Colts demote offensive line coach Joe Gilbert

A very minor coaching change seems to have taken place with the Indianapolis Colts, according to the Colts' coaching staff page.  As pointed out by Brent Fatig on twitter, the Colts now list Joe Gilbert as assistant offensive line coach rather than the title of offensive line coach that he had held for the past three seasons.  This change comes shortly after the hiring of Joe Philbin to be the team's offensive line coach.

This move is a rather small one, but it's still worth noting.  Gilbert was brought on board with the franchise in 2012 as the assistant offensive line coach (or if you're a fan of The Office, the assistant to the offensive line coach).  After Harold Goodwin left to become the Cardinals offensive coordinator under Bruce Arians after the season, Gilbert was promoted to offensive line coach, which is a position he held from 2013-2015.  The Colts changed up the staff in 2015 to promote Hal Hunter (who previously was the assistant OL coach) to offensive line coach alongside Gilbert, giving the team two people at the position.  It was unclear how the structure was going to work out with Philbin now in the mix (the team didn't bring back Hunter), and it seems that the Colts will go back to having one guy as the offensive line coach and another as the assistant.

In reality, the change really doesn't mean a ton.  The assistant offensive line coach is still very involved and still works with the line, so it's mainly just a demotion in title more than anything else.  But it does give Joe Philbin control of the position, something we were wondering about when the team announced his hiring.  It sounds like Joe Gilbert will still be around with the team moving forward, but he has been demoted in favor of Joe Philbin.