Jim Caldwell hasn't even been fired yet, and already people like the Indianapolis Star's Bob Kravitz are saying the Colts have reached out former Titans head coach Jeff Fisher about taking over the coaching reigns in Indianapolis.
Kravitz was on PFT Live on Tuesday and said this:
I can promise you that [the Colts] have already reached out to Jeff Fisher. I think they have a pretty good idea already where they're at. They're looking, in theory, for a general manager, but that doesn't mean they're not looking for a coach.
Pretty big bombshell. Only problem is, it's not 100% true, or so Kravitz said later in the day on Twitter
After PFT took Kravitz's words and blew them up all over the Internet, Kravitz got on Twitter a short time later and clarified his statements.
To make it clear, I didn't tell
@ProFootballTalk that Colts already reached out to Fisher. Said I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
Well, actually Bob, you did. In fact, you 'promised.'
From my vantage, Kravitz might have let the cat out of the bag with the Fisher talk, and then backtracked so fast it left skid marks when his probable source for the Fisher info called him and screamed, 'WTF ARE YOU DOING TELLING PFT WE TALKED TO FISHER!'
The other reason might have been that Bob was talking out of his butt, which he essentially said he was when he later tweeted his might have 'misspoke.'
Now, before people gang up on Bob, let's look past the clarifications and backtracking. While I enjoy subjecting Bob to the same lectures on writing and saying accurate, strongly-sourced statements he often claims we dirty little bloggers do not do with regularity, it's best to put that aside and get to the meat of his comments.
'I can promise you that [the Colts] have already reached out to Jeff Fisher,' is a pretty bold statement.
It's my feeling that Kravitz has strong ties with Jim Irsay and with Peyton Manning. Kravitz can backtrack all he wants. I don't buy Kravitz's excuse of making that statement. Not one bit. Promising something, and then later stating that you might have misspoke in making that promise makes one look insincere, or incompetent. I don't think Bob Kravitz is incompetent.
If Kravitz is 'promising' the Colts spoke with Jeff Fisher, that means Irsay very much has Fisher on his radar, and has probably reached out to him.
As Mike Florio has already started writing about, Fisher is beginning the leverage game. He just interviewed with the Miami Dolphins, and he left South Beach without a contract. Now, he's weighing teams like the Rams and, possibly, the Bears. Fisher played for the Bears in the 1980s, and the recent firing of their G.M., Jerry Angelo, means that the job security of head coach Lovie Smith is tenuous regardless of whatever the Bears top brass say publicly.
Lovie Smith himself might be a possible candidate. He's well respected by players and coaches in this league, and he knows a thing or two about rebuilding teams from the ground up.
Now, the oddity in all this informed speculation is JIM CALDWELL IS STILL THE COACH!
It's obvious to everyone I've heard from that Caldwell will not coach this team in 2012. Forget what Tony Dungy said on NBC Monday. Dungy isn't wired into Irsay and his front office or coaching decisions. If you're Irsay, and you're looking to enter a 'new era' for the Colts, it might be a good idea to wipe the slate clean completely. This includes offensive and defensive systems.
So, purging the coaching ranks of Dungy disciples might not be a bad idea. Surely, coaches that got their jobs solely because of their associate with Bill and Chris Polian are goners. Also, when Irsay hires his new G.M., that G.M. is going to want to hire his guy. As many have said already, I can't think of a single G.M. candidate that will want to keep Caldwell.
The situation with Caldwell now is very similar to what Clark Judge did to then-Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards in 2009. Like Edwards, Caldwell will be fired. He probably sees the writing on the wall, and might be inclined to be left out there, dangling in the wind, as a favor to Irsay. Still, it has to be awkward for Caldwell and the rest of the Colts coaching staff.