By Dianna Russini, Michael Silver, James Boyd, Paul Dehner Jr. and Amos Morale III
The Indianapolis Colts are hiring former Cincinnati Bengals assistant Lou Anarumo defensive coordinator, league sources told The Athletic.
Anarumo replaces Gus Bradley who the Colts “parted ways” with earlier this month after he spent the last three seasons with the franchise.
Anarumo was fired by the Bengals this month after six seasons in Cincinnati. He had previously served as the interim DC for the Miami Dolphins in 2015 and defensive backs coach for the Dolphins and New York Giants.
The Bengals made steady defensive improvements under Anarumo en rout to a Super Bowl appearance in 2021 and statistically peaking in 2022 as a top-10 defense in the league. However, the Bengals defense regressed in 2023 and even further this past regular season. The Bengals lost seven one-score games this season in contests where the defensive unit struggled.
Why the hire makes sense for Indianapolis
Changes had to be made.
That became abundantly clear after the Indianapolis Colts saw their playoff hopes evaporate in an embarrassing 45-33 road loss against the New York Giants in Week 17. The Colts defense surrendered 38 points (seven were scored on a kickoff return TD) against a Giants team that finished with the second-lowest scoring average (16.1 points per game) in the NFL.
Bradley was already on the hot seat, and that defensive meltdown at New York was likely the final nail in the coffin. The 58-year-old’s contract expired at the end of the 2024 season, and one day after the Colts defeated the Jaguars in their regular-season finale, the team announced that Bradley would not be retained for another campaign.
“I felt like we needed to move in a different direction,” Colts coach Shane Steichen said in a statement.
Ted Nguyen, a film analyst at The Athletic who’s been breaking down X’s and O’s since 2016, offered more insight when asked where Bradley, known for his role in shaping the Legion of Boom’s dominate Cover 3-heavy scheme in Seattle, went wrong in Indianapolis. During Bradley’s three-year tenure, the Colts ranked 28th in scoring defense (allowing 25.1 points per game) in 2022, 28th again (24.4) in 2023 and 24th (25.1) in 2024.
“I think with Gus, his scheme you can figure out. Everybody knows what he’s doing,” Nguyen said. “It takes a lot of talent, especially a lot of defensive line talent, to run that scheme. I think a lot of the Seattle guys (who’ve since moved on) really adapted, but he’s kind of remained the same and does what he does and it hasn’t worked out.”
Anarumo, on the other hand, has proven to be more of a chameleon. Nicknamed the “Mad Scientist” for his defensive ingenuity, the 58-year-old built a Cincinnati defense that helped the team reach back-to-back AFC Championship Games in 2021 and 2022, which includes a Super Bowl loss during the 2021 season.
Cincinnati’s defense took huge steps back in 2023 and 2024 amid a number of significant personnel changes on the field, and Anarumo was ultimately fired at the end of the 2024 campaign. Despite that fall from grace, if the Colts were looking for a DC with more creativity than Bradley, Anarumo will certainly bring one to Indianapolis.
“I think Lou is a very good game-planner,” Nguyen said. “I don’t think he has a very specific defensive identity. He’s probably the most malleable of the Colts’ defensive coordinator candidates. When you’re facing some of the elite quarterbacks, it’s obviously important to game plan and mix things up. It’s been a struggle there (in Cincinnati), but when the Bengals defense was playing well, the elite quarterbacks had a hard time against them and didn’t play as well as they typically do.” — James Boyd, Colts beat writer
What happened to Anarumo in Cincinnati?
Anarumo spent the last six years in Cincinnati and developed a reputation as one of the best game-planning coordinators in the league. His success specifically in playoff games against elite quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes served as the backbone for a confident defense that quietly drove deep playoff runs in 2021 and 2022. He earned the nickname “Loudini” and “The Mad Scientist” master the art of disguising coverages and consistently keeping quarterbacks off-balance with surprising scheme tweaks.
Bengals D ranks under Anarumo
|
Stat
|
2019-20
|
2021-22
|
2023-24
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Points/game |
27th |
10th |
26th |
|
Points/drive |
30th |
5th |
29th |
|
Success% |
16th |
11th |
30th |
|
EPA/play |
26th |
7th |
29th |
|
TD% |
19th |
6th |
29th |
|
Red zone defense |
12th |
15th |
27th |
Over the last two seasons the personnel turned over from elite veterans to young replacements at safety and on the defensive line and the entire unit fell apart. A collection of nine top 100 draft picks on rookie contracts disappointed across the board, often struggling to pick up Anarumo’s often complicated systems. They were worst in the league in explosive play rate allowed in 2023 before finishing 26th in points allowed per drive this past season.
Anarumo didn’t forget how to coach or game plan, the question was how much poor drafting and failure to re-sign key players caused the unit’s demise or did that blame fall in Anarumo’s lap? Inevitably, the defense needed a new voice and fresh start so despite Anarumo serving as the only defensive coordinator under Taylor as a head coach they opted to part ways. — Paul Dehner Jr., Bengals beat writer
Required reading
(Photo: Courtney Culbreath / Getty Images)
