While most have assumed that Josh McDaniels is almost certainly spoken for as the Indianapolis Colts next head coach, the simple fact that it can’t be official until the New England Patriots are finished with their season has kicked off the rumor mill. The Tennessee Titans have hired Mike Vrabel which, to any casual observer, was felt as the only obstacle for the Colts and their negotiations with McDaniels once their former HC Mike Mularkey was canned.
So, that wasn’t going to happen and the Titans moved swiftly in their coaching search, thus the Colts requested a second interview with McDaniels following the Patriots’ win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Championship. This was likely to iron out some details with the projected contract, possibly allow the Colts to help in rounding up McDaniels’ assistants and maybe above all else, the trading of sweat with a handshake deal between the two parties.
As a bit of a vote of confidence for Colts fans who haven’t totally been sold on the finality of the agreement before today, ESPN insider John Clayton appeared on the Scott and BR show (listen here, near the 6:40 mark) and in the process in response to the question if the deal with McDaniels and the Colts was done definitively stated “Done, yeah.” and elaborated with “Josh McDaniels is going to Indianapolis and Matt Patricia is going to the Detroit Lions — those two deals are done.”
Clayton stated that Patricia has already notified his coaches, but moved on with the conversation before saying the same about McDaniels. I would hope at this time that some of the staff has been coming together for awhile now, and it seems that would be a reasonable assumption despite it not being said on this interview.
We’ve seen the Facebook post, and subsequent comments from her friends, from Matt Eberflus’ wife talking about moving to Indianapolis with a Colts graphic under a picture that was shared. My guess is that the majority of McDaniels’ staff will be hired quite quickly once the Super Bowl is over and he’s had a couple days to soak that in.
Colts fans are waiting with bated breath for that press conference with the excitement of moving on from mediocrity and hoping for greatness in the very near future with two young, smart football minds in Ballard and McDaniels and streamlining their focus for the organization.