More Details Reportedly Emerge on Who’s Been Conducting the Colts’ Interviews and their ‘Creative Process’

Feb 6, 2023 - 11:00 PM

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According to SI.com’s Albert Breer, the Indianapolis Colts have had a number of ownership members, as well as front office and human resource staffers, who are playing active roles in the team’s extensive head coaching interview process—which has now extended to two rounds (with some follow up interviews reportedly lasting up to 12 hours with finalists), with a possible third round still potentially in play:

“The Colts’ process has been an interesting one, and, honestly, I can’t wait to hear more detail on what it was like when it’s over,” Breer writes. “The first round of interviews, which were done over Zoom, were run by Ballard, with vice chair Carlie Irsay-Gordon (Jim’s daughter), director of team development Brian Decker and PR and HR staffers involved. The second round, done in person, has brought in more people such as Dodds into the loop and incorporated the owner in a big way.”

We have previously heard of vice chair Carlie Irsay-Gordon’s earlier involvement in Round 1 virtually, as well as some one-on-one, in-person interaction with team owner Jim Irsay and the finalists more recently in Round 2.

However, unless, I missed something, this is the first we’ve heard of Brian Decker and assistant general manager Ed Dodds’ involvement in the team’s thorough interview process.

The Colts are clearly making their ongoing interview process a team exercise, as it’s just not going to be based off of the perceived input from Jim Irsay and general manager Chris Ballard, who’s led the search. That could be a good thing, but it also means there’s a lot of voices and perspectives in play to have to ultimately take into account regarding the hire.

Breer also shined a little bit more light on the regarded ‘creativity’ of the Colts process:

“They were also creative, with one person informed of the process calling it 30% football, 30% leadership, 40% other stuff,” Breer adds. “And so it seems like if the Colts are going to replace, rather than promote, Jeff Saturday, they’ll have done more than enough homework in getting themselves there.”

If nothing else, the Colts have had an unprecedented interview process. Some may call it excessive. Others may call it simply exercising their due diligence. Either way, it’s incredibly important that the Colts land on the right decision either way.