Colts’ Offseason Speeds Along in Zoom World

INDIANAPOLIS — It’s kind of like the routine in a normal NFL regular-season week, when the Indianapolis Colts would formulate a game plan and coordinate with players on execution.

The difference is, an offseason drastically altered by the coronavirus pandemic requires a long-term plan based on Zoom video conference calls.

As the Colts’ Northwestside facility remains closed in accordance with NFL precautions, all parties have no choice but to communicate remotely on a daily basis. Player workouts are monitored remotely and coaches instruct with faces glued to a computer screen.

It’s not ideal, but Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni says his team has adjusted smoothly to the NFL’s new normal. Third-year head coach Frank Reich set the tone by instructing his staff to get up to speed with the latest communication technology as soon as possible.

“Frank from the beginning of this, when this started to become a reality that we’re going to be virtually online really pressed us like, ‘Guys you need to become experts at Zoom,’” Sirianni said Monday. “With the technology of it, I feel like we haven’t missed a beat. It’s just like we’re in there. It’s great.”

He credits offensive quality control coaches Parks Frazier and Jerrod Johnson for the seamless transition.

“They’ve done an excellent job of just keeping everything together on the offensive side with the technology,” Sirianni said. “I really think we’re just doing our best to keep these guys engaged and make it more – we’ve always done a lot of Q&A with the players as we talk through things to keep them engaged, but we’re even doing more so now because it’s easy in some of these settings to get focused on something else.

“I’m looking at 15 toys over here that some of them look pretty fun to play with. It’s easy to get distracted so we have to do our best to keep them engaged and keep them interacting. So sometimes that’s just an interaction, ‘Hey Mike, what do you think on this on dice-left-two-jet-José? How are you going to run this route?’ That’s a huge part of it, but also keep it fresh and keep it entertaining.”

Keeping these Zoom sessions lively is important, too.

“Jerrod will start off every meeting playing some music,” Sirianni said. “So they’ll come in and as they come into our virtual meeting, they’re playing music just like they would if they came into our (usual) meeting. We’re still busting each other’s chops on there. Like maybe we’ll find a video of Mo Alie-Cox doing something at his house on TikTok. So, I guess I’m saying we did this, and then showing it up there.

“Yes, we’re learning and we’re doing the things that we need to do at this time, but we have to break up that monotony a little bit, just like we would in a normal meeting, but maybe a little bit more so. It’s been fun. I’m a teacher at heart. All my brothers, my mom and my dad, they are all teachers. So it’s been fun trying to figure different ways to teach virtually. It’s been a lot of fun to just go back to what I earned my degree in in teaching and just think of different ways to keep them entertained and keep them engaged and keep them learning – most importantly keep them learning so we can get a jump on other teams in the NFL.”

Reich spoke last week about how everyone has grasped the routine.

“First of all, like we said from the beginning we are just a little bit of a trust factor in the players doing what they’re prescribed to do,” the head coach said. “With the technology today, they all have heart rate monitors so they do their workouts, it’s all logged, it all kind of shoots to our system. Like for instance last week, I’m having Rusty (Jones) and the crew – I want to see all those. This isn’t, ‘Hey, I’m watching you.’ This is, ‘Hey, I’m interested in you.’

“You guys know me, I’m a little bit of a numbers guy so I like to see these charts. Then I’ll show them to the team. Last week, I showed (guard) Mark Glowinski (and) a run that he did and his chart and the different colors that show up on the chart and what that means. Have we talked about when you get into that 90 percent of your max heart rate that shows up red on the chart? We talk about the advantages of that.”

Reich is convinced that how teams use technology will translate to results.

“Really, the technology that we have can in some ways hold us accountable,” he said. “Yeah, we’re holding them accountable, but I’m assuming the guys want to do this. The guys want to get into the red, so to speak. That’s what we’ve been talking about with them – ‘Hey, get into the red because there are things that happen in your body that only happen when you get there.’

“We’re trying to encourage. I know this happened a couple of times where guys Zoom or FaceTime each other. One guy is running at one field and another guy is running in another city and at the start of each rep they go. Then in between reps, a quick word and I think we’re just trying to have some fun with it.”

(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)