Former head coaches haven’t gotten much traction for second chances lately, at least ones who weren’t considered offensive specialists.

But for former Colts head coach Chuck Pagano, it runs deeper than that.

Now the defensive coordinator of the Bears, Pagano said he’s not interested in being in ever being in charge again.

“I’m not. I’ve done it,” Pagano said, via Jeff Dickerson of ESPN.com. “I’m motivated to just help coach Matt Nagy be successful. Help this organization be successful. Help these kids grow and develop. That’s my motivation is to be the best I can be for this organization, for the McCaskey family, for coach Nagy and for these players and for these coaches and help develop these guys. That’s the only thing I want to do.”

Pagano also interviewed for an assistant role in Carolina, but despite Bruce Arians pushing his name out there early in the cycle, he didn’t get any interviews for top jobs.

But his record as a head coach was strong, with the Colts posting 11-5 records his first three years (including 2012, when he was out for three months getting cancer treatments and Arians worked as his interim coach). When Andrew Luck played just six games in 2015 because of injuries, the Colts sagged to 8-8. Luck was back and perhaps not himself the following year and they went 8-8 again, and when the quarterback missed the entire 2017 season they went 4-12 and Pagano was fired.

“I am better, not bitter,” Pagano said. “We had a great run, great experiences together. I was a lot better coach when No. 12 [Luck] was under center than I was when he wasn’t, you know, and that’s well documented. He probably got me a few more years than I may have deserved. I always say that. My wife is going to kill me for saying that, ‘just don’t say that.’ I just keep it real. But it was great to see Andrew back.

“There was a time there that he thought he was never going to play again and we had a lot of tough, critical conversations, you know, because he is such a great teammate and such a great competitor. The NFL is better when he is on the field, and I think we all saw that. It’s great for the game, it’s great for him, it’s great for that organization.”

Of course, Pagano isn’t the first coach whose career hinged directly on the health of his quarterback, but the experience of not having one was clearly enough for him to enjoy exactly once.