The Colts dropped two bombshells on the 10th Monday of the 2022 regular season. Moments after announcing the firing of Frank Reich, the Colts revealed that former Indianapolis Pro Bowl center Jeff Saturday will serve as interim coach.
Saturday, 47, played for the Colts from 1999-2011. He was a Pro Bowler five times from 2005-11 while helping the Colts capture the franchise's first Super Bowl after moving from Baltimore to Indianapolis. He earned his final Pro Bowl selection during his lone season with the Packers in 2012.
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An ESPN analyst since 2013, Saturday's previous coaching experience includes being the head coach for the Hebron Christian Academy. Saturday had served as a consultant for the Colts over the past few years and was a visitor at training camp this season, according to the team's website.
One of the Colts' best players during the 2000s, Saturday was also one of the team's main leaders. He developed a highly successful working relationship with Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. While it sometimes led to heated in-game conversations (one of them was captured during a game when Manning was mic'd up), the quarterback and center never lost sight of the overall goal of helping the Colts win games.
"If Jeff's got a problem, he comes to me," Manning said in a documentary on the Colts' 2006 championship season. "If I've got a problem, I go to him. It's not always going to be this pleasant conversation. It's the healthy conversation, I think, that kind of makes you respect him, and hopefully, makes him respect me even more."
"Regardless of what's said on the field or during a game, we all know it's for one goal," Saturday added.
Saturday will temporarily take over a Colts team that is 3-5-1 through nine games. Indianapolis' offense has largely been the issue thus far. The Colts are currently last in the NFL in scoring, 30th in rushing, and 31st in red zone efficiency. Indianapolis recently benched former league MVP Matt Ryan in favor of Sam Ehlinger, who lost his first two starts of the season while the Colts' offense scored a combined 19 points in those games.
Along with inconsistent quarterback play, injuries to Jonathan Taylor has also grounded the Colts' offense through nine games. Last year's rushing champion, Taylor has missed three games this season due to injury. He was inactive for this past Sunday's 26-3 loss to New England, which was ultimately Reich's final game on the sidelines in Indianapolis.
Reich, 61, went 40-33-1 in the regular season and 1-2 in the postseason in four-plus seasons in Indianapolis. Reich guided the Colts to playoff appearances in 2018 and 2020 with two different starting quarterbacks: Andrew Luck and Philip Rivers. But Reich and the Colts were not able to have similar success with Carson Wentz under center last season and with Ryan this season. The Colts missed the playoffs last year after dropping their last two games, which prompted owner Jim Irsay to abruptly end the Wentz experiment after just one season.
The Colts' slow start this season was apparently the last straw for Irsay, who vowed after last season that he would do "whatever it takes" to put a winning product on the field in 2022. That apparently now means turning to a member of the team's glory years in attempt to salvage a potential lost season in Indianapolis.
