Insider: How Zaire Franklin's joke led to his playing fullback against the Buccaneers

INDIANAPOLIS -- Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin was passing some of his offensive teammates this week when he decided to crack a joke.

"Oh, I'm on offense this week," Franklin said he told them. "I need a pass."

Moments later, coach Shane Steichen walked by and asked if he got the memo about playing offense.

"And I’m thinking Shane is just late to the joke," Franklin said as he retold the story. "So I was messing with him like, ‘Yeah I need a pass, too.’ And he was like, ‘No, seriously. Did you get the memo?’"

What started as a joke became a far-fetched idea and then sat in the recesses of Steichen's brain. It's the part of him that's always tinkering and theorizing, where there is no such thing as a stupid question.

And so a few days later, the Colts were locked in a one-score game against the Buccaneers in the fourth quarter, and there was Franklin jogging onto the field with the offense. He was joined by Gardner Minshew, Jonathan Taylor, five offensive linemen and three tight ends. His job was to be the fullback on 4th-and-inches.

Minshew snapped the ball and gave a play-action fake to Taylor. Franklin stepped forward with his hands out, ready to block a run blitzer, but none came through the hole, so he moved forward like a man stumbling through a dark room until a Minshew pass flew over his head and into the arms of Mo Alie-Cox.

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Franklin was the first player down the field to celebrate with his tight end after the 30-yard completion.

"I hit him up during the week. I said, ‘Hey, you're coming in on power. You're going to walk inside out on power,’" Steichen said. "He goes, ‘Well, no, I'm fast in the flat.’ 'Hold on now, power first and then maybe something down the road.’

"It was awesome to see – it was a huge play."

It wound up becoming one of the defining plays in a 27-20 victory over the Buccaneers that was built on Steichen's aggressiveness and ingenuity on fourth down. Three plays after that pass, Taylor plunged into the end zone to extend the Colts' lead to two scores, and the Buccaneers were left desperate and chasing the rest of the game.

Steichen went for it four times on fourth down, converting three of them, two of which came by faking runs to Taylor with less than a yard to go.

This one came about when tight ends coach Tom Manning pitched a power formation to Steichen that they could run a play-action shot out of in short yardage. The design called for three tight ends lined up in tight with the backfield in a Power-I. The only problem was that the Colts don't have a fullback on the roster.

So Manning asked Steichen who he wanted there. They threw around some different ideas. Eventually, they landed on their captain at linebacker.

"In high school, I had a run at tight end back in the day," Franklin said. "Y'all can find the tape because it was electric."

Franklin was amped about the play all week but knew it would take the right moment to roll it out. The Colts could have used it on a 4th-and-1 in the first half but instead ran a run-pass-option where Minshew hit Michael Pittman Jr. in the flats. By the fourth quarter, they had been running so much with Taylor and Zack Moss to milk clock with a lead that it felt to Steichen like the time.

“He’s the type of coach that prepares for every situation, and he banks on other teams not preparing for those other situations. He’s not afraid to put a wrinkle in. He’s not afraid to be aggressive. Just that energy and that mentality."

This wrinkle involved Franklin, marking his first play on offense since his senior year of high school back in 2013.

"I’ll stop joking with the head coach after this," he said with a laugh.

Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: How Zaire Franklin's joke led to his fullback role