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A hidden motive could be the reason for Colts surprisingly hiring Jeff Saturday as interim coach

By Jaleel Grandberry

Colts owner Jim Irsay anounes to Jeff Saturday that former Colts DE Dwight Freeney will be enshrined in the Colts Ring of Fame during the Colts Town Hall Meeting with their fans and season ticket holders at the Colts Complex Thursday, May 2, 2019.Colts Town Hall Meeting
Colts owner Jim Irsay anounes to Jeff Saturday that former Colts DE Dwight Freeney will be enshrined in the Colts Ring of Fame during the Colts Town Hall Meeting with their fans and season ticket holders at the Colts Complex Thursday, May 2, 2019.Colts Town Hall Meeting /
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Colts, Jim Irsay
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay on the field before the preseason game against the Cleveland Browns. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

2. Jim Irsay could be using Jeff Saturday as a spy

Admittedly, that sounds pretty bizarre. A team owner hiring a former player as an interim coach to be a spy in the franchise that they own sounds like the plot from dramatic sports series. However, it’s a plausible explanation according to a recent report from NFL insider Ian Rapoport.

On Monday, Rapoport reported that Irsay and Saturday have a really close relationship and that it’s not unreasonable to believe that Irsay made this call so that he can have eyes in the building reporting back to him for the next few months of the season. By putting Saturday in charge, Irsay will have a trusted friend that can tell him all the things about the everyday operation of the team that Irsay owns.

Rapoport says if nothing else, the hiring of Jeff Saturday as interim head coach could be a multi-month investigation of everyone in the organization, where Saturday takes everything he learns back to Jim Irsay before Irsay ultimately makes all of his final decisions for the offseason. If this is the case of some master plan concocted by Irsay, it’ll probably never be admitted but it would be one of the wildest things to witness in sports.

There’s no doubt that Indianapolis is approaching an offseason of change, and although Jim Irsay is an involved team owner, he’s probably not actively involved in the day-to-day actions like a head coach is. Putting a trusted source in the spot of head coach to gather intel does make a lot of sense. Saturday will be able to get a great look at everyone and everything in the organization and diagnose all the problems he sees. It then will be up to Irsay to make the changes he sees fit.

If this is what’s happening, that means Jim Irsay has tremendous trust in Jeff Saturday and believes in his ability to recognize problems with a franchise. If that’s the case, it would make sense for Irsay to keep Saturday on staff in the front office entering next season.

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