INDIANAPOLIS —Bill Polian stepped off his plane Tuesday night and had a feeling something was off.
The former Indianapolis Colts general manager said his phone was "blowing up," and it didn't take long to figure out why.
The Colts on Tuesday evening announced that Josh McDaniels, who had agreed to contract terms to become the team's new head coach and was set to be introduced at a press conference the next day, decided not to take the job, after all.
Although the team expressed surprise and disappointment in the development, they have no choice but to move on — and quickly.
And, as far as Polian is concerned, the Colts are "going to work through it fine," he said Wednesday morning in an appearance on ESPN's "Golic and Wingo."
"They're fine with it," the 2015 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee said. "I talked to people in the organization — they're fine with it. They're moving on."
Polian, who remains close with Colts owner Jim Irsay and others within the organization, said that general manager Chris Ballard has "a short list of people they're going to talk to."
"They'll get a coach," he said.
There were also innocent bystanders of Tuesday night's news — the assistant coaches reportedly already hired to be on McDaniels' new staff in Indy.
Polian said matter-of-factly that the Colts will do the right thing by those coaches.
"They're going to absolutely honor the contracts of the coaches that (McDaniels) wanted them to hire, and they did," Polian said. "So they'll honor those contracts, and those guys will be with them."
Polian, who saw a little bit of everything in his 28 years as an NFL scout and personnel executive, knows the Colts and Ballard will take the right approach moving forward.
"They'll just move on. It's as simple as that," Polian said. "No one's upset, no one's crying about spilled milk. As one person said to me who I highly respect, former teammate, 'Better learn it now than later.'"
