Chuck Pagano “extremely excited” about Colts’ hiring Chris Ballard as GM

The Colts have their new general manager, and that means that head coach Chuck Pagano will need to get used to working with Chris Ballard.

That is, of course, that Pagano remains the coach of the Colts for 2017, but the indications point to that being the case. After news of the hire broke this evening, Pagano released a statement through the Colts on the hiring of Ballard - and in short, he’s excited.

“I am extremely excited about Chris coming on as our general manager,” Pagano said. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and a ton of experience to the organization. I’m looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and going to work along side him.”

Of course, Pagano pretty much has to say something like this, but by all indications he’ll be back and working with Chris Ballard in 2017. And by all indications, Ballard is a guy people like to work with - which couldn’t exactly be said of the last guy to occupy the position in Indianapolis. The GM/coach dynamic is always an important one, but it will be watched even more closely with the Colts than it otherwise would be because of the past issues between Pagano and Ryan Grigson. Jim Irsay obviously came to the conclusion that Grigson was more to blame for those issues, but it will be important for Ballard and Pagano to be able to work together moving forward (at least for 2017).