Insider: 10 candidates to replace Frank Reich as Colts head coach

The Colts are blowing a hole in their plans and carving out a new direction. That became clear Monday morning, when they decided to fire coach Frank Reich.

Reich finished his 4⅟₂-year tenure with a 41-35-1 record, including the playoffs. It was a mostly successful run given that he never had the same starting quarterback from one season to the next. But after falling short in the AFC South and not finding a long-term quarterback, the Colts are headed back to the drawing board.

With eight games to go, they have a jump start on most other teams that will search for a new coach. The only other team that has fired one this season is the Panthers, who parted ways with Matt Rhule.

Here are some candidates who could fit what owner Jim Irsay and general manager Chris Ballard might be looking for:

Jeff Saturday, Colts interim head coach

I mean, everything has to be on the table with this franchise at the moment, right? The Colts made a stunning move after Reich's dismissal to hand the interim coaching job to their former longtime center and current ESPN analyst. They bypassed two former head coaches on staff in Gus Bradley and John Fox to hire a man who is beloved within the facility but who has never coached above the high school level. He was the head coach of Hebron Christian Academy in Georgia from 2017-2020.

Saturday, 47, was a consultant with the Colts and is in the team's Ring of Honor. He played 13 seasons with the Colts, reached five Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl as the center and leader of the offensive line. That happens to be the most underperforming unit on the Colts roster at the moment. Going outside the building for an interim coach has to leave open the possibility that he earns the job.

More:Former Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday is crushing it as a high school football coach

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Jim Harbaugh, Michigan head coach

As Irsay gives a look to beloved former Colts players, he'll certainly consider one who has a great NFL track record and is currently winning at the college level. Jim Harbaugh was the Colts quarterback from 1994-1997, going 20-26 as a starter. He's since launched a long coaching career that has won at every level, from San Diego to Stanford to the 49ers and now at Michigan. He's 128-51 as a college head coach and 70-24 at Michigan, including 8-0 this season. With the 49ers, he went 49-22 including the playoffs, with three trips to the NFC Championship Game and one trip to the Super Bowl in four years.

Harbaugh has held interest in a return to the NFL in recent years, including becoming a finalist for the Vikings job last season. He would bring a fiery leadership style and tenacious brand of football that focuses on the trenches, which would appeal to Irsay and Ballard. He left the 49ers on unceremonious terms and has a reputation across the league as difficult to work with, which could make a pairing with Ballard a challenge. This is the most realistic splash hire for the franchise right now.

Demeco Ryans, 49ers defensive coordinator

The NFL has purged many of the hot-name coordinators in recent seasons, but one who has been expected to land a job is still out there. Demeco Ryans was an excellent player in the Colts' division from 2006-2011, reaching two Pro Bowls and winning Defensive Rookie of the Year as a linebacker with the Texans. He's spent the past six seasons in coaching, all with the 49ers, including the past two running the unit. Both years, his star-studded group has ranked in the top 10 in Football Outsiders' DVOA metric for efficiency, and last year, the 49ers rode that defense to the NFC Championship Game.

Ryans isn't an offensive coach, and the Colts need to find a quarterback. His experience with offensive assistants is limited after working just six years for one franchise. But he's in a position similar to the one Mike Vrabel was in when he became the Titans coach in 2018, and the Colts have been chasing them in the AFC South ever since.

Jonathan Gannon, Eagles defensive coordinator

The Colts like to look at guys they know, clearly, and one of those happens to be doing a great job with the NFL's only unbeaten team. Jonathan Gannon coached the Colts secondary from 2018-2020 before leaving to become Nick Sirianni's defensive coordinator in Philadelphia. The Eagles are going to reach the postseason for a second straight year under his tutelage, and they've improved from No. 25 in defensive DVOA last season to No. 3 this year.

Gannon, 39, is another defensive coach, and the Colts will need to develop a rookie quarterback. He does have a longer resume than Ryans, having worked for the Falcons, Titans, Vikings, Colts and Eagles. Ballard's eye for drafting defense and familiarity with Gannon could make this a fit.

Luke Fickell, Cincinnati head coach

If the Colts are willing to consider college coaches, they'll almost certainly give a look to Luke Fickell. Ballard has raved about the program he's built less than two hours away at Cincinnati, where the Bearcats are 55-17 under Fickell and last year became the first midmajor to reach the College Football Playoff. Ballard drafted two players from that program, including second-round wide receiver Alec Pierce. And if Irsay is interested in the Vrabel model, he might be drawn to another hard-nosed defensive coach who happened to room with Vrabel at Ohio State.

Fickell, 49, has never coached in the NFL, so he's clearly a risk. He's also not an offensive coach, and introducing that inexperience with a rookie quarterback could be difficult. This is a pair that could work if the Colts found him a veteran offensive coordinator. It remains to be seen whether Fickell has any NFL interest. He's turned down opportunities to leave Cincinnati already. He's lived his entire life in Ohio at this point, though Indianapolis is the second-closest NFL team.

Eric Bieniemy, Chiefs offensive coordinator

Every year when the NFL has openings, Eric Bieniemy's name pops up as a candidate. It's for good reason, as he's spent the past five years as the coordinator for the most explosive offense in the NFL. Bieniemy doesn't call the plays in Kansas City, where Andy Reid has such a huge hand in quarterbacks and the evolution of Patrick Mahomes. But Reid and Mahomes have raved about Bieniemy and stumped for him to land his own head coaching gig, and those words could carry with Ballard, who worked with both as a member of the Chiefs front office.

Bieniemy, 53, has had a hard time winning teams over in interviews so far. The Chiefs are always a Super Bowl contender, which makes it hard for him to prepare for interviews or to assemble a staff until after the Super Bowl. The Colts ran into issues with that scenario once already in attempting to hire Josh McDaniels. But as they look to draft and develop a quarterback, following the Chiefs' model with Mahomes in the conference they run is not a bad idea.

Steve Wilks, Panthers interim coach

If Ballard is running this search, then the coaches he's worked with in the past should be in the conversation. One of those is doing a commendable job as an interim coach right now. Steve Wilks led the Panthers to an upset of the Rams and an overtime loss to the Falcons after taking over for Rhule with a Panthers team on a backup quarterback and down Christian McCaffrey. He has a tight locker room in Carolina right now, and he brings a lot of the fire on the field that could appeal to Ballard and Irsay after moving on from Reich.

Wilks, 53, went 3-13 in his one season as coach of the Cardinals in 2018, but it wasn't considered a fair shake by many. He was the Bears' defensive backs coach in 2006-2008, when Ballard was in the front office and when Chicago reached the Super Bowl and lost to Indianapolis. He wouldn't be the flashy hire, given his age, his 4-16 record and his lack of offensive acumen. But he would be positioned to take a strong Colts defense some places.

Rich Bisaccia, Packers special teams coordinator

It's hard to believe, but just 11 games ago, the Colts were a 9-6 team riding the high of wins over the Bills, Patriots and Cardinals when they had a home game against the Raiders and were beaten in their own building. It came against an interim coach. Rich Bisaccia took over a team in far more turmoil than the Colts are in, as Las Vegas had fired Jon Gruden for behavioral reasons midseason and was also reeling from the tragedy involving Henry Ruggs III. A special teams coordinator for the previous two decades, Bissacia stepped in and led the Raiders to a 7-5 finish to become the first interim coach in NFL history to take a team to the playoffs.

Bisaccia is 63, and it's unclear what his philosophies are on offense. He has three former assistants on the Colts defensive staff who would back up the job he did last season. Hiring him could be a way to keep Gus Bradley's defensive staff in place, giving some continuity in a fast-changing environment and less pressure on a new quarterback to produce instant results. He's coached with the Buccaneers, Packers, Chargers, Raiders and Cowboys, so his options for offensive assistants should not be light.

Kellen Moore, Cowboys offensive coordinator

If the Colts are eyeing up-and-coming offensive coordinators, they have to give consideration to what the Cowboys are doing. Kellen Moore arrived in Dallas as a 30-year-old quarterbacks coach in 2018 and became the coordinator the next year. He's advanced the offense past the run game to better balance and explosion built around Dak Prescott's dual-threat abilities. This season, the Cowboys are 6-2 with the No. 11 offense by DVOA, and that's with Prescott missing five games to injury and former undrafted free agent Cooper Rush filling in admirably.

Moore is 34 and still a coach light on experience. Though he took Prescott to a career year coming off an ACL tear last season, he has yet to develop his own rookie quarterback out of the draft. It's unclear what kind of plan he'd have on defense, though this could be a good situation to pair him with the staff that's already here and excelling, one that features two former head coaches to help him out in Bradley and Fox.

Sean Payton, former Saints coach

Sean Payton is going to be the prize name that fans of any team with an opening will want this offseason. It's easy to see why, as he's won a Super Bowl, built Drew Brees into one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time and launched a long run of success offensively and overall. He is 161-97 as a head coach, including the playoffs, with seven NFC South championships in New Orleans.

Payton, 58, has expressed an interest in returning to coaching since he stepped down from the Saints a year ago. New Orleans owns his rights, so it will ask for trade compensation for him and the price will be high. That could be crippling to a franchise like Indianapolis that needs those picks to acquire the next quarterback, plus a left tackle. Payton will have suitors, and he'll be looking for a quarterback plan he can trust, which puts Indianapolis at the bottom of the list. Add in his likely desire for roster control, and the Colts feel like a pipe dream of a landing spot.

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

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: 10 candidates to replace Frank Reich as head coach