The Indianapolis Colts fired head coach Frank Reich on Monday, a day after the team slumped to a third straight defeat. He has been highly respected throughout the league. (Photo by ANDY LYONS / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP) Source: AFP “This is nothing against Jeff Saturday. This is about norms, this is about giving somebody the job who’s done anything remotely associated with the job,” analyst Robert Mays said on The Athletic Football Show.
Asked what the vibe is like inside Colts headquarters, beat writer Zak Keefer replied: “They’re stunned. They don’t believe it. This is like a circus.
“Everybody’s in disbelief. And both things can be true; Jeff Saturday’s revered in this city, he’s a great human being, he’s one of the greatest players this team’s had in its history.
“And he’s also never been on the sidelines for an NFL or college game as a coach, as a volunteer coach, as a position coach, as a co-ordinator, as a head coach.
“This a gutsy gamble and I hope I’m wrong about this. This is unprecedented and it only ends one way – and this has got Irsay’s hands all over it.”
The Colts were heavily criticised for the hiring with many questioning whether it went against the NFL’s ‘Rooney Rule’, which forces teams to interview at least one minority candidate for their coaching positions. Saturday is white.
“By all accounts, Jeff Saturday is a very nice, capable person, and I hope he does well in Indianapolis,” ESPN’s Bill Barnwell tweeted.
“This hiring is also a reminder that the arbitrary experience roadblocks put out in front of minority candidates are nonsense.”
In a strange press conference, however, owner Jim Irsay made it sound like getting Saturday was a coup for the franchise.
“I’m glad he doesn’t have any NFL experience,” Irsay said. “I’m glad he hasn’t learned the fear that’s in this league, because it’s tough for all our coaches. They’re afraid. They go to analytics and it gets difficult.
“He doesn’t have all that. He doesn’t have that fear. And there was no other candidate. We were fortunate he was available. And he has tons of experience. He knows this game inside and out with relationships with coaches and players. I understand that he’s fully capable of doing this.”
Eccentric Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images The “no other candidate” comment is particularly curious given that the Colts had a former NFL coach in Gus Bradley as defensive co-ordinator, and another in John Fox who is an assistant. Is Bradley, who went a dismal 14-48 in four seasons as Jaguars coach, the future of the franchise? Probably not, but he is familiar with the players and could have helped ease the transition into the off-season.
Furthermore, Irsay insisted that “there’s no question” GM Chris Ballard — who constructed this flawed 3-5-1 roster and is behind the rotating door of placeholder quarterbacks that has plagued the franchise — will be back next season.
“The guy is a winner and he’s been immensely successful.” Irsay said. “No one is perfect in this game. We all lose a lot in this league. You know how many shots Michael Jordan has missed? You know how many games Michael Jordan has lost?
“I mean, in this league it’s tough and sometimes you don’t understand how fortunate you are when you’re around success because you think that’s the norm. But it’s not. And he fits right into that culture.”
The hope is Saturday can find a solution to Indy’s most glaring problem, an offensive line that has allowed a league-high 35 sacks in nine games. It had been one of the league’s top units from 2018 through last season but has been in flux most of this season.
On Sunday, during a lifeless 26-3 loss to the Patriots, the Colts pulled right guard Matt Pryor and left tackle Dennis Kelly and replaced them with Will Fries and rookie Bernhard Raimann in yet another attempt to improve the pass protection.
“We’ve tried to hire Jeff as a coach a couple of times, the timing didn’t work out,” Ballard said. “It doesn’t take long to figure out he’s got leadership, real special leadership in him. So for this eight-game stretch and where we’re at, we thought it would be a really good fit for us.”
Portions of this article were originally published at the New York Post and were republished with permission.
