Like it or not, Jeff Saturday is a serious candidate to be the next head coach of the Colts
The Indianapolis Colts have started their search for a head coach and Jeff Saturday is a serious candidate, even after his interim stint.
When the Indianapolis Colts lost to the Houston Texans on Sunday in the final week of the regular season, it gave Jeff Saturday a seventh straight loss as interim head coach. That moved his record for the season with Indy to 1-7. Many assumed it would be the last time Saturday would be on Indy’s sidelines as a head coach, at least for the foreseeable future. While that still is possible, it’s also possible that Saturday returns next season with the interim tag removed and as the actual head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
When the regular season was still going on, team owner Jim Irsay admitted that Saturday would be a candidate at the end of the season. On Tuesday, general manager, Chris Ballard, held his end-of-the-season press conference and doubled down that Saturday is one of the candidates that will go through the interview process. When Ballard was questioned by the media about how Saturday could be considered after going 1-7 as interim head coach with some very bad moments, Ballard defended Saturday’s record.
He argued that it was unfair to hold the seven losses against Jeff Saturday because the Colts had some problems that predated Saturday’s arrival. From the roster to the culture, Ballard believes Jeff Saturday wasn’t able to have his fingerprints on the team and outcome of games like he would if he had been the head coach for a full offseason and multiple years. That’s why the team is still interested in exploring Saturday as a candidate.
While Chris Ballard will lead the search for the Colts' next head coach, Jim Irsay will make the final decision.
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) January 10, 2023
And yes, Jeff Saturday is a candidate.
Colts will give Jeff Saturday a clean slate for the interview process
Multiple times throughout the press conference, Ballard discussed how the franchise put Saturday in a really bad spot by asking him to take over a struggling team in the middle of the year. It was obvious the team believes some of the shortcomings down the stretch of the season were out of Jeff Saturday’s control and that’s why they are willing to make him a candidate and give him a clean slate in the interview process.
Saturday alluded to the same things in his final press conference on Monday. He was criticized a bit after speaking with the media for not taking accountability, but Saturday raised all fair points. He did join a really bad team that had just moved on from its offensive coordinator and head coach who was also the primary play caller. That doesn’t mean that Saturday is without fault for some of the things that happened in the final seven games but it also doesn’t mean that those games were a reflection of what an actual Saturday-coached team would look like.
Jeff Saturday has mentioned a couple of times that he has a plan for the Colts and that he even has a staff in mind that he would bring on board if he did become the official head coach. Ballard and Irsay are interested in hearing Saturday’s vision, and they will do that as they hear out many other candidates as well.
