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Jeff Saturday Dishes On Reinstating Culture That 'Went Off the Rails'

Originally posted on FanNation All Colts | By Drake Wally | Last updated 12/6/23

On Tuesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show, Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor member, and former interim head coach, Jeff Saturday, went in depth on his time as the unexpected leader of the team.

As the history books now tell, it was a brutally poor season for the Colts in 2022, which featured historic letups defensively, awful offensive production, and a team that had nearly no momentum through 17 contests.

Not since the 2011 season (Andrew Luck would be drafted the following season) had anyone seen the Colts look so lost, unmotivated, and outright careless as a team. The 2023 squad finished a forgettable 4-12-1, but it’s not the record that made the headlines that year.

The biggest shock came following the firing of Frank Reich after four and a half years as the head coach, which would be the hiring of Saturday. At that point, Saturday had no NFL coaching experience and was years removed from his play days, favoring the ESPN analyst role, instead.

This would be followed by a horrible 1-7 finish to the season, leading to the number-four spot in the 2023 NFL Draft. This ended up giving the Colts the future at QB, Anthony Richardson.

Saturday was professional, happy, and honest about what his expectations were coming into the role, and why it was important for him to help the Colts franchise and his former owner Jim Irsay.

"I knew we were gonna have challenges when I took the coaching job with the Colts..

My job was to try and get the culture back to where it was when I was playing there and I was glad I had the opportunity to do it"@SaturdayJeff #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/nJb8ld5IU1
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 5, 2023

The Pat McAfee Show posted on X a quote from Saturday himself: “I knew we were gonna have challenges when I took the coaching job with the Colts.

My job was to try and get the culture back to where it was when I was playing there, and I was glad I had the opportunity to do it.”

One thing that stood out is that Saturday acknowledged the severity of the decline of the culture in the Colts’ locker room. The roster had essentially lost touch with each other and were even showing up late to meetings before Saturday arrived.

There was also a massive cloud of doubt for the Colts’ future, showing how bad 2022 truly was for the morale of the franchise.

Saturday also talked about how he understood he wasn’t equipped, nor was the offensive staff, to win many games, even mentioning, “We’re gonna go 0-8” to Irsay. This shows that Saturday was ultimately part of Irsay’s long-term plan.

Now, while Irsay didn’t know Shane Steichen would be his next coach, he also likely didn’t expect Saturday to return in 2023 as the coach. Not to say Irsay didn’t believe in his former two-time All-Pro center; rather, it meant he knew Saturday could hold the fort down post-Reich while the coaching pieces that were expected to stay for 2023 could finish 2022 and get ready for next year.

This also resulted in Steichen being able to hire offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter, running backs coach DeAndre Smith, and offensive line coach Tony Sparano (among others), which has helped lead to the current 7-5 record for the Colts and a playoff spot going into Week 14.

Outlook

While the Saturday era for Indianapolis didn’t make any sense in 2022, it all adds up now. The Colts have their coach and QB of the future, the team is 100% bought into a revamped culture, and there are tangible playoff hopes right out of the gate for Steichen’s squad.

It may sound crazy to say, but part of the credit must go to Saturday for stepping in when nobody wanted him to so that the 2023 season, and future, could be set up for success for the Colts.