Colts News: Narrowing coaching search and deciding Aaron Rodgers or CJ Stroud
Championship Sunday may be approaching but the Indianapolis Colts are in offseason mode deciding on a head coach and quarterback.
After missing the playoffs again, the Indianapolis Colts have been busy at work since the regular season ended. The bulk of Indy’s time has been spent trying to find the team’s next head coach. Chris Ballard promised that the Colts would take their time and have a thorough process and that has proven to be the case. Indianapolis’ list of candidates had grown to as high as 14. However, it is being reported that Indy is now planning to narrow the list down as the team begins its second interviews. It has not yet been announced which candidates will be receiving a second interview.
Two candidates that haven’t had a first interview yet are Sean Payton and DeMeco Ryans. By all indications, the Colts have no interest in interviewing Payton, which is odd because every team with a head coach opening has interviewed Payton except the Colts. As far as Ryans, he had an interview scheduled with Indy but Ryans decided to cancel as he wanted to focus on the San Francisco 49ers Divisional Round game. It’s unclear if that interview will be rescheduled but if it is, it will have to wait until after the NFC Championship game.
DeMeco Ryans is one of the top coaching candidates out there, so it’s hard to imagine the Colts deciding on a coach without having a single interview with Ryans. Something else Indy has to decide on is the team’s quarterback for next season. The expectation is that Indianapolis will select a quarterback in the first few picks of the 2023 NFL Draft, but Indy has recently been linked to veteran quarterbacks. Some experts are saying that Indy should go after Daniel Jones in free agency and it has also been reported that the Colts could trade for Aaron Rodgers.
It’s hard to say no to acquiring a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers but it’s not something Indianapolis could just readily green light like the team would have been willing to do in the past. Indy will have to decide if it wants to go all in on a rookie quarterback like CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, and Will Levis, or chase a Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers in the twilight years of his career.
More Colts News:
- Assistant offensive line coach, Kevin Mawae, is leaving Indianapolis to become the head coach at Lipscomb Academy, a high school in Nashville where Trent Dilfer was the most recent coach.
NFL News:
- January 29 will be Championship Sunday as the Philadelphia Eagles host the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship, and the Cincinnati Bengals will play the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship.
- Tom Brady gets testy with Jim Gray when asked about his future plan.
- NFL announces Super Bowl pregame entertainment.
