Jeff Saturday to Make Parks Frazier Colts’ Play-caller, per Report

The 30-year-old assistant will receive quite the promotion before Sunday’s game against the Raiders.
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One of the biggest questions that Jeff Saturday needed to answer before taking to the sidelines for his first game as the Colts interim head coach was who would be calling the plays for the team. It seems as though Saturday has his answer, as assistant quarterbacks coach Parks Frazier is expected to handle the responsibility, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport

Frazier, 30, also serves as the Colts’ passing game specialist, having worked his way up the ladder since arriving in Indianapolis in 2018 as an assistant to former head coach Frank Reich. He previously worked as an assistant at Samford, Middle Tennessee State and Arkansas State after having played quarterback himself at Northeast Mississippi Community College and Murray State.

Saturday’s unorthodox choice will result in quite the promotion for Frazier, who will put his skills to the test come Sunday in Las Vegas. 

The move also continues a series of head-scratching moves made by the Colts since firing Reich on Monday afternoon. Team owner Jim Irsay opted to go with Saturday, a former Colts center and current ESPN analyst, as the interim head coach, despite Saturday having no coaching experience at the college or NFL level. In a press conference later in the day, Irsay touted Saturday’s inexperience as an actual positive for the franchise moving forward.

“I’m glad he doesn’t have any NFL experience,” Irsay told reporters. “I’m glad he hasn’t learned the fear,” explaining that coaches who are afraid of making mistakes often rely on analytics when making decisions.

Saturday only boasts a handful of years of coaching experience at the high school level, making Frazier actually more experienced for his play-calling position. Both will make their debuts in their new roles against the Raiders on Sunday.

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Horseshoe Huddle: Colts’ Jim Irsay, Chris Ballard Fail to Provide Confidence in Direction of the Franchise

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Zach Koons
ZACH KOONS

Zach Koons is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about Formula One. He joined SI as a breaking/trending news writer in February 2022 before joining the programming team in 2023. Koons previously worked at The Spun and interned for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He currently hosts the "Bleav in Northwestern" podcast and received a bachelor's in journalism from Northwestern University.