Frank Reich adds LB, DB, and special teams coaches

After taking a chance to get acclimated to his new position in Indianapolis, Frank Reich has gone to work with Chris Ballard and Jim Irsay to fill out the rest of his coaching staff. Today, three different coaches joined the team with a focus on defense and special teams.

Defensive backs coach Alan Williams returns to Indianapolis from Detroit. He previously spent time with the Colts in the 4-3 defensive scheme from 2002-2011. He earned an opportunity to lead the Minnesota Vikings as defensive coordinator from 2012-2013 before making his way to Motown. This has to be considered a very strong hire for a coaching with nearly two decades of experience coaching defensive backs.

Joining Indianapolis as a special teams coach is Ray “Bubba” Ventrone. He has spent the last few seasons with the New England Patriots. He joined the team after his own NFL career, during which he was primarily known for his abilities as a special teams coverage specialist. He is certainly a young coach but he was considered the favorite to take over the Patriots special teams coach position if Joe Judge ended up with the Colts.

Finally, Reich added Dave Borgonzi from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was a defensive quality control coach who has seven years of NFL coaching experience and four years of college coaching experience at Harvard and Syracuse. The most important thing to note about Borgonzi is that he is very familiar to defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. In 2011, Borgonzi joined the Dallas Cowboys coaching staff and would have worked with Eberflus.

Ultimately, these hires go even farther to support that there will be major changes on the defensive side of the football for the Colts in 2018. We already knew that Matt Eberflus has experience working in both 3-4 and 4-3 defensive schemes, with more experience in the 4-3. We also know that the defensive line coach Mike Phair has experience working in a base 4-3 alignment. When you throw in Alan Williams who specializes in the cover-2 defense it is glaringly obvious that there could be another big emphasis on adding pieces to a new look defense.