Colts hire Philly’s Reich for top job
EAGLES offensive coordinator Frank Reich was named head coach of the Indianapolis Colts head coach Sunday, making him the second Eagles assistant coach to earn a new job during the weekend.
Reich, 56, has been with the Eagles during the past two seasons as Doug Pederson’s top assistant on offense. He will take the job that remained vacant after New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels backed out last week after reaching an agreement with the Colts. Reich was previously an assistant coach with the Colts from 2008-2011 and spent 13 years as an NFL quarterback.
“Frank is a leader of men who will demand excellence from our players on and off the field,” Colts GM Chris Ballard said in a statement released Sunday. “I look forward to working with Frank to deliver a championship-caliber team to the city of Indianapolis.”
Although Reich did not call plays for the Eagles, he had a big role in the offense. He helped create and install the system when Pederson arrived and was a key sounding board for Pederson. The two would meet for more than an hour on the night before games and go over the play sheet.
“Frank has all the ingredients of a successful head coach: intelligence, innovation, character, organizational and leadership skills, and a commanding presence,” Colts owner Jim Irsay said. “He also has a stellar reputation, and his myriad of life experiences and the people he has worked with make him the perfect fit for us and our fans.”
In Philly, Reich also helped in the decision to draft Carson Wentz and in the development of the quarterbacks on the roster as part of the quarterbackfocused coaching staff that the Eagles assembled in 2016. He helped funnel information from Pederson to the position coaches and back to Pederson.
“As the role of offensive coordinator, that’s what you do: you coordinate,” Reich said. “You take all the great resources that you have as far as the staff and our head coach, and you pile your ideas together and then you’ve got to narrow them down and that’s what we do. And we get a lot of good input from a lot of different ways, and that’s fun. I mean, it’s fun to work with the guys we work with and have the players that run those plays.”
The Eagles already lost quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo on Saturday when DeFilippo was named Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator. Losing both Reich and DeFilippo disrupts a coaching staff that helped the Eagles to the Super Bowl.
If the Eagles decide to replace Reich internally, running backs coach Duce Staley could be a candidate. Staley, a former Eagles running back, has been on the Eagles’ coaching staff since 2011, including the past five years as running backs coach. The Eagles interviewed Staley for the head-coaching job after firing Chip Kelly.