Tag: Jeff Saturday

Shaquille Leonard supports Jeff Saturday as next head coach

Jeff Saturday has Shaquille Leonard’s support as the Colts’ next head coach.

The Indianapolis Colts are expected to announce their new head coach shortly following the conclusion of Super Bowl LVII, and one of the team’s star players advocated for interim head coach Jeff Saturday to get the job.

While it’s safe to say the majority of the fanbase is against Saturday becoming the new head coach, linebacker Shaquille Leonard said on the Pat McAfee show Friday that he would love to see the team run it back with the coach who finished the 2022 season.

“I hate that he gets a lot of hate because coming in Week 8 or Week 9 and not knowing a coach on your coaching staff, how do you expect him to come in and go 8-0 or 9-0,” Leonard said. “Give him a full offseason, give him his full coaching staff and I think he’d be in a great spot.”

Leonard also praised Saturday for the mentality he brought to the locker room. The All-Pro linebacker mentioned that Saturday “demanded excellence” and that his way of calling out players for poor play was needed.

Leonard made it known earlier in the offseason that he was a fan of Saturday, especially after the latter forced the linebacker to shut down his attempt to return after suffering a setback with the nerve issue that kept him off the field for the majority of the season.

There isn’t much of a debate about Saturday’s knowledge of the game or even as a leader. He seems to command the room’s attention with ease and truly comes off as someone who cares deeply about the Colts organization and his role within it.

However, those traits don’t ensure success and as we saw during the final seven games of the season, the Colts simply folded when things got tough. Not that they didn’t do so earlier in the season under former head coach Frank Reich, but there were few positives that stemmed from Saturday’s interim tenure.

The biggest indictment came in Week 17 against the New York Giants when none of the offensive linemen defended Nick Foles during Kayvon Thibodeaux’s excessive celebration following a sack. It was at that point we knew the locker room was lost and not even Saturday’s charm could repair it.

We should know the decision as head coach following Super Bowl LVII, and it’s safe to say we know where Leonard stands if Saturday is the choice.

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Updated list of Colts’ head coach finalists

Here’s an updated look at the remaining finalists for the Colts head coach vacancy.

The Indianapolis Colts continue their search for a new head coach and as they consider a third round of interviews, one candidate was taken off the board Sunday.

Former Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, who was let out of his contract with the team over the weekend, agreed to terms with the Carolina Panthers to be their new defensive coordinator. He is expected to join the staff under former Colts head coach Frank Reich.

You can follow along for the latest updates with the head coach search via our tracker. All seven finalists remaining have interviewed twice with the team.

With the news that Evero is now out of the running, here’s a quick look at the seven finalists who remain in the mix for the Colts head coach vacancy:

Report: Jeff Saturday unlikely to be front-runner as Colts head coach

Zak Keefer of The Athletic reported Jeff Saturday isn’t the front-runner for the Colts head coach job.

As the search for a new head coach continues for the Indianapolis Colts, the one name that gets brought up more than others is interim head coach Jeff Saturday.

The Colts have interviewed or will conduct interviews with seven finalists that we know of so far. Saturday was the first candidate to get a second interview and while Peter King of NBC Sports reported he’s “absolutely in play” for the permanent role, it doesn’t appear that Saturday is a front-runner.

Zak Keefer of The Athletic reported that the prospect of hiring Saturday as the next head coach doesn’t seem as likely to happen as it does with the other candidates.

“Furthermore, based on recent conversations I’ve had with those familiar with the search, I don’t get the sense that Saturday remains a front-runner for the job, despite what some national reports have indicated. We know, with this franchise, that anything is possible — and owner Jim Irsay will make the final call — but at this point, a Saturday hire seems less likely.“

This certainly has been an interesting process for the Colts, who interviewed 13 candidates during the first round, all of which were held virtually. The second round of interviews have been held in person with several of them taking 11 hours, according to Keefer.

The Colts seem to be nearing the end of the search as the weekend approaches, but it’s best to stay fluid with the entire process. You can follow along for the latest updates with the head coach search via our tracker.

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Ranking the finalists for Colts’ head coach job

Ranking the finalists for the Colts’ head coach job.

The Indianapolis Colts have been conducting interviews with the finalists for the head coach vacancy, and the process is expected to wrap up relatively soon.

While it could take a little more time depending on who the front-runner for the job is, we know of seven candidates who are in the running to become the next head coach of the Colts.

We’ve got you covered with the latest updates in the coaching search via our tracker.

The search includes a wide variety of minds. There seems to be no emphasis on either side of the ball, and several of the candidates have experience working both with offense and defense.

If any more names are added to the list of finalists, we will adjust this ranking accordingly.

As the Colts narrow down their finalists, here’s a ranking of the candidates for the head coach vacancy:

Report: Jeff Saturday ‘absolutely in play’ for Colts head coach job

Peter King reported Jeff Saturday is ‘absolutely in play’ for the Colts’ vacant head coach job.

The Indianapolis Colts have continued their search for a new head coach this week, adding more finalists to the list. Even so, it appears interim head coach Jeff Saturday is still in the running for the vacancy.

Saturday was the first candidate to receive a second interview after the first round of meetings wa concluded by general manager Chris Ballard. Though Saturday is by far the least qualified candidate, it’s not a surprise he’s made it this far considering owner Jim Irsay’s affinity for the former center.

And even as we get closer to a conclusion of this entire process, Saturday still appears to be well in the mix. Peter King of NBC Sports reported Monday in his Football Morning in America column that Saturday is “absolutely” still in the running.

“If the Colts somehow hire Jeff Saturday (1-7 as interim coach, including blowing a 33-point lead at Minnesota), who I’m told is absolutely in play for the full-time head coaching job, that will ignite a powder keg in the minority-coaching wars. Rightfully so. I do believe Indianapolis will finish this process with the most coaches interviewed in history. Seriously. The Colts are at 14 now, and it’s not over.”

At this point, we know the implications of the Colts hiring Saturday as their next head coach following his interim tenure. It would be a move made solely by Irsay despite all the other candidates who are far more qualified.

Since the second round of interviews commenced last week, the Colts have completed four such meetings entering Tuesday with more reported to be coming. The exact dates of those upcoming interviews have yet to be reported.

That includes:

There’s a chance this list isn’t concluded yet either, especially after Ballard stated after the season that they have no qualms with the process going into February.

We’ll eventually know the conclusion to the process and whether that selection will be Saturday. Even though it’s difficult to believe, Saturday is still seemingly in the running for the vacant job.

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5 reasons the Colts missed the playoffs in 2022

Here are five reasons why the Colts missed the playoffs in 2022.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda. That is what 31 teams look back at the end of the season if it doesn’t end in a Super Bowl win.

This is especially true for the franchises that didn’t even get into the playoffs. That was the case for the Indianapolis Colts.

In a season that was supposed to be the one they finally won the AFC South in 2014 ended up being a roller coaster ride that ended in embarrassment with how things came unglued at the end of the year.

Let’s take a look at the reasons why Indy missed the postseason:

In plea to Jim Irsay, Colts fans petition against Jeff Saturday as next head coach

In a plea to Jim Irsay, Colts fans started a petition against Jeff Saturday as the next head coach.

The Indianapolis Colts have begun finalizing the process of hiring their next head coach, and Jeff Saturday is among the candidates being considered heavily.

However, a faction of the fanbase strongly opposes hiring Saturday as the next head coach to the point where a petition has been started by Shawn Ward with the headline “Don’t hire Jeff Saturday as head coach.”

Pleading to owner Jim Irsay, who was the sole factor in hiring Saturday as the interim head coach, Ward said this in his message on the Change.org petition:

“We as Colts fans will always love the memories of the SB XLI team; we love the former players and the people they’ve become, but we don’t want Jeff Saturday as the head coach of this team going forward.

Please hire someone with experience and save your fan base from revolting and losing interest.”

The decision to bring in Saturday as the interim head coach in the middle of the season without searching for any other replacement was bizarre and unprecedented in its own right.

What followed was a disastrous eight-game stretch to conclude the season, which showed the Colts playing at a historically poor level. They ended the campaign on a seven-game losing streak and had the second-worst point differential during that span.

Saturday is beloved by the fanbase from his playing days as Peyton Manning’s center. The nostalgia has worn off, though, for just about everyone outside of Irsay.

As of this writing, roughly 2,300 people have signed the petition. You can follow along for the latest updates with the head coach search via our tracker.

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The Colts are reportedly still very interested in Jeff Saturday, which would make them a total clown show

The Colts’ transition from football team to performance art is nearly complete.

Jeff Saturday wasn’t supposed to be a good interim head coach for Indianapolis Colts. He was supposed to be an unorthodox one.

His 2022 tenure on the sideline of the franchise for whom he’d once played 13 years checked both boxes. He blew massive leads. He called plays and managed clock like a teenager flipping through Madden screens. He beat Josh McDaniels and that’s it, which is a fact that will live inside my brain forever when assessing the Raider head coach.

The chess-not-checkers view was this was all intentional. The Colts needed a franchise quarterback and, after years of failing to find a veteran, understood the only path back to prosperity was the NFL Draft. They’d never get a top five pick with Frank Reich’s competence gumming up the works. Instead they turned to a beloved local figure who hadn’t coached a game above the high school level (and had a losing season his last year doing so).

Saturday accomplished this by losing his final seven games, generally in epic and embarrassing fashion. His job done and the fourth overall pick secured, it seemed like team owner Jim Irsay could send him on his way with a generous severance package and plan for his future.

But Black Monday came and went with no news about Saturday’s future. Then came reports he was still in the running for the permanent job. On Thursday, in the midst of a spinning coaching carousel, the occasionally reliable Jordan Schultz suggested he might actually win the damn thing.

This would be surprising. And hilarious. The Colts were once a juggernaut in the AFC, making the postseason in 12 of 13 seasons and winning Super Bowl 41. Irsay’s plan to replicate that, if Schultz is to be believed, isn’t to hire an experienced coach with a history of success like he did with Tony Dungy in 2002; it’s to run in opposite direction and hope Dungy’s coaching rubbed off on his former player.

All the evidence we’ve collected to say suggests it has not. In less than half a season as head coach, Saturday has been the architect behind these collapses:

  • losing a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter vs. the Philadelphia Eagles
  • allowing a 33-point fourth quarter vs. the Dallas Cowboys
  • gaining 173 total yards vs. the Los Angeles Chargers
  • losing to Lovie Smith and the Houston Texans

He only coached eight games and no fewer than half were abject embarrassments! Four of his seven losses came in games where the Colts led in the fourth quarter. All Saturday has done as an NFL head coach is prove there’s levels to this and that he’s staring up at all of them. This is the guy Irsay allegedly wants in charge of grooming his next young quarterback into a franchise player.

Promoting Saturday to the full-time job would prove his initial placement wasn’t a galaxy-brained attempt to improve draft position but the impulse decision it looked like from the jump. It would suggest merit means nothing in Indianapolis and relationships mean everything. It effectively tells fans to lower their expectations and buckle in for a return to the 1980s when they best they could have hoped for was a one-and-done playoff appearance.

Irsay was around for those days, too. He was the general manager who oversaw Rod Dowhower’s hiring (he went 5-24). He was the guy who fired Ron Meyer in 1991, then let Rick Venturi walk after he went 1-10 as the team’s interim head coach that year. The next man up was Ted Marchibroda, a veteran with NFL coaching experience who led a flawed team to the 1995 AFC title game.

That’s all to say Irsay knows better because he’s been in this situation before. But hiring Saturday in the first place was a defiant move directed as a strike against analytics, the status quo and, as it turned out, competence.

Making Saturday his full time coach would double down on that sentiment. It’s a cannon shot he hopes will be loud enough to deafen critics even though the barrel is pointed directly at his own franchise. Jeff Saturday has done nothing to prove he’s a viable NFL head coach aside from be friends with Jim Irsay. If he gets the job, it will be impossible to take the Colts seriously again for a long, long time.

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Colts’ year-end awards from 2022 season

Handing out awards for the Colts after the conclusion of the 2022 season.

The 2022 season couldn’t get much worse for the Indianapolis Colts, who earned their way into the No. 4 overall pick in the upcoming NFL draft.

While the majority of the campaign was a massive disappointment, there were some bright spots. It was overwhelmed by a struggling offense and a circus regarding the coaching situation, but there were some moments of optimism.

It’s going to be a busy offseason for an organization looking to get back on track. It starts with finding a new head coach—a process that started almost immediately after the Week 18 loss to the Houston Texans.

You can follow along for the latest updates with the head coach search via our tracker.

The Colts Wire staff pulled together to bring you the 2022 year-end awards for the Colts:

Colts hold second HC interview with Jeff Saturday

The Colts brought Jeff Saturday back for a second head coach interview.

The Indianapolis Colts are expected to interview interim head coach Jeff Saturday a second time for their head coach vacancy Wednesday.

While Saturday is the least-qualified candidate for the role, it was expected that owner Jim Irsay would want him to be among the finalists. Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that Saturday’s interview is scheduled for Wednesday, and that the team is expected to interview seven finalists.

Saturday had an incredible playing career with the Colts, but his tenure as the interim head coach went about as poorly as possible. The team went 1-7 during the final eight games of the season while ending the campaign on a seven-game losing streak.

It has become clear through the process of the Colts searching for a new head coach that Saturday wouldn’t be on the list for general manager Chris Ballard. But Irsay’s involvement has made him a finalist.

You can follow along for the latest updates with the head coach search via our tracker.

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