The Indianapolis Colts are in a sudden state of disarray after Josh McDaniels backed out of his head coaching commitment on Tuesday night. General manager Chris Ballard voiced the organization's strong dismay in wake of McDaniels' surprising decision to leave the organization before he'd even arrived, according to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.
“With Josh backing out, we were disappointed, unquestionably: We were disappointed and surprised. We’d agreed to contract terms. We had an agreement in place. We followed all the rules, did everything right. Two interviews, both of them went very well. Very confident we were going in the right direction, very confident Monday evening and into Tuesday morning,” Ballard said.
Indianapolis lined up a press conference for McDaniels on Wednesday morning to introduce him as the next head coach. However, things fell apart on Tuesday after the 41-year-old had a long sitdown with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft that convinced him to remain with the team as the offensive coordinator.
McDaniels' sudden change of heart led to his agent, Bob LaMonte, parting ways with him on Wednesday morning. He was completely set to fill the Colts' head coach vacancy next season and help finally move the franchise in the right direction, and the team had even announced the hiring on their social media accounts. The Colts even began hiring a coaching staff under McDaniels over the last couple of weeks.
All of this pushes the Colts back to square one with their head coach search. The front office has reportedly lined up interviews with Dan Campbell, who is the New Orleans Saints' assistant head coach/TEs coach, and Frank Reich, who is the Philadelphia Eagles' offensive coordinator. Several other candidates will likely be spoken to before a decision is made over the next couple of weeks.
Follow Us
Subscribe