Colts fire Frank Reich

Washington Commanders v Indianapolis Colts
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Frank Reich is out as the head coach of the Colts.

According to multiple reports, the Colts have fired Reich on Monday morning. The move comes a day after the team was throttled 26-3 by the Patriots to fall to 3-5-1 on the season.

Reich was hired as the team’s coach on the back of his work as an offensive coordinator, but the team’s offense has been a mess all season and reached new lows on Sunday. They gained 121 yards all day and failed to convert a third down after firing offensive coordinator Marcus Brady last week.

The Colts also benched quarterback Matt Ryan a couple of weeks ago and that left no one else to blame for the team’s subpar play on that side of the ball.

Reich went 40-33-1 and took the Colts to the playoffs twice after being hired in 2018.

119 responses to “Colts fire Frank Reich

  1. The team itself just isn’t that good. Aside from Taylor on offense what other weapon scares you? Pittman Jr has potential but that is it on offense. The skill positions are weak I think Frank is being made out to be the scapegoat for a team that just doesn’t have the juice on the offensive side of the ball.

  2. Scapegoat firing at this point of the season.

    Ballard should’ve been the first one to go.

  3. The record is the reason they are firing him. That is the symptom of the disease. But the cause was multiple bets on QB1s that not only didn’t work but failed spectacularly. Can’t win with QB play THAT bad and he couldn’t alter that. I’d expect he’ll land on his feet as an OC or doing tv next couple years. IMO

  4. Get rid of Ballard too and maybe you’ll start winning football games and stop wasting draft picks.

  5. The benching of Matt Ryan and abrupt firing of Marcus Bradley underscore the pressure he was under to win. In hindsight, he’s probably wishing he’d maintained the status quo.

  6. Knee-jerk reaction. The Patriots are good at defensive scheming and that’s exactly what they did…that and that monster Judon, dude made Penei Sewell look like a construction barrel earlier this year. It was crazy.

  7. Injuries to star players can change a franchise. Bills have had two close losses and beaten up on some other teams that had injuries.

    Imagine how different the Colts season would have been with a healthy JT, Leonard and O-Line.

    Every team preaches “next man up” and “no excuses”.

    Bills are down to All-Pro Safeties and their best LB and it they go from looking like “The Number 1” defense to a soft mid tier defense.

    I was worried about the Colts going into this season almost as much as the Chiefs or even Miami; and now it looks like a total rebuild.

    Availability of a few key guys can change the course of a franchise.

  8. No QB and No RB yesterday. The GM can’t evaluate QB talent. His hands were tied. I thought the Colts defense played hard. The loss to Jax week 17 last year really hurt this franchise.

  9. Wow. I’ve never seen such blatant tanking efforts this early in the season before. Two head coaches fired, multiple coordinators fired, and high level players traded. The NFL now looks like the NBA and NHL. A draft lottery will be coming soon.

  10. They aren’t going to recover from Andrew Luck’s retirement until they find a rookie QB. Stop adding the high dollar stop gap options, start over.

  11. Well, if they still want McDaniels I’ll bet the Raiders would make him available on the cheap.

  12. Oh great, every other coach in the league is being held accountable accept for Josh Mcdaniels and his staff.. Must be nice to have ownership that atleast pretends to care about the product they put on the field.

  13. I seen NFL HC fired in my notifications said Mark Davis pulled the plug on McDaniels lol I won’t be surprised if the colts with a interim HC score a season high in points and beat us lol….

  14. A 55% win percentage in a league that values parity. There are no cupcake division III teams to pad your record with.
    The team has been bad these last few weeks, firing the coach is about all they can do.

  15. He’s got that terrible team in second place in that division, only 1 3/4 games back lol. They need to fire the GM instead.

  16. GoodellMustGo says:
    November 7, 2022 at 12:03 pm
    Matt Patricia and Joe Judge… how’s that seat feeling with this bit of news

    ***************************************************************************

    The Patriots are 5-4 having played three games with their 3rd string rookie QB with new coaches on the offensive side of the ball. They have had their share of struggles as they work to develop an offense that can be more competitive with upper echelon teams by going down field more (because at some point they will have to), but they are squarely in the playoff hunt. Had the Green Bay game not been Zappe’s first game, they probably would have won that game and been 6-3. Yesterday they were down 4 offensive starters, three on the offensive line, which would limit just about any offense. What seat are you talking about? What is this even?

  17. Matt Ryan was a great QB – 5 years ago. Why in the world did they think he was going to be the answer at QB at 37 years old?

    I get the gamble they made with Wentz. Hindsight is 20/20, but Wentz was fantastic with the Birds in 2017 and they don’t even get to the SB that year without him. It was a gamble, but a legitimate one that simply didn’t pan out.

    But the Ryan move was just plain incompetence. I think Irsay pushed for it, and if that’s the case all he did was set Reich and the team up to fail.

  18. Chickens coming home to roost for neglecting the QB position for 4 years. This was an inevitable outcome.

  19. Look at the last 3 QBs he’s had to coach, the WRs, the TEs and just 1 good yr from a RB. The issue in Indy is not Reich, it’s the tools he wasn’t given and it’s ownership…it’s almost always ownership. The smartest of teams (Ravens, Pats, Steelers) almost always compete even when rebuilding and have done so for decades, the dumbest of teams (Texans, Lions, etc) almost never compete or mess it up when they do. In sports, NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL there’s an almost linear line between ownership intellect and team success. In Indy’s case they most often act like a delusional drug addict. Not hard to figure out.

  20. Let’s review. Star QB Luck retires on the eve of a season. Next season, they get an over-the-hill Rivers to fill-in. He does OK, but is clearly done before the end of the year. Next, they overpay for Carson Wentz, well-known for his inconsistency and lack of good leadership traits. Dumpster fire by EOY. Commanders save their bacon by removing the cap millstone from around their neck. But they promptly go out and get a replacement millstone in an over-the-hill Matt Ryan. He doesn’t justify his future guarantees so they deactivate him. Scapegoat firings of the coaching staff and incredibly bleak franchise outlook.

  21. This Coach is talented and experienced. He should easily find a job tutoring one of the outstanding young QBs and offenses in the league this season. To be QB Coach/OC guiding and developing Kenny Pickett makes a lot of sense. Can’t imagine that Coach Frank is out of the NFL for long.

  22. religionisforidiots says:
    November 7, 2022 at 11:46 am
    Get rid of Ballard too and maybe you’ll start winning football games and stop wasting draft picks.
    ***********************************************

    Wasn’t it just a season or two ago when we were told what a great GM Ballard is? I will say that they seemed to need a QB and a game breaking receiver t take the next step. I felt they should have gone after Garapallo and they surprised me by trading for Ryan as a short term solution. I’m not sure firing Reich will be an improvement. Who are they going to hire? I doubt Sean Payton wants to step into that but my guess is they try to hire him. Shane Steichen the OC in Philly will be available, but didn’t they just do that with Reich? Wasn’t Reich supposed to be the QB Whisperer from Philly? Who else? Ken Dorsey from Buffalo? Mike Kafka from the NYG’s? It has to be an offensive/QB minded coach right? Those are going to be the choices and Payton is the only one with HC experience. They seem to be doing well enough on Defense to not need a defensive HC. I think the Colts may be going away for a few seasons.

  23. So are we done blaming Wentz? I don’t feel bad in the least about Irsay. Couldn’t happen to a better person. But I do feel for Reich with a different qb thrown at him each year. Anyone with sense knew Ryan was a huge downgrade from Wentz. The team now has no coach, no qb, no offensive line. Hopefully knowing Irsay he’ll hire another mid to upper 30 year old qb for another 1 year rental and won’t improve the o-line.

  24. domefieldadvantage says:
    November 7, 2022 at 11:40 am
    Wow.

    The curse of Carson Wentz

    ———-

    More like #DeflateGate karma

  25. “The Patriots are 5-4 having played three games with their 3rd string rookie QB …quack quack”

    No fan base is more wired than the Pats. No sense of humor. Always defensive. You’d think they never won a Superbowl.

  26. The Falcons dodged a bullet because they were going to let Ryan play out his contract. Still it could be worse, imagine being the Packers tied to a miserable Aaron Rodgers and his boat anchor of a contract for next year.

    Draft a QB you knuckleheads.

  27. I need to know how responsible he was for the parade of washed up has been QBs they trotted through there since Luck retired. If it was his idea, he deserves to be fired. If not, if those Qbs were forced on him, he’s getting a bad wrap.

  28. You can’t get too intellectually involved in a decision made by Jim Irsay. There’s no rhyme or reason for most of his decisions. You can say the same thing about Mark Davis. That’s why not every good college coach wants to go to the NFL. A lot of the owners inherited their team, and are absolutely clueless.

  29. I can’t figure out Jim Irsay. One day, he’s calling out Scummy Snyder, and I like him.
    Then he benches Ryan and fires Reich, and I don’t like him.

  30. profit67 says:
    November 7, 2022 at 11:46 am
    I hope the Packers follow suit.

    ——

    Fire the coach that brought them to back to back NFC Championship games? All because of one bad stretch? Tell me you know nothing about organizational continuity without telling me you know nothing about organizational continuity.

  31. What happened to the Colts offensive line? They went from best in the league to worst in one season.

  32. Someone mentioned Reich as OC for Pats, unless BB has gone senile and to all of you under 60, no he hasn’t, he must have an agenda? Does he want to prove he can take any coach and turn him into a whatever and win a SB? I’m sure all the BB is nothing without Brady talk has negatively affected his ego.
    I don’t know if I can see him bringing in anyone qualified at this time. I can’t see him being “disloyal” to Patricia. Maybe he’ll bring Reich in as a QB coach. What’s one more failed HC with experience. 😀
    They have to do something.

  33. Rob says:
    November 7, 2022 at 11:39 am
    Can’t say anyone is surprised. How many weeks in a row can you say “We need to do better”?

    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    The Raiders have been doing that for 20 years.

  34. As a Patriots fan who had to watch that team yesterday they did Frank a favour. Forcing him to play that JV squad QB while Matt Ryan stands there. This Franchise is an absolute joke.. has been since the day they moved on from Peyton Manning because they were too cheap to pay him.

  35. Colts luck ran out, the stunk the NFL the 2 years possibly the best prospects ever came out in Manning and Luck. They will will be pre Manning days forever.

  36. Well that escalated quickly What about Ballard? he should have been canned years ago. Awful isnt a strong enough word for the guy!

  37. I’m surprised it happened now. Though I’m not surprised it did happen this year. The advantages to having a new coach are almost worth the old coaches salary, especially when it includes giving a newly drafted QB extra practice with the coach.

  38. Seems to me that this should happen in Pittsburgh too. Can someone explain to me why Tomlin is fireproof? And please PLEASE stop w/ the “no-losing-season” underperformance/mediocrity, garbage.

  39. But how is Luck doing since you canned Peyton who went on to NFL MVP and two Superbowls post Colts? Tick tock.

  40. The second franchise this year that should have traded for Jimmy Garappolo in the offseason to fire their head coach.

  41. I like to think that its the Baltimore Curse. The owner left in the middle of the night. You are the problem Jim. Bill

  42. Everyone talking about Irsay….

    Irsay has been hiring quality football people and letting them run the team, as an owner should. He’s not Jerry Jonesing the franchise and is doing a helluva lot better job than his old man did.

    The fact that Indianapolis became the franchise for old quarterbacks to come and die has done nothing but hurt this team. You know, just suck for a year and suffer with a mediocre, crappy QB instead of bringing in an over-the-hill club member that does just enough to keep us in the mediocre draft pick area.

    Too bad we lost Nick Sirianni to the Eagles.

    I am sure that by bring in Jeff Saturday, Irsay is just looking to have someone that can keep the team together until he finds a good replacement and a top draft pick.

    As a season ticket holder, the past 5+ years have been painful.

  43. The Andrew Luck fallout continues….Reich is a good coach who should be snapped up by a good team with sane ownership.

  44. This team has been cursed since Andrew Luck retired. This team has some deeper issues, which may go back to when they let Peyton Manning go. They have not been the same team since and Luck finally gave up on carrying this team on his shoulders. Peyton did that for a long time and it took a toll on him. I don’t know if it’s a culture issue or something else, but something is not well with that organization and Frank Reich is a victim of that malaise.

  45. They should have just pulled the trigger on drafting a QB instead of languoring on since Luck’s retirement. Chris Ballard has been playing too safe. Go get a QB!

  46. Eagles fan here: this guy is a very good coach who has won a lot of games for them despite a revolving door of veteran quarterbacks at the twilight of their careers.

    He was arguably the brains behind the Eagles’ Super Bowl run and I’d love to see him return to Philly. Indy’s loss will be someone else’s gain.

  47. Players should carry a geiger counter after this Atomic Irsay meltdown.
    Remember when he said it was all Wentz’s fault?

  48. I think everyone could see this coming. Problems for the Colts surely don’t rest, entirely, on Reich and Matt Ryan. Management hasn’t made good personnel moves and it’s fair to say coaching wasn’t up to par….so. plenty of blame to go around.

  49. “Can someone explain to me why Tomlin is fireproof? ”

    10 trips to the playoffs and one Super Bowl win, and YES…NO LOSING SEASONS, until possibly this one. Most fans would be thrilled to have that kind of success.

    No matter how you look at it, Tomlin is one of the best current NFL head coaches.

  50. Thank God they waited until after the Patriots game basically giving us a bye week. 9 sacks…child please!

  51. pyorrhealadensmile says:
    November 7, 2022 at 11:43 am
    The team itself just isn’t that good. Aside from Taylor on offense what other weapon scares you? Pittman Jr has potential but that is it on offense. The skill positions are weak I think Frank is being made out to be the scapegoat for a team that just doesn’t have the juice on the offensive side of the ball.
    ——————————————————-
    “Frank is being made out to be the scapegoat.” Does that mean he has had zero say in the draft and on free agents and coaches over the five off seasons/regular seasons he was the HC? I think you’re wrong.

  52. The latest in a sudden flurry of bad choices made by team leadership. The good teams stay steady through adversity. The bad ones overreact, panic, then sink.

    You have Reich, Ryan, and Foles at your disposal in a division that is far from out of reach, and you blow everything up in the middle of a season? Ridiculous.

  53. It’s a curse alright, but not the curse of Wentz.
    The Colts went 11-5 and tied for first place in the division in 2020.
    Then this happened.

    “Art Schlichter was released from prison in June 2021.”

    Karma made a comeback.

  54. Missing on the QBs was his downfall. You had Wentz and Ryan in back to back years. No improvements were made in the product on the field. You could argue that Wentz actually deserved another year. This goes all the way up to ownership, there just wasn’t anyone else to fire but him.

  55. lowlyfinfan88 says:
    November 7, 2022 at 2:43 pm
    Missing on the QBs was his downfall. You had Wentz and Ryan in back to back years. No improvements were made in the product on the field. You could argue that Wentz actually deserved another year. This goes all the way up to ownership, there just wasn’t anyone else to fire but him.

    ——————–

    Eagles are still glad the Colts traded for Wentz and the Commanders wish the Colts had kept him.

  56. Maybe Irsay is confused again. He just ordered another banner to be hung. Most head coaches in a season 2022

  57. What I (and Mac Jones) wouldn’t give to have Frank Reich calling the plays in NE….

  58. I wouldn’t mind seeing Frank come back to help the Eagles win another Super Bowl.

  59. It’s not the owner. Irsay owned the team throughout the Manning-Luck years. It’s the coach. Reich is another in a long line of excellent coordinators who just haven’t been able to get the job done as an HC. That said, you have to look at the GM who has evidently given up on bringing in a valid QB not on his last leg. You simply can’t win in this league wihtout solid QB play.

  60. Frank is a really good coach, to say the least. Sometimes the situation just isn’t right. He had Andrew Luck retire on him, then had Rivers at the end of his career. Then he had Wentz, which I’m sure he thought would work out much better than it did. They were fantastic together in Philly. Then it was Ryan? Who else does this team have in terms of personnel? They have no QB. Might as well put Foles in now. They have no stud anything. Seriously…name one skill player starting other than Jonathan Taylor –without looking at the roster. Then look at the roster and weep. I doubt Frank had that much control with that owner. He’ll land on his feet.

  61. I’m not one to promote the paranormal so let’s just say this dumpster fire is poetic justice for sneaking out of the City of Baltimore with the iconic Colts franchise name, pumping in crowd noise, letting Manning go and sucking for Luck, crying Deflategate when their balls also were lower pressure and Brady blew them away in the 2nd half with reinflated balls, hiding Luck’s condition from a new head coach hire leading to him getting cold feet, and an owner thinking he had the gravitas to call out Daniel Snyder (needed to be done but not by the rehab guy).

  62. That’s what happens when you try to bandaid the QB position, and then your star RB gets hurt.

  63. Even when they are not that good the Patriots still manage to put the final straws on the camel’s back for coaching firings.

  64. Dude hitched his wagons last year to Wentz because he was a fellow “man of faith.”That don’t win ballgames, buddy.

  65. That’s not a good Patriots team that pulled away from them yesterday. New England’s offense has gone south in a hurry and Colts mistakes literally put them at the doorstep of the endzone for their only offensive touchdown.

    It was a brutally awful game, and the only reason one of them got the win was because they were playing each other.

  66. Given the fact that as a head coach, BB has losing record sans Brady. Any decent team losing that dumpster fire should fire their coach ASAP, how pathetic.

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