Colts’ Jeff Saturday Makes Suprise Pick for Offensive Play-Caller
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The Indianapolis Colts dominated the NFL headlines yesterday with a flurry of moves.
The Colts fired head coach Frank Reich on Monday after four and a half seasons with the team. After parting ways with Reich, the Colts made the unprecedented move of naming Jeff Saturday as the interim head coach. Saturday was a five-time Pro Bowl center with the Colts and helped the team win Super Bowl XLI, but he has no prior coaching experience in the NFL or college.
“I’m excited about the opportunity,” Saturday explained. “I hope (the fans) are. I hope they know how much I care about this organization, about this community as a whole. My adult life was built here. I don’t diminish this opportunity, even the slightest. Even if it is for eight games and everybody wants to run me out of town. I believe that I’m called for a reason and I would not have accepted it without that. I’m excited about the opportunity, I’m excited about working with those men in the locker room, the coaches here, and building something special."
One of the biggest questions – among many – that has come up since it was announced Saturday would take over as head coach is who would be the offensive play-caller? Reich held those duties when he was in Indy, and the Colts fired offensive coordinator Marcus Brady last week. As of last night, Saturday said he was in the process of interviewing the offensive staff to see who would take over the play-calling duties.
Saturday came to a decision on Tuesday. According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Saturday is expected to have pass game specialist/assistant quarterbacks coach Parks Frazier take over as the offensive play-caller starting this weekend against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Frazier is a young coach who has gradually progressed through the ranks. A former quarterback at Murray State, Frazier started his coaching career as a defensive quality control coach at Samford and Middle Tennessee State in 2015. From 2016-2017, he served as a graduate assistant at Arkansas State.
Frazier joined the Colts in 2018 as the assistant to the head coach, serving in that role under Reich for two seasons. He was promoted to offensive quality control in 2020 before coming into his current role as assistant quarterbacks coach in 2021.
Frazier is a young coach at only 30 years old. However, many within the organization speak to Frazier’s work ethic and passion for coaching. Frazier was also very close to Reich and has the most on-staff experience out of any of the coaches with the Colts.
Some of Frazier’s prior roles with the Colts’ offense included helping with the practice plan by preparing the scout team, forming call sheets, and assisting in scripting plays. Calling plays and handling the offense on gameday is a major step up, but Saturday believes he is up for the challenge.
Sunday will be Frazier’s first chance to prove he is ready for the moment.
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