Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has certainly been going with his gut lately. It was Irsay’s decision to recently fire head coach Frank Reich and offensive coordinator Marcus Brady, to bench veteran quarterback Matt Ryan in favor of second-year man Sam Ehlinger, and to hire former Colts center Jeff Saturday as interim head coach in a press conference that was all kinds of “interesting.”
According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Irsay made the Saturday hire against the objections and concerns of his closet confidants in the building.
Colts president Pete Ward and general manager Chris Ballard, among others, spoke with Irsay and expressed their reservations, sources say. The Colts have former head coaches John Fox and Gus Bradley on staff, as well as a rising star in special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone. But sources say Irsay was hellbent on hiring Saturday, who revealed that Irsay called him during a last Sunday’s loss to the Patriots to ask about Indianapolis’ problems on the offensive line.
Moreover, Irsay named 30-year-old pass game specialist/assistant quarterbacks coach Parks Frazier, who has never called plays at the NFL level, to replace Brady as offensive coordinator. This despite the fact that the Colts had a more experienced option on staff. Per Rapoport, quarterbacks coach Scott Milanovich was offered the position with no revision to his existing contract, so he declined the offer.
The lack of coaching experience seems to be in line with Saturday, who becomes the first NFL head coach with no college or professional coaching experience since the Minnesota Vikings hired Hall of Fame quarterback Norm Van Brocklin to be their first head coach in 1961. The Vikings were an expansion team, Van Brocklin was known around the NFL as a coach on the field, and with all that, Van Brocklin’s tenure as Minnesota’s head coach was flawed at best — especially when he made the situation so toxic with quarterback Fran Tarkenton, that Tarkenton demanded a trade after the 1966 season.
Eventually, the Vikings replaced Van Brocklin with CFL legend Bud Grant, who would take the team to four Super Bowls — including three with Tarkenton, who was traded back to Minnesota in 1972.
Experience matters.
Saturday, while a smart player and a fine analyst for ESPN in recent years, has no such “coach on the field” history, and the Colts are far from an expansion team, though they’re looking more and more like it every week.
The Colts travel to Las Vegas to take on the Raiders on Sunday afternoon in Saturday’s first game as head coach.
