game at this level. But, nevertheless, I think you’ll find that the two guys [Christensen and Metzelaars] that we have that are assuming those duties have been in this system, know the system extremely well and will function quite well within it also,” Caldwell said.

“Even more so, just talking about transitions overall, I think our team has responded extremely well even with my transition into the head coaching position. They’ve been attentive, they’ve been vibrant, they’ve been enthusiastic. The effort has been outstanding and I think we’ll continue to get better. So that’s our goal and aim for this next month, is to focus in on where we are here and now — and to get better.”

n Colts add coaching interns — Indianapolis has added a pair of coaching interns to its offensive staff, with former Western Illinois center Frank Winters helping Metzelaars with the offensive line and former Baltimore Ravens draft pick Ron Johnson joining the team and will work with the wide receivers.

Winters was the Green Bay Packers starting center for eight seasons (1992-2000), earning Pro Bowl honors in 1999. He was inducted into the Packers’ Hall of Fame last summer, with former Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre giving the induction speech. Winters also played with the Cleveland Browns, New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs before joining the Packers.

Johnson, meanwhile, was selected by the Ravens in the fourth-round of the 2002 National Football League draft and played two seasons with the team. The former University of Minnesota wide receiver has also spent time with the Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins, as well as the Arena Football League’s Orlando Predators and Cleveland Gladiators.

“We had planned to do this anyway, but it kind of worked out well. Ron Johnson will help Clyde Christensen with the receivers and then also Frank Winters will kind of help and assist Pete [Metzelaars],” the Colts coach said.

• Good turnout for OTAs — Of the 88 players currently on Indianapolis’ offseason roster, 87 are slated to take part in the organized team activities over the next couple of weeks. The sessions are strictly voluntary.

Only wide receiver Reggie Wayne is missing from the practices. He will be working out with other former University of Miami players in Florida.

“That has not been unusual the last few years,” Caldwell said. “Reggie, he’s with the guys from the University of Miami and they love working out with one another. He’s been doing that for quite some time. He comes back in great shape and certainly he’s been around here long enough that he knows the system. But we’ve had great response and the guys have been performing extremely well.”

The OTAs are scheduled for twice this week (the next practice is Thursday), twice next week and then two weeks in mid-June. Mandatory summer school workouts are set to begin June 1 and last for two weeks.

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