On Wednesday, the Indianapolis Colts announced that Nick Foles would be starting but the news had already broken from an unlikely source.
At 11:36 PM on Monday (12/19/22) a Reddit account under the username u/DuckFreak10 on the r/NFL subreddit claimed to have inside information regarding yet another starting quarterback elevation for the 2022 Indianapolis Colts. Amidst said claim, the user alluded to not only Nick Foles being elevated as the team’s starting QB for the Colts’ upcoming MNF matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers, but they also said that part of the process includes the addition of a coach who’s quite familiar with Foles.
Claims like this often occur in the sports world, and more times than not, they’re fake. However, just two days later, Indianapolis officially announced that it was elevating Foles and sending Matt Ryan to the bench again. So, maybe this anonymous Redditor’s claim is true, and Indy could be adding another coach to the staff for the final stretch of the season.
Will the Colts be adding a coach who’s familiar with Nick Foles?
Turns out, the coach in reference is none other than ex-OC/QBs Coach John DeFilippo. The veteran offensive coach stepped away from the NFL sidelines for this season but didn’t entirely extinguish the idea of returning. More specifically, as noted by Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “…he intends to return to the NFL in 2023.”
Fast forward to Week 16 of the same season in which DeFilippo took a hiatus, the dysfunctional Indianapolis Colts, and more specifically interim head coach Jeff Saturday, look(s) to rebound from their disappointing season during these last 3 Weeks as they technically are still in the playoff hunt (sighs). That hypothetical resurgence, as you know, will be led by veteran QB Nick Foles, who has spent the better part of this season as a healthy scratch on game days.
The Redditor doesn’t explicitly say, “The QBs Coach,” but rather it is, “an assistant QBs Coach.” So, it’s one of two things:
1. The poster purposefully throws ‘assistant’ in there to try and muddy the conclusion-jumping waters that is a Reddit message board. (FWIW: the user deleted the details of the said post shortly thereafter but kept the title and post up.)
or
2. The user meant to use every term that was included (at least initially because again, it was quickly deleted), and this mystery assistant QBs coach is Press Taylor.
Almost obviously, it still seems as if the Redditor meant option number 1, aka, John DeFilippo. Although Press Taylor was indeed the assistant QBs coach for the Super Bowl Champion Eagles team of 2017, it’s quite impossible to imagine a scenario where Taylor returns to Indy this season. Mainly due to the fact he is the current offensive coordinator for the up-and-coming, AFC South foe of the Colts, the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Given the fact John DeFilippo is currently away from the game (and is presumably available), coupled with Press Taylor being the offensive coordinator of a playoff-hopeful team, it makes the most sense that this source is referring to DeFilippo.
At the end of the day, this anonymous source could’ve merely constructed a well-thought-out, impressively articulated hypothetical that is now reaping the rewards such as internet credibility as half of the said claim came true within 36 hours of posting. With this information at your disposal, it’s now your decision to determine whether the whole post was made-up from the get-go, or, the smoke was real and you’re convinced DeFilippo has been hired.
I, for one, am choosing to believe the latter. I had every reason in the world to write off this Reddit post as a cry for clout with no true substance to it. After today, I have no choice but to believe u/DuckFreak10 is telling the truth and that their family member is a staffer from the 2017 Eagles who could very well be John DeFilippo.
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