On Monday head coach Frank Reich met with the Indianapolis media via Zoom conference call to talk about the current state of the Indianapolis Colts since he last spoke at the NFL Combine in late-February.
Here are some of the major talking points from the press conference:
Working with Philip Rivers
One of the main reasons Philip Rivers signed with the Colts was to work with his former Offensive coordinator in San Diego, Frank Reich. In the press conference, Reich was adamant about the signing of Rivers stating, “This was a crazy, unique opportunity.” Reich also said, “it was about an opportunity to get someone who we feel is an elite quarterback who can help our team.”
Film evaluation is key in today’s NFL, and Reich mentioned that he and Nick Sirianni went back and watched Rivers’ last two years and they said they didn’t see any physical drop-off in his play. The staff also believes they can get two to three more years out of Rivers.
In another question about how much familiarity does Rivers have with this offense Reich said, “It’s a huge help. He knows the offense. He knows 80 or 85 percent of the offense – maybe more. We’ve changed the wording on a couple things to make it better.”
Reich was also asked about the RPO (Run-pass option) and how it might change with Rivers under center and not Jacoby Brissett
“There is part of the RPO game where the quarterback has the run-option, but there is a lot of the RPO game that it’s just quick decisions by the quarterback and being able to throw at every arm angle because you’re leaving unblocked defenders,” Reich said. “So you’re leaving a defensive lineman unblocked for instance and now you’re asking the quarterback to read a second-level player and then navigate the throw and Philip is really good at that.”
Plans at quarterback past 2020
With the moves Ballard has made so far this offseason—signing Xavier Rhodes, trading for Deforest Buckner—it is clear the Colts are in win-now mode. Reich was asked about that, while not having a QB under contract past 2020.
“We are trying to win now. It’s important to win now,” Reich said. He also brought up that Rivers is a year-to-year plan as of now.
“But we still got Jacoby (Brissett). We love Jacoby and we feel good about Jacoby. As far as drafting a quarterback, you know how we feel about this. We are always looking hard at the quarterbacks,” Reich said, “We love Jacoby (Brissett). I personally believe in Jacoby. I think as an organization we think highly of him. He did a lot of great things last year. We had some ups and downs as a team and we all had our personal ups and downs.”
Signing Tom Brady?
As well as Rivers, Tom Brady was set to be a free agent this offseason. Reich was asked about the possibility of signing Brady.
“We really felt like Philip (Rivers) was the right guy for us. I did tell you that we did look at all the guys and I will tell you that I looked at his (Brady’s) tape,” Reich said. “For us, we got the guy we thought was the right fit for us, but this is a guy who I respect and admire immensely, obviously along with everybody else.”
So was Brady just not the right fit? Reich was asked that and he answered, “I don’t know if I would say it wasn’t a fit. There’s always a fit when you have a great player – when you have maybe the best player of all time. There are a lot of factors that go into these things. There are a lot of factors that go into these things. As Chris (Ballard) and I sat down and talked about it – there are factors all over. His standpoint, everybody’s standpoint. The way this thing went, we felt good about the way it went.”