Is Frank Reich an Upgrade Over Josh McDaniels for the Colts?

The Colts were forced to move to plan B after Josh McDaniels decided to stay in New England. But did they end up getting a better coach in Frank Reich?

Chris Ballard had to completely reset his first head coaching search as an NFL general manager after Josh McDaniels backed out of an agreement with the Colts in favor of staying in his role with the Patriots. Ballard and the rest of Indianapolis’ front office moved quickly in their rebooted search as they officially brought in Frank Reich as their new head coach this weekend.

Reich’s Eagles have just beaten McDaniels’ Patriots in the Super Bowl, but who is the better head coaching candidate?

Reich and McDaniels are in the same boat in which it is difficult to determine how much credit they deserve for their teams’ success in their past jobs.

Without talking to Reich directly, we don’t know how much control he had of the Eagles’ offense under Doug Pederson, who has proven to be a great coach himself. McDaniels also had the benefit of working under Bill Belichick, and he has a Hall of Fame quarterback to work with in Tom Brady.

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McDaniels was not successful during his tenure as the head coach in Denver where he was without Belichick and Brady. We have yet to see how Reich will fare in his first stint as a head coach.

Reich had a decorated NFL career as a player, whereas McDaniels didn’t have that same experience. However, McDaniels has spent more time as an NFL offensive coordinator than Reich has during his coaching career.

There’s no question that McDaniels was a hotter candidate during this past coaching carousel, but those attractive candidates don’t always make the best head coaches. For example, no one was in love with the Eagles’ hire of Doug Pederson, who was not their first choice, but he’s a Super Bowl champion head coach just two years later.

Predicting the future success of NFL head coaches is an impossible process, but Frank Reich has as good of a chance of succeeding in Indianapolis as Josh McDaniels ever did.

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