Dwight Freeney reacted to the Jeff Saturday news the same way as the rest of us: with disbelief.
"When someone told me, I said wait a minute, they got this wrong, no way is Jeff is the head coach,” Freeny told CBS Sports Radio’s “The Zach Gelb Show” on Tuesday night. “And I got the call and someone said 'Yes, Jeff is.' I went and googled it and sure enough, he is the head coach.”
It was indeed a stunner. The Colts went into this campaign having just narrowly missed the postseason a season earlier. Thinking that swapping Matt Ryan for Carson Wentz would go a long way in pushing them into the postseason, they’ve instead been a mess.
That has culminated with Jim Irsay canning Frank Reich on Monday and, moments later, plucking Saturday off the ESPN set to be their head coach.
Saturday, while a fine Colt in his day and by all accounts a fantastic leader, has no NFL coaching experience, only coaching at the high school level since retiring.
There are red flags all over the place with the hire. The consensus from those who either played alongside Saturday or worked with him at ESPN has been largely consistent. It’s great to see him succeed, but it’s a baffling move by the Colts.
“I was floored, man. But I’m happy for him. I’m absolutely happy for him,” Freeney said. “It’s going to be a really big challenge for him. You weren’t in the organization, you don’t know what systems and what gameplans happened prior to (you arriving) and what worked before. Going in, just not being in that building – I guess they figured out who they’re going to have as a play-caller here – but it’s weird. It really is.
“If I take my emotion out of it and the fact that I love him to death and love the Colts to death, it’s one of those things where you sit there and say what is going on? But I do know him, he is a great leader, he really is. He can get those guys fired up, and I don’t know if that’s going to be enough for this particular year, but I’m happy for him to get that opportunity.”
Saturday is taking over a team in disarray. They’re rolling with Sam Ehlinger at quarterback, the offensive line is a mess and they’ve lost each of their last three games. There is no shortage of talent on the roster, but thus far they haven’t come remotely close to putting it all together.
If nothing else it’ll be fascinating to watch unfold, but the Colts very much have invited the possibility of controversy and criticism depending on how the coming weeks and months play out.
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