After a disastrous start to the season, the Indianapolis Colts have decided to fire head coach Frank Reich with eight games remaining in the season.
The Indianapolis Colts have been having one of their worst seasons in recent memory so change was inevitable. On Monday morning, the biggest domino fell as the team decided to fire head coach Frank Reich. This comes a day after the Colts had their most embarrassing performance of the year, losing to the New England Patriots 26-3. With Indy sitting at 3-5-1 with one of the league’s worst offenses, the organization felt now was the time to move on from Reich.
After being hired in 2018, Frank Reich amassed a 40-33-1 record and had quite a few productive moments in his first four seasons. While he never won a division championship, he did lead the Colts to two playoff appearances, winning only one postseason game. Reich was also challenged with having a different starting quarterback each season he’s been coach, but after entering 2022 with the most promising roster of his tenure, all signs were pointing to it being Reich’s last season after an extremely underwhelming start.
This of course comes one week after team owner, Jim Irsay, reportedly said that Reich’s job was considered safe and that Irsay was in a good spot with both Reich and general manager Chris Ballard. Additionally, Irsay has never made in-season changes, so it seemed like Reich would at least finish the year. However, in professional sports, things can change fast and Sunday’s loss to the Patriots seemed to be the last straw.
We have parted ways with head coach Frank Reich. pic.twitter.com/Fam6rNYfKM
— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) November 7, 2022
The Frank Reich era is over for the Colts
This move wasn’t the first move for Indy this season but it was the biggest. Prior to Reich’s firing, Indianapolis benched Matt Ryan, fired offensive coordinator Marcus Brady, traded away Nyheim Hines, and now, has fired the head coach. It was clear that the clock was ticking on Reich’s time with the Colts and that he was doing everything possible to try and create a spark to buy himself more time. However, that spark never came.
With Reich now out, all eyes will turn to general manager Chris Ballard. It’ll be interesting to see if he survives what will surely be an offseason of change.
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