Howard Mudd overlooks the Saints offense with head coach Sean Payton. (Bill Haber | AP Photo)

After long-time offensive line coach Howard Mudd chose to retire following the 2009 season, Indianapolis went into a state of transition. There is little argument amongst those in the know around the NFL that Mudd is one of the greatest offensive line coaches in the history of the NFL. With the Colts he oversaw offensive lines that made a yearly tradition of having the least sacked quarterback in the league. While those numbers were certainly aided by having the most pocket-aware quarterback the NFL has ever seen, Mudd did the most with very little during his career in Indy.

The first shocking piece of news after Mudd left the team was his brief stint in New Orleans as a special assistant, helping the team that just defeated the Colts in the Super Bowl get their offensive line squared away. There is no doubt that a sting went through the Colts fan base with this news.

Now, after spending the year off of NFL coaching staffs, that Howard Mudd will replace recently promoted Juan Castillo as the Eagles offensive line coach.

After the Colts just suffered through their most disappointing season as an offensive line in years, including numerous personnel question-marks, and pending position battles, Colts fans have have to know, “What’s the deal?”

It is highly unlikely that fans will learn a great deal about Mudd’s reasoning but they deserve to know whether the Colts were given the opportunity to bring Mudd back, if they turned it down, if so… why, amongst other details. Otherwise, it is very hard to not feel that Mudd’s long tenure with the Colts is scarred indefinitely.