NOVEMBER 9: The Colts announced Wednesday that Frazier will be the team’s play-caller for the rest of the season. The young staffer may not have been the first choice, with quarterbacks coach Scott Milanovich believed to have been offered the job as well. But a big opportunity awaits.
NOVEMBER 8: Another twist in the Colts’ coaching plan is expected to ensue. The now-Jeff Saturday-led team is expected to move assistant quarterbacks coach Parks Frazier into the play-calling role, Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL.com report (on Twitter).
While this may not be the team’s permanent plan, Frazier is set to move into this key position against the Raiders in Week 10. Frazier, 30, has been Indianapolis’ assistant QBs coach since 2021. He was previously at the quality control level. Frazier is not believed to have called plays at any level, Stephen Holder of ESPN.com tweets.
The Colts are bypassing the likes of Scott Milanovich and Scottie Montgomery by making this decision. Milanovich is in place as Indianapolis’ quarterbacks coach, while Montgomery — the team’s running backs coach — drew offensive coordinator interest this offseason. Montgomery, 44, came to Indianapolis after stays as East Carolina’s head coach and Maryland’s offensive coordinator; Milanovich, 49, is a former Toronto Argonauts HC who served as the Jaguars’ play-caller after the team fired Nathaniel Hackett during the 2018 season. Milanovich won a Grey Cup while coaching the Argos in 2012.
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Frazier joined the Colts as Frank Reich‘s personal assistant in 2018, moving to Indiana after a stay as a graduate assistant at Arkansas State. This is an unorthodox move by Saturday. Then again, it does not come especially close to the shock level of Jim Irsay‘s decision to name Saturday interim head coach.
The Colts fired their top two offensive staffers this season, canning OC Marcus Brady in October and bailing on Reich midway through his fifth season. Reich had served as the team’s play-caller throughout his tenure.
Although the Colts were a surprise divisional-round entrant in Reich’s first season, Andrew Luck‘s stunning retirement threw the franchise off track. Reich still had the Colts’ offense ranking 16th in scoring during Jacoby Brissett‘s second Luck-relieving season (2019), and the team ranked ninth in points during both Philip Rivers and Carson Wentz‘s one-and-done stays. The team, of course, could not sustain that trajectory this season.
Frazier will take over with the Colts ranked 32nd in scoring (14.7 points per game). Indianapolis’ Irsay-influenced decisions regarding Matt Ryan and Sam Ehlinger have led the Colts to a nosedive offensively, despite the team having doled out big-ticket extensions to Pro Bowl linemen Quenton Nelson, Braden Smith and Ryan Kelly. The team’s issues staffing the other two O-line spots, along with Jonathan Taylor‘s first notable injury, have contributed to the freefall as well. Ehlinger will remain Indy’s starter, and Frazier will be the one tasked with elevating the 2021 sixth-rounder’s play during what promises to be one of the most interesting coaching experiments in modern NFL history.
Will the Raiders blow a 17 point lead in this one also?
No, this week we are going for a 21 point blown lead.
Maybe the NFL should step in – as this looks like a complete tank.
Well, there is an inherent problem with that. If Goodell punishes a team he suspects of tanking by making it harder for them to win…isn’t he helping them to achieve their objective?
Not if he strips them of a first rounder. Wouldn’t be the first time this year, and wouldn’t be the first time it was specifically to punish an owner run amok.
How is stripping the team of draft capital going to solve anything? The owner will simply say “Well, now we have even more reason to tank”…and the cycle just keeps repeating itself.
So losing for no gain, alienating fans, making it more difficult to attract on or off field talent, cratering your own revenue, making yourself a laughingstock, and with a long enough commitment to those shenanigans being forced to sell?
I agree it would be a recipe for disaster in almost any other business but this is the NFL. The Lions and Browns haven’t won anything meaningful in more than half a century. Both have had winless seasons but they still have solid fan bases. The owners aren’t the least bit worried about their football revenue cratering. If they eventually do sell their teams they will make out like bandits.
That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be setting themselves back in both football and finances.
Josh McDaniels must be biting his tongue.