Owner Jim Irsay emphatically denies notion Colts are tanking

It sure looks like Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay is trying to throw the towel in on this season. If he's not taking his team, he's certainly not actively trying to win any more games.

Don't tell that to Irsay, though, because according to new reporting from The Athletic, "tanking" is not in the vernacular for either Irsay or the Colts.

Bob Kravitz of The Athletic is reporting that Irsay called him shortly after he fired Frank Reich and hired Jeff Saturday as interim coach. From the outside looking in, it sure looks like as if Irsay is doing all he can to tank for the highest pick he can in the next NFL draft, knowing that this season is already over for his 3-5-1 team.

That's what it looks like from the outside, but Irsay doesn't prescribe to that storyline.

“That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard, that we’re tanking,” Irsay told Kravitz. “That’s bulls---. We’re in this thing; 9-7-1 get us in, no question about it. … We’re not tanking the season. Whoever says these things, that we’re not playing Matt because (of an effort to tank), that’s all bulls---. That’s not true. … We’re going to do what it takes to win. I don’t know who people think we are, they don’t know us. We don’t tank in Indianapolis.”

That's an interesting take from Irsay, and that's putting it nicely. 

The Colts benched future Hall of Famer Matt Ryan in favor of second-year nothingburger Sam Ehlinger. Yes, Ryan hasn't been great this season, but doesn't his experience alone give Indy a better chance to win compared to Ehlinger's five career games played?

And sure, Frank Reich was fired after going 40-33-1 in four-and-a-half seasons. That much makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is replacing Reich with a guy in Jeff Saturday who has exactly zero coaching experience.

How is Saturday supposed to lead the Colts to the playoffs, let alone one single win? When he takes the field for Indy this Sunday as interim coach, not only will it be his first game as an NFL head coach, but it will be his first game as an NFL coach at all. 

Saturday has no coaching experience at all at the NFL or college levels. He was the head coach at Hebron Christian Academy in Dacula, Georgia, from 2017-2019, but from high school sideline to NFL?

Saturday was a Hall of Fame player, but even Tom Brady would struggle with that kind of transition.

What is Irsay doing if not tanking this thing?

We're not all that dense to believe him, but it seems unlikely that anybody does at this point anyhow.

His words do not match up with his actions. He says he wants to be competitive, but everything he's done recently says that the tank rolls on in Indianapolis.