Inside What The Early Stages Of The Colts’…

Colts head coach Frank Reich, of course, has years of experience when it comes to morphing an offense with new quarterback. From taking over a first-year head coach with Andrew Luck in 2018 to shifting things on the fly for Jacoby Brissett in 2019, and then fitting scheme to quarterback and vice versa amid COVID-19 restrictions with Philip Rivers and Carson Wentz in 2020 and 2021, Reich – now with Ryan – has been challenged to adapt for five consecutive offseasons.

But Reich does not view the annual quarterback changes of the last half-decade as a burden; he said it’s kept him and his coaching staff sharp in how they’ve had to continuously shift their offense over the last half-decade.

So since acquiring Ryan, Reich and his coaching staff have immersed themselves in what’s made the 2016 MVP and four-time Pro Bowler successful over his 222 career starts, looking for things to implement in the Colts’ offense while identifying areas of emphasis that may be different.

“I can already tell you, in three days, in three meetings, including (Wednesday), we’ve already changed – I’m just half joking, but we’ve already changed 10 percent,” Reich said. “He has perspective. ‘Hey, can we run that route this way? It’s the same concept, but the way we might teach the one route within the concept, I’ve always liked to do it this way.’

“Most of the time the answer to those questions are, ‘Absolutely, let’s do it that way.’ We see it on film, I look at him doing it on film, we like what it looks like, we like how It feels and those little changes in some ways, keep defenses – they can’t lock into what we’re going to do.”

Reich lauded Ryan’s approach as “engaging,” “very humble,” “very strong,” and “very professional” as the quarterback and his new coaches began to put in work to build their 2022 offense this week. But all those qualities also apply to how Ryan is interacting with his new teammates.

Ryan has taken initiative in working out and throwing with Colts pass-catchers since his late March trade from the Falcons to Colts. Ironing out those little details on routes, concepts, language, etc. now will only help the Colts install their offense later, and then hone in on things during training camp and into the regular season.