'A total stab in the dark': National media on Colts firing Frank Reich, hiring Jeff Saturday

NFL interim gigs are big deals for coaches. It would have been a huge deal for (Marcus) Brady, who could have bolstered his head-coaching candidacy. It could have been a big deal for (Gus) Bradley, who would undoubtedly like to have another crack at a head-coaching gig after his tenure in Jacksonville ended. Nine weeks on a daily press conference microphone could have been a great opportunity for (Bubba) Ventrone, who can apparently light a room on fire when he steps inside, but would likely be dismissed as a special teams coach when it came to head-coaching opportunities.

In all the fairness we can muster, Saturday was reportedly a consultant and had a long and successful NFL career. For the lay fan who doesn’t spend their time agonizing over NFL minutiae in Indianapolis, perhaps he is a fine candidate for the job in that he’s familiar and knows his way around a locker room. As Ben Standig of The Athletic points out, Steve Kerr was once an ESPN talking head and former player with no coaching experience (so was Steve Nash). Owners always have their short lists, and Irsay may know something about Saturday we do not.

But very soon, perhaps at this moment, he’s going to have to stand in front of a room full of experienced coaches who have been to and won Super Bowls, and young coaches who work mind-numbing hours away from their families so that they can one day climb the ladder and earn their brass ring the hard way, and tell them to ask “How high?” when he says “jump.”

This is how I know Irsay is on tilt. You don’t make inexplicable, unjustifiable, egregious decisions with so much to lose unless you’ve completely tilted. The frustration of losing, and losing badly, and losing unfairly and unluckily, has washed over you. You see nothing but red; you hear no voice of reason in your head. You hire Jeff Saturday as your interim head coach. Saturday, who has never coached at the NFL or even collegiate level. Saturday, most recently an ESPN analyst, who passed on a front office job when you first offered it 10 years ago. Saturday, who was on the last Colts championship team, which makes him adjacent to the next Colts championship team by some sort of weird vibe association?

Hiring Saturday as the interim head coach is not a desperation move. A desperation move is one that still clings to the potential of winning back what was lost, of overcoming the great odds. Hiring Saturday as the interim head coach is also not the waving of a white flag. Such a surrender still retains dignity, acknowledging the mistakes that led to defeat and honoring the salvageable remains of those errors. Hiring Saturday is a guess. It is a total stab in the dark. It is an admission that Irsay would not know good coaching if he stumbled across it in the hallways of Lucas Oil Stadium, which he did, for the last five seasons with Reich.

Ballard’s decision is perhaps the biggest failure in one of the NFL’s hottest trends of acquiring a veteran quarterback instead of drafting one. The past four years have proven there is a huge risk involved in desperately trying to keep a team relevant rather than completely rebuild. This is even the case despite the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ and Los Angeles Rams' ability to win the Super Bowl in consecutive seasons the same year they acquired Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford, respectively. But even those two teams are staring at bad seasons only a year or two after their Super Bowl runs.

The Colts are a different story, though. They looked like a team built on a bedrock of a stable offensive line, power running and good defense. None of that is coming to fruition this year, and now the team has a massive hole at quarterback as it hurtles toward its fifth offseason since losing Luck to retirement.

This offseason will be pivotal for the franchise. The Colts have a good shot at landing one of the top quarterback prospects in the draft if they keep up their current downward trajectory. But the enticing allure of a quick fix at quarterback remains a possibility for a franchise that simply can’t step out of the shadow of Luck.

It’s fair to wonder now, however, if in the coming months, when the Colts are trying to hire their next head coach, how will prospective candidates view the stability of the position? If Saturday is the hand-chosen replacement by ownership, the next round of interviewees will be on alert that something like this could repeat itself, according to a former NFL head coach. Those with prior head coaching experience tend to be more selective with their next job opportunities, knowing it will likely be their last shot, and this could now be a factor.

Two opposing team executives and one assistant coach used the same word to describe Monday’s events: “Crazy.”

This is nothing against Saturday, an ESPN analyst since 2013, but the idea that he's qualified is ludicrous. He isn't close to it. This is a joke.

There is no Black NFL equivalent of a Jeff Saturday. Black ex-players with zero coaching experience can't just walk off the street and get head coaching jobs, and this is what makes this situation so angering, frustrating and embarrassing.

Look up white privilege in the dictionary and you see this situation playing on the back nine of Augusta with Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

I know I'm in the minority, but I love it. This has nothing but upside. If Saturday somehow succeeds, Irsay will have revolutionized the coach hiring process. If, however, Saturday fails, which is the most likely result, the Colts will continue to lose. This is a good thing because it's Indianapolis' best interest to keep losing so that it can guarantee itself one of Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud in the 2023 NFL Draft. the Colts have endured quarterbacking woes since Andrew Luck's unceremonious retirement, and this is the easiest way to fix that.