INDIANAPOLIS – Well, add offensive coordinator Marcus Brady to the list of Colts scapegoats in 2022.
The Colts fired Brady on Tuesday, in the middle of his second season as the team’s offensive coordinator.
Brady is not the team’s play caller, but does play a leading role in game-planning, running weekly meetings and working with the quarterbacks. Frank Reich is the play caller though, and the ultimate overseer of that unit. Brady was promoted to the OC role last offseason, after Nick Sirianni became the Eagles head coach. Brady was previous the team’s quarterbacks coach.
As of now, the Colts do not have an interim offensive coordinator.
This is the first midseason staff firing in the 5-year Reich era.
“This was an incredibly hard decision, but one I felt needed to be made in the best interest of the team,” Frank Reich said in a statement released by the team. “I appreciate Marcus’s commitment to the organization, and he made a significant contribution to our offensive success over the last five seasons. I wish him the best moving forward.”
The promotion of Brady last year gave the Colts two very similar personalities at OC (Brady) and play caller (Reich). That was a stark contrast to the fiery Sirianni handling previous OC duties, alongside Reich’s play calling.
Could this be attributed to some of the Colts historic offensive problems?
While knowing exactly how much say, or control, Brady has over the offense on a weekly basis is difficult to gauge, there’s no denying the unit has had major issues in the scoring department.
The Colts are in a stretch of scoring more than 20 points one time in their last 20 games. They haven’t had a halftime lead in 10 straight games, in a part or the game where the scripted portion of a game plan is on much more display. They are 30th in the NFL at scoring 16.1 points per game.
Their offensive line has severely underperformed this season. And turnovers have been a major issue all year long.
Any thought to Reich giving up play calling duties doesn’t appear to be on the radar. Brady’s play calling experience was only at the Canadian Football League level.
The Colts have gone from cutting their kicker, sitting their left tackle and right guard, benching their veteran quarterback to now firing their offensive coordinator.
It’s a clear picture of a franchise currently in shambles, top-down, with bigger questions at the pillar positions (general manger, head coach and quarterback) coming.
