ESPN has significant interest in bringing back Jeff Saturday if he doesn’t stay in NFL: Source

ESPN has significant interest in bringing back Colts interim coach Jeff Saturday as an analyst if he doesn’t stay in the NFL, an industry source told The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch. Here’s what you need to know:

Saturday went 1-7 as interim coach of the Colts after the franchise brought him on midseason.
Saturday was a well-liked analyst for ESPN — he regularly appeared on “Get Up,” “First Take,” “SportsCenter,” and other ESPN platforms before leaving the network for the NFL coaching gig.

Backstory

Saturday, an offensive lineman, played 14 seasons in the NFL, all but one with the Colts, winning the Super Bowl in 2007 and being named to the Pro Bowl six times. Since retiring in 2013, in addition to his ESPN work and consulting for the Colts in recent years, he has been the football coach at Hebron Christian Academy, a high school in Dacula, Ga., where he finished 20-16 across three seasons from 2017-19.

In early November, Colts owner Jim Irsay fired coach Frank Reich after a three-game losing streak and a 3-5-1 start to the season. Things went awry quickly in the first half of the season after Reich benched veteran quarterback Matt Ryan, who the Colts traded for last offseason, on Oct. 24 and made Sam Ehlinger, who had never thrown a regular-season pass in the NFL, the starter. At the time of the decision, Ryan had a Grade 2 shoulder separation and was unable to practice. However, Reich said Ehlinger would be the starter for the rest of the season regardless of Ryan’s injury.

After Reich’s firing, most assumed special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone or defensive coordinator Gus Bradley would be named the interim head coach. Instead, Irsay picked Saturday. It became clear with Saturday’s hiring that Irsay was calling the shots instead of general manager Chris Ballard.

Saturday’s hiring as interim coach came under scrutiny based on his lack of experience. The Fritz Pollard Alliance, an organization that champions diversity in the NFL, initiated an inquiry with the league into whether his hiring process conformed with the NFL’s guidelines for naming an interim coach.

The Colts have lost seven straight games under Saturday, including Indianapolis authoring the worst single quarter in a quarter-century — a 33-0 blanking in the fourth period in Dallas in Week 13. Indianapolis followed that with the biggest choke job in the 102-year history of the league against the Vikings. The Colts blew a 33-0 halftime lead to Minnesota to lose 39-36 in overtime in an embarrassing collapse that defied comprehension.

Indianapolis finished the season with a 4-12-1 record, third in the AFC South.