Tag: Frank Reich

The Indianapolis Colts knew early in the offseason that Philip Rivers was likely going to be their biggest target when it came to free agency even if he’s coming off of a year with elevated interception numbers.

Leaving the Los Angeles Chargers for the Colts this offseason, Rivers is coming off of a 2019 campaign that saw him boast 20 interceptions and a 3.4% interception rate—both of which were tied for the second-highest of his career.

When evaluating him as a potential signee, Reich understands the bloated interception totals cannot stand.

“Absolutely, I mean that’s unacceptable and he knows that. I mean we’ve all seen the stats,” Reich told reporters Monday. “I mean we understand you’ve got to put them in perspective – 20 (interceptions) is never good under any circumstance.”

Rivers did struggle with interceptions in 2019. Some were his fault. Some not so much. But the aggressive mindset that the Colts are buying into is likely going to have some consequences when it comes to interceptions.

Rivers has long been a quarterback looking to throw downfield. The tape shows it, and the numbers show it. Rivers had 5,025 intended air yards in 2019, good for the third-most in the NFL. His average depth of target of 8.5 yards was the 12th-highest in the league.

The Colts will be featuring the West Coast style offense again with Rivers under center now, but the transition to the offense shouldn’t be a difficult one. This is especially true when Reich said Rivers already knows the majority of the offense coming in.

But Reich also understands that Rivers’ desire to look downfield will wind up benefitting the Colts offense as well.

“As long as he thinks he has a chance to win he is throwing the ball down the field. And when other quarterbacks might be taking check downs, he is trying to make chunk plays and the result of that is he throws a few more interceptions,” Reich said. “So that will be a goal – there is no doubt that we want to greatly reduce that number. He knows the responsibility from his position and we just think we will have the right team around him to get that number down to where it needs to be.”

The Colts offense will look interesting with Rivers under center and while there will be more interceptions on the way, there are likely to be more chunk plays as well.

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.”