Colts' Quenton Nelson: Feel like I let Frank Reich down and contributed to his firing

INDIANAPOLIS — Jeff Saturday knew exactly what he was walking into Wednesday morning.

Knew it better than a lot of the stuff he’d been doing the previous 48 hours, and that’s not a knock on the Colts’ interim coach, the man asked to take over from Frank Reich in Indianapolis despite Saturday’s lack of experience as a coach at the NFL or college levels.

Saturday had spent most of the first 48 hours in meetings. Interviewing coaches for the play-calling role. Making the decision to turn that role over to pass game specialist Parks Frazier. Meeting with the coaching staff in all three phases. Saturday had to install new apps on his phone, learn the tablet the Colts use, a bunch of administrative stuff that comes with the head job.

But the team meeting was Wednesday morning. Saturday’s first chance to meet with the players.

That kind of stuff is in Saturday’s bones.

“I’ve sat in their seat, man. This sucks,” Saturday said. “They love Frank. That’s their coach. They played for this dude.”

'I love the guy to death'

The Colts locker room has been through a series of shocks the past couple of weeks.

The benching of Matt Ryan, the veteran quarterback who’d arrived in Indianapolis last spring and immediately earned the team’s respect. The firing of offensive coordinator Marcus Brady, a man that had been in the building as long as Reich. The trade of a popular, central player in Nyheim Hines.

Monday’s news hit the hardest.

“We found out, all as a team, together,” starting quarterback Sam Ehlinger said. “(General manager) Chris (Ballard) came in Monday morning and informed us.”

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Even for veterans, guys like Ryan Kelly and DeForest Buckner, who’ve been through coaching changes before, the news came as a shock. Few, if any, have ever been through a coaching change in the middle of the season.

Reich has been in Indianapolis for almost five years, acting as far more than just head coach and play-caller to a lot of the players. For players like Ehlinger and Kelly, who have been through heartbreaking tragedy, Reich was a rock for their personal lives, not just their profession.

“It was hard. Frank and I, the first time we met him was downtown at that event, and I thought he was an awesome guy. I still do. He’s such a man of faith. He’s helped me a lot with the challenges that I’ve had with our family,” Kelly said. “I love the guy to death.”

For some veterans, Reich is the only NFL head coach they’d ever had.

A man they believed in deeply, and a man they respect. With so much to discuss, reporters moved from player to player in the locker room in waves Wednesday, and unfortunately that meant that a few players were asked for their reaction over and over again.

An emotional Quenton Nelson answered every time.

“I spent a lot of time and thought about (the news), and I was just like, ‘Damn,’" Nelson said. “I don’t want to repeat myself for the fourth time, but I will, because I love Coach Frank. I love him as a coach and as a person, I appreciate everything he’s done for me, for the Colts, and for my success. A lot of that is because of him.”

Then there’s the other part of the situation.

For some, there were feelings of guilt.

Buckner put it best, the same way Kelly had put it in the locker room after Sunday’s loss to the Patriots. A coach is not the one on the field playing. If a head coach is fired halfway through a season, it means the players haven’t been performing up to expectations.

“I definitely feel that way,” Nelson said. “That’s one of the hard parts. I feel like there’s times this season that I let down Coach Frank and contributed to his firing.”

Nelson wasn’t the only player who felt that way.

“It hurt me personally to see (Reich) lose his job,” wide receiver Parris Campbell said. “I feel, some way, responsible. Not only me, but as a team, because the product on the field is why you lose or keep a job. I get emotional talking about it, because Frank was my guy.”

'He came in with energy. That’s something we need right now.'

A different coach, somebody who’d lost touch with what it’s like to be a player, might have tried to push everything forward, past all of the hurt the Colts are feeling in the wake of a shocking move.

Saturday met it head on.

“I told the guys this morning, I care about the players, I care about the players,” Saturday said. “These are my people, bro. Like, my adult life was forged here. Like, my wife and I, we raised our kids here. These people matter to me, this organization matters to me, right? The people in the community matter to me.”

When Saturday says he cares, he says it with his whole body.

The Colts picked up on it right away.

“He didn’t just come in and automatically demand respect, and everybody knows who he is and his message,” Kelly said. “He did it the right way. That comes, obviously, with the territory of being in this league for a long time. You easily smell out (expletive) when you smell it. He did a great job.”

Saturday’s a passionate man.

The Colts could feel that, too.

“He came in with energy,” Buckner said. “That’s something we need right now.”

The Colts’ new head coach also told the players he’s going to be real with them.

Authentic is the only way Saturday believes he can be, and his reputation as a legendary Colt does carry weight within the locker room.

“He was a cornerstone of this franchise, and everyone respects the heck out of him,” Nelson said. “He was an underdog, being undrafted and being out of the league for a year. You can’t do anything but respect the hell out of someone like that.”

'I've got to earn their trust'

Saturday’s smart enough to know he can’t win over the locker room in one meeting.

NFL coaches are rarely fired in the middle of the season, and when it does happen, the interim coach is almost always plucked from the staff, somebody who’s been in the trenches every day with the team since the offseason. Saturday has been a consultant for the team over the past couple of seasons, but most of his work has been with the offensive line.

“Look, I’ve got to earn their trust,” Saturday said. “I’m not trying to diminish how important that is. That’s going to take time.”

The move to hire Saturday despite his lack of coaching experience has dominated the conversation, locally and nationally, in articles and talk shows and anywhere else people talk about the NFL. As much respect as Saturday has throughout the league, there have also been a lot of reports, citing coaches and other sources around the league, that there is skepticism about this move.

No NFL team has hired a head coach, either interim or full-time, with no NFL or college coaching experience since the Minnesota Vikings tabbed Norm Van Brocklin in 1961, one year after the quarterback was named MVP of the league.

“I can’t speak words on that,” Buckner said. “That’s above my pay grade.”

And one day isn’t enough to make the adjustment emotionally. When the locker room first opened to the local media Wednesday, the Colts still hadn’t gone through their first practice with the new head coach.

“To be honest, it’s weird,” said linebacker Zaire Franklin, a team captain and respected leader. “It’s a weird situation. I have no frame of reference on how to carry it, or how to really do all that. All I can do, all we can do as leaders on this team is be the guys we’ve always been, continue to be examples, continue to push, continue to stick together as a team and push to get these wins.”

Saturday tried to send that message in the team meeting.

Eight games remain. Colts owner Jim Irsay and general manager Chris Ballard vowed on Monday night that the team isn’t giving up on the season, even though Indianapolis sits at 3-5-1, 10th place in the AFC and at least two wins out of contention for a playoff spot.

A matchup with the Raiders looms Sunday.

Whatever the Colts are feeling, the relentless nature of the NFL schedule doesn’t leave a lot of time to stay in that space.

“It was surprising, for sure, but I’ve learned as life goes on, there’s a lot of surprising things that happen, that you have to handle the situations in front of you,” veteran quarterback Matt Ryan said. “I thought Jeff did a good job of that this morning, of kind of saying the same thing. This is the situation, and it’s about what we choose to do with it.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts players react to firing of Frank Reich, arrival of Jeff Saturday