Has Jim Irsay Lost His Mind?
On Monday, the Indianapolis Colts fired Frank Reich as the head coach of this football team. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay decided to hire former Colts center Jeff Saturday as the interim head coach for the remainder of the 2022 regular season.
What some people are thinking today is what is Irsay doing? Has he officially lost his mind over the past few seasons?
Of Course He Is
Owner Jim Irsay scheduled the press conference for 8 p.m. ET on Monday night thinking no one would watch this presser because of Monday night football between the Baltimore Ravens and the New Orleans Saints on ESPN. But think again, they watched it and a lot of things were being streamed and talked about on Twitter.
One of the more interesting things that Jim Irsay said during this presser was that "I know how to build a football team." Watch the video here:
https://twitter.com/ActionNetworkHQ/status/1589795043321135105
Speaking of building football teams, why wasn't general manager Chris Ballard fired as well? Ballard is just as responsible for the Indianapolis Colts starting the season 3-4-1 with them having one of the worst-ranked offenses in all of football. They haven't gotten the quarterback situation right since Andrew Luck abruptly retired before the 2019 regular season.
Some of the quarterbacks they have had since are Jacoby Brissett, Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, and now Sam Ehlinger. Ballard hasn't made those decisions well and he also deserves blame for not getting this team wide receivers and other things in the NFL Draft.
Chris Ballard built this horrendous roster and he deserves a lot of the blame, but Frank Reich was the scapegoat for these problems. This feels like the same situation where Doug Pederson was fired as the Philadelphia Eagles head coach in 2020 with the same power struggle between general manager Howie Roseman and owner Jeffrey Lurie.
Owner Jim Irsay better hopes he is right with the Jeff Saturday hiring and hopes it turns out well in the long term. Saturday won Super Bowl XLI with the Indianapolis Colts against the Chicago Bears back in 2007.
We will see what happens with this for the rest of the season. The Indianapolis Colts have dugged themselves into a hole, to begin with because they are 1-3-1 in the AFC South against divisional opponents and trail the Tennessee Titans (5-2) for first place.
They don't need a culture change. The Indianapolis Colts need to start over. They will realize it when Indianapolis keeps on losing. Indianapolis faces the Las Vegas Raiders (2-6) on the road on Sunday 11/13 with kickoff scheduled for 4:05 p.m. ET at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada on CBS.
Chris Ballard Needs To Go
Not if, once the Indianapolis Colts continue to lose football games, owner Jim Irsay should look himself in the mirror and fire general manager Chris Ballard and start it all over. When 2023 rolls around, he should look for a new head coach/general manager combination. Indianapolis would potentially have a Top 5-10 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Do you trust Ballard making a selection in the 2023 NFL Draft, especially at the top with the quarterback options out there? Bryce Young (Alabama), Will Levis (Kentucky), and C.J. Stroud (Ohio State) would be the options out there for them. They selected Andrew Luck (Stanford) number one overall in the 2012 NFL Draft.
Chris Ballard can't get the quarterback right veterans right. Why trust him here? They just need to start all over and owner Jim Irsay needs to have his hands off on things around here as well.