Published: May 15, 2009 11:38 pm         

Colts waste no time finding replacement assistant coaches

INDIANAPOLIS — It didn’t take the Indianapolis Colts very long to find replacements for retiring assistant coaches Tom Moore and Howard Mudd.

As expected, the Colts have promoted assistant head coach/wide receivers coach Clyde Christensen to offensive coordinator and made Pete Metzelaars the team’s offensive line coach. Metzelaars had been Indianapolis’ assistant offensive line coach for the past couple of seasons.

“The main cogs in terms of operating the program are in place, have been in place and were prepared to do this,’’ team president Bill Polian said during an interview Friday morning with an Indianapolis radio station. “It’s just a transition that we would rather not have made, but we knew full well that it’s likely we were going to have to.’’

National Football League owners recently voted to allow teams to opt out of the league’s pension plan, although the Colts have yet to do so. Older assistant coaches around the NFL, such as Moore (70) and Mudd (67), are concerned that if they do not take their retirement now, they stood to lose half of whatever pension that they had accrued over the years.

Christensen had interviewed to be the San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator in February. He served one season in that role with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001. While it’s not known if first-year head coach Jim Caldwell will hire someone to replace Christensen as Indianapolis’ wide receivers coach, one possible candidate could be recently hired Indiana State offensive coordinator Troy Walters.

Walters is a former Colts wide receiver (2002-05) who remains close to the team’s offensive coaching staff, particularly Christensen. He has also retained friendships with key Indianapolis offensive personnel, such as wide receiver Reggie Wayne and quarterback Peyton Manning.