Frank Reich reportedly favored to land Colts coaching job after McDaniels blunder

After being spurned by Josh McDaniels, it looks like the Colts have found someone who actually wants their coaching job.

According to ESPN.com, Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich is the favorite to land the job and will almost certainly be hired. However, the Colts won't be making an announcement until Reich has actually signed his contract, because, well, we all saw what happened last week when the Colts tried to announce a hiring without a signed contract in place.

On Feb. 6, the Colts announced that McDaniels would be the team's new head coach, but that announcement blew up in their face just a few hours later when McDaniels changed his mind and decided to stay in New England.

Despite the ugliness of the situation, Colts general manager Chris Ballard still went through with a previously scheduled press conference on Wednesday that was originally supposed to include McDaniels.

With the Patriots offensive coordinator out of the picture, the Colts started their search over and put most of their focus on three candidates: Dan Campbell, Leslie Frazier and Reich.

According to ESPN, Reich spent 10 hours interviewing with the Colts on Friday and had an advantage over the other two candidates because of his experience on the offensive side of the ball.

Reich has been the Eagles offensive coordinator for the past two seasons, and has played a large role in the development of Carson Wentz, who was drafted in 2016. Reich was also instrumental in helping Nick Foles this year, and a big part of that was because he was highly familiar with Foles' situation as a backup quarterback coming off the bench to help a playoff team.

Back in January 1993, Reich led the Bills to a shocking 38-35 win over the Oilers in a game where Buffalo had been trailing 35-3. The win is still the greatest comeback in NFL playoff history.

With the Colts, Reich would be returning to the team that gave him his first coaching job. The 56-year-old started as a coaching intern with the Colts in 2006 before becoming quarterbacks coach (2009-10) and eventually wide receivers coach with the Colts (2011). Reich also coached with the Cardinals (2012) and Chargers (2013-15) before joining the Eagles in 2016.

If Reich gets hired, it will mark the second time this offseason that the Eagles have lost an offensive coach. Quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo was hired as the Vikings' offensive coordinator just days after Philadelphia's 41-33 win over the Patriots in Super Bowl LII.

Let's block ads! (Why?)