It remains to be seen who the Colts will hire to replace Frank Reich. Whoever it is will have to be ready to face Frank Reich, at some point in the 2023 season.
Yes, the Colts are one of the teams the Panthers host next year.
The fact that Reich landed on his feet without sitting out a season becomes a potential referendum on the decision to fire him in the first place. It puts extra pressure on the Colts and owner Jim Irsay to win the game at Carolina — especially if Irsay ultimately picks surprise interim hire Jeff Saturday, who went 1-7 in eight games, to be the head coach moving forward.
Reich played for the Panthers in 1995, the team’s inaugural season. And he coached the Colts for four-plus campaigns, after winning a Super Bowl as offensive coordinator of the Eagles.
Reich took the Colts to the playoffs twice. His first season ended with a loss to the Chiefs in the divisional round. Then things got nutty, with the surprise late-August retirement of Andrew Luck. Reich nevertheless took the Colts to the wild-card round in 2020, where they nearly upended the Bills as the No. 7 seed in the AFC.
The decision to give Reich an immediate shot to coach again after being fired makes even more curious the failure of any of the five teams with vacancies to even consider other former coaches who were and still are available, especially since several of them (Bill O’Brien, Jason Garrett, Marvin Lewis, Mike Zimmer, Chuck Pagano) were more accomplished than Reich.
Of course, Reich likely would have done even more with more luck, and more Luck. And Reich will get a chance to give all fired coaches a boost in the 2024 cycle if he can win right away in Carolina.