The last few weeks have been a whirlwind for the Colts, a team that was expected to contend in the AFC South this season. The team’s significant offseason quarterback acquisition, former league MVP Matt Ryan, was benched after a 3-3-1 start to the year in favor of Sam Ehlinger. After two more losses, the team fired Frank Reich and brought on ESPN’s Jeff Saturday, a former Colts center with no NFL coaching experience, as interim coach.
The moves seem to indicate that the Colts are looking toward the future, seeing what a young quarterback like Ehlinger can do in an otherwise-lost year and whether Saturday is the type of former player who can make a quick leap into coaching. However, that doesn’t mean that the team has punted on its playoff aspirations, according to owner Jim Irsay, who called the idea that the team is tanking “absurd” to The Athletic‘s Bob Kravitz.
“That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard, that we’re tanking,” Irsay said. “That’s bulls---. We’re in this thing; 9-7-1 get us in, no question about it. … We’re going to do what it takes to win. I don’t know who people think we are, they don’t know us. We don’t tank in Indianapolis.”
