Colts Owner Provides Update on Head Coach Search
The Indianapolis Colts are approaching nearly a month in the search for their next head coach. Through a massive amount of first-round interview requests (14 total) and now, second-round interviews (eight total), it has been a long and drawn-out process that even general manager Chris Ballard hinted at happening, saying that he’d be perfectly fine going “into mid-February” with the coaching search.
With many fans starting to wonder and get a bit antsy as to who the next leader will be, it’s understandable that there are many levels of patience starting to wear thin.
Well, with the recent update on Twitter from owner Jim Irsay, it might be longer yet, as he stated it will be “days” and not “hours.”
The Colts, as mentioned in an earlier article, aren’t messing around at all with this search. It’s not a typical offseason, either, as the Colts will be searching for a new coach and a brand new quarterback, who will be a rookie, at that. Not to mention the next head coach will be new to the gig unless it’s Raheem Morris.
The first step is the coach, who will likely determine the path Indianapolis takes at the quarterback in the draft, so this is imperative to knock the selection out of the park and get the guy who truly fits the philosophy, team culture, and the players the best.
There are huge names in the market that are floating around the Colts’ facility, those include the likes of Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan, Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, and Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, as well as others. However, there’s even a potential candidate whose name has been under the radar starting to be linked to Indy, and without a second interview in Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.
With this development, there could be a chance that the Colts and Irsay are waiting until after Steichen and Bieniemy are finished with the Super Bowl coming up this weekend to decide and finish this search. At this point, it’s too hard to tell because Indianapolis is hiding it admirably from prying eyes.
Whether or not fans or writers like it, it’s the process that Ballard mentioned would be a potential path they’d take to finding a head coach, and they’re doing exactly that.
With so many illustrious names and talents being put into the Colts' facility for interviews, it should be praised more than anything that, especially after the Jeff Saturday disaster, the Colts aren’t just firing away on a coach to have one so they can appease outside interference. This is the future of the team at stake, and there’s no success until they get it right at the coach, first.