Colts will have trouble attracting big-name coach

NFL head coaching jobs are difficult to come by. There are only 32 teams and at least a hundred times that many people who would like to try try their hand at leading a team as head coach.

So the Indianapolis Colts will have little problem finding people, some with decent resumes, willing to take the head coaching job. If the Oakland Raiders over the years have been able to lure so many willing to try coaching that mess, the Colts should have no problem finding people to sit down for an interview.

That aside, the biggest fish aren’t likely to consider the Colts the best place to work right now. I’d be surprised if the Colts can attract someone with significant head coaching experience, certainly not at the NFL level.

This is why.

It’s unclear what type of owner Jim Irsay will be without Bill Polian, and no one has any idea how capable the team’s new general manager, Ryan Grigson, 39, is going to be. It’s difficult to predict Grigson’s leadership style or what type of field general might be a good fit with him.

So even if John Gruden, Bill Cowher or even University of Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz were interested in jumping into NFL head coaching, they’d likely steer clear of such unknowns.

One carrot to dangle is the opportunity to coach Andrew Luck—or whoever is going to be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL draft.

Still, the likes of Gruden and Cowher could take virtually any open NFL head coaching job they wanted. So they’re not going to jump on a ship which doesn’t know which way its rudder is turned.

So Grigson and Irsay are faced with one of the most difficult tasks for any business: searching for hidden talent and unseen potential.

The Colts’ new dynamic duo is going to have to mine for promising lumps of coal and hope that in the pressure-cooking position of NFL head coach they turn into a diamond.