Article from Franks time with the colts….sounds very familiar

[Tbe]

A LOT of this sounds familiar. The last paragraph is key IMO. Frank has been riding the coattails of Peterson and Sirianni for years. 
 

The obvious question is…how the hell did Tepper and Fitt not understand this?

The answer is they just don’t know enough about the NFL to connect the dots.

https://horseshoeheroes.com/2022/11/05/sudden-decline-colts-offensive-production-not-fluke-frank-reich/
 

Through eight weeks in the 2022 season, the Colts are sitting at the bottom of the league in terms of scoring offenses. At third-worst in the league with a scoring average of 16.1 points per game, the current-day Colts have found themselves completely disheveled. Once a team that would score with calculation, more than at will, this team has lost all sense of efficiency— especially early on in games. Indy’s offensive scoring ranks by season in the Reich-era go as followed:

Year | Rank | Points/Game

2018 – 5th – 27.1

2019 – 16th – 22.6 (Luck retirement; Jacoby Brissett spot start for the season)

2020 – 9th – 28.2

2021 – 9th – 26.5

2022 – 30th – 16.1

Not particularly by design, but as we all know, Reich has had to deal with a new starting QB every single year since he was brought in. The consistent offensive production is additionally impressive considering said revolving door is in regard to the most important position on a football field at any given time, let alone an offense. However, fast forward to year five of the Frank Reich experience, to a point in time where all hope seems lost. Not only have the Colts lost their offensive identity, but now they’re losing important contributors to the offense by the day (i.e., the Matt Ryan benching, the Marcus Brady firing, and the Nyheim Hines trade). Whether or not the reasoning for these losses is self-inflicting, in the end, it shows just how dysfunctional the offense has become.

It’s nearly indisputable at this point that the origin of said regression begins with the offensive line. The struggles within that group have only been exacerbated due to the fact the Colts have the NFL’s highest-paid offensive line, and as the IndyStar’s Joel Erickson so simply put it, “a unit that is supposed to be the foundation of everything that happens on offense.”

It would be one thing if the highly-paid players on said OL was at the very least holding their own, but they’re not, and quite frankly they look bad. The longest-tenured Colt in center Ryan Kelly has seen a regression unlike any other when it comes to the OL. Once a mainstay who was always one step ahead, is now fighting to keep his job from a second-year G/C out of Ball State, Danny Pinter.

Right tackle, Braden Smith and left guard, Quenton Nelson are the other proprietors of this rich OL, and they too have found themselves in the midst of a questionable regression, or maybe it’s simply a down year. Down years, however, are not an acceptable excuse for these two who wield such mammoth-sized contracts. Quenton Nelson has arguably been the best interior offensive lineman ever since his welcoming to the league in 2018, earning four consecutive all-pro nods, and he was certainly compensated fairly with his four-year, $80M extension contract extension— making him the highest-paid guard in NFL history. Nelson’s regression certainly will be magnified due to his contract and dominant reputation, but as nobody ever is in the team sport that is football, this isn’t all on him.

How important was Nick Sirianni to the Colts?

So in the case where a head coach is also the offensive play-caller, as is Frank Reich with the Colts and (presumably) both Nick Sirianni and Marcus Brady, what exactly is the offensive coordinator responsible for? In his media availability on Wednesday, Frank Reich said that aside from calling plays, the HC and OC share a collective responsibility so far as the game plan goes. It’s no secret by now that Frank Reich is the sole play-caller for the Indianapolis Colts, and has been that way since his hiring in 2018.

Something Reich has taken pride in over the years has been his ability to come out of the gates swinging, as he is solely responsible for scripting each game’s first 15 plays. Through the first four years under Reich, the Colts’ offense has had a track record of being one of the best teams on an opening drive. Through eight weeks in the 2022 season, however, the Colts have yet to score a single point. Reich claimed this is a fluke during his media availability, yet, it doesn’t feel as such.

Aside from the 2019 season in which Jacoby Brissett filled in for the unforeseen retirement of Andrew Luck (the team still managed a 16th-best scoring offense), a team that employs Nick Sirianni to be a focal point of the offense (meaning OC or HC) has seen no worse than a top-12 scoring offense in return. As a first-year head coach in Philly, and especially as someone who never officially called plays for an NFL offense before, Sirianni took a team with unappealing weapons and a young QB to the 12th-best scoring offense en route to a Wild Card berth. Fast forward to 2022 and Sirianni and Co. are cruising through eight weeks, as they are the only undefeated team in the NFL while sporting the third-best scoring offense.

This direct correlation is only 1.5 years in the making, however, it appears that Nick Sirianni is as important to an offense as Reich once claimed. Frank Reich and Nick Sirianni truly seem like they are two peas in a pod, as their metaphorical mindsets often are the first things we think of when deciphering their similarities. Both offensive-minded individuals, their on-the-field similarities were just as strong. Reich even said that Sirianni was, “a driving force in everything we did as the coordinator,” proving just how integral Sirianni was to the Colts’ everyday success.

Ultimately, the overall regression of offensive production and efficiency is less about the loss of now Eagles HC Nick Sirianni and more due to the failures of GM Chris Ballard in replicating a reliable offensive line of recent memory. Though, the loss of Sirianni is certainly a factor altogether. Frank Reich certainly doesn’t get a pass in all of this either, as he too is responsible for said deterioration.

Frank Reich and Nick Sirianni surely were a dynamic duo when it comes to running NFL offenses, however, it seems clear more than ever that Reich needed Sirianni more than Sirianni ever needed him.

 

[TheBigKat]

nice guy to have a beer with and talk about the "ole days of Football"

 

A total turd of a NFL coach who should have NEVER gotten a head coaching job back as fast as he did but hey, our owner knows all the analytics and stuff, he runs a hedge fund

[Waldo]

The entire narrative was Sirianni was the issue in regards to Frank failing in Indy.

He is also 29th and 30th this year. So it looks like last year wasn't a fluke before he got fired.

The oline regression is a huge deal. I had no idea it happened in Indy too.

[4Corners]

9 minutes ago, TheBigKat said:

nice guy to have a beer with and talk about the "ole days of Football"

 

A total turd of a NFL coach who should have NEVER gotten a head coaching job back as fast as he did but hey, our owner knows all the analytics and stuff, he runs a hedge fund

100%

[Tbe]

I was hopeful Frank could learn and adapt, but it’s clear he hasn’t learned a thing from his time in Indy or his time with Sirianni.

He needs to go now so we can see what Evero has to offer.

[Tbe]

17 minutes ago, Waldo said:

The entire narrative was Sirianni was the issue in regards to Frank failing in Indy.

Ex Head Coach Frank Reich's new team?  Terrible.

Ex Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus' new team?  Terrible.

Ex Offensive Coordinator Nick Sirianni's new team?  Superbowl contenders.

The last time Colts had a good team?  2020.

The last time Sirianni was with the Colts?  2020.

[SOJA]

Frank seems like a good human being but at this point I think he's proven he can't coach 

[hepcat]

45 minutes ago, SOJA said:

Frank seems like a good human being but at this point I think he's proven he can't coach 

The game just passed him by. Being a good dude means you’re more likely to attract good people around you which is what Frank has clearly done throughout his coaching career. Problem is the Panthers built a staff of guys who don’t mesh together. The results have been….well we all already know 

[ncfan]

Frank really needed to take a year off before jumping back into coaching 

[Mr. Scot]

That article isn't nearly as negative about Frank Reich as some of you think.

[Tbe]

1 hour ago, Mr. Scot said:

That article isn't nearly as negative about Frank Reich as some of you think.

It’s not, but forget the tone the author was trying to set. It’s about the common threads between Indy and here. Frank only got these jobs because of his Super Bowl ring, but it’s clear he had very little to do with that success. 

[Johnstonny]

2 minutes ago, Tbe said:

It’s not, but forget the tone the author was trying to set. It’s about the common threads between Indy and here. Frank only got these jobs because of his Super Bowl ring, but it’s clear he had very little to do with that success. 

Which is what I said earlier.... if tipper knew how to google and apply his analytical thinking he would have known Frank wasn't the man within 10 minutes.... Id fire Capers, Caldwell and Campen for GP....doesn't seem to be any value there....

[Mr. Scot]

24 minutes ago, Tbe said:

It’s not, but forget the tone the author was trying to set. It’s about the common threads between Indy and here. Frank only got these jobs because of his Super Bowl ring, but it’s clear he had very little to do with that success. 

The top thing that I got out of the article is that he needs a really good OC, which honestly isn't a startling revelation.

In our case he went with an up-and-coming coach who'd never really been a full NFL OC before.

Might have been better off to go with somebody experienced.

[Daeavorn]

44 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

The top thing that I got out of the article is that he needs a really good OC, which honestly isn't a startling revelation.

In our case he went with an up-and-coming coach who'd never really been a full NFL OC before.

Might have been better off to go with somebody experienced.

his zone blocking scheme seems to be the thing that both teams have in common. I think thats our culprit more than anything