Andrew Luck has lured his former head coach to the Bay Area.
According to multiple reports, Frank Reich will take over as Stanford’s interim head coach for the 2025 season.
Reich, 63, was most recently the Panthers head coach in 2023. He was fired 11 games into the season after Carolina went 1-10 to begin quarterback Bryce Young’s career.
He was previously the Colts head coach from 2018-2022, when he was also fired midseason. That’s where he coached Luck in 2018, after the quarterback had missed the 2017 season with a shoulder injury. Luck completed 67.3 percent of his passes for 4,593 yards with 39 touchdowns and 15 interceptions — earning a Pro Bowl berth and AP comeback player of the year.
That was the only full season Reich and Luck spent together, as Luck abruptly retired midway through the 2019 preseason.
Luck will now serve as Reich’s boss for the coming year. Reich’s deal is reportedly for just one year, which could potentially complicate things for recruits. Tight ends coach Nate Byham is reportedly being promoted to offensive coordinator and he will also be the team’s play-caller.
The Packers’ proposal to ban immediate pushing on plays like the tush push has been a popular topic of conversation at the league meetings in Palm Beach.
AFC coaches met with the media on Monday morning and many of them were asked for their opinions about whether the play should remain in the game. We’re compiling those responses and will continue to add more to the list throughout the day and when their NFC brethren have their turn to speak to reporters on Tuesday.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is part of that group, but his team’s success running the play has led to this discussion and he’s been clear about his opposition to any change.
Given the Packers’ proposal, it was also easy to guess which side head coach Matt LaFleur takes on the matter.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott is a member of the NFL’s Competition Committee and said he is in favor of a “proactive” move against the play for health an safety reasons.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is also on the committee and shared McDermott’s feelings that the lack of injury data may not speak to the full risks involved, but called himself “open-minded” ahead of further conversations.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said “if it’s putting a player in a bad position, then you probably have to do something about it,” but said you could “argue it either way” given current information.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh called it a “football play,” but said his opinion could change with further medical information.
Colts head coach Shane Steichen was once the Eagles’ offensive coordinator and he said on Monday that he’s against any ban.
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said he’s in favor of keeping the current rules in place.
Mike Reiss of ESPN.com reports that Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel is against a rule change and Vrabel indicated the same during a Monday appearance on PFT Live.
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said that it is “tough to punish a team for being really good at something.” ’
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn said “my job is to stop that play.”
Rams head coach Sean McVay said “it doesn’t look like football” and said the play shouldn’t be legal, but expressed doubt any change will come this year.
Saints head coach and former Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore is comfortable with the play being legal.
Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said he focuses on how to stop others from from succeeding with the play.
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said at the Combine that he is in favor of banning the play and reiterated that at the league meetings.
Panthers head coach Dave Canales noted the lack of data showing it’s a dangerous play and said he doesn’t “want to take away competitive advantage.”
If the proposal is put to a vote of league owners, it will take 24 votes in favor of the Packers’ proposal to change current rules.
The Colts are planning a quarterback competition this offseason and there won’t be any edges given when it gets rolling this spring.
Head coach Shane Steichen told reporters at the league meetings in Palm Beach on Monday that Anthony Richardson’s experience in the offense won’t land him any more work in the early stages of offseason workouts. Steichen said that Richardson and free agent addition Daniel Jones will split the starting reps once the team begins organized team activities in the coming weeks.
Steichen did not set any timeline for when he’ll name a starter and the stated hope that the competition will bring out the best in both players suggests that the Colts are going to want to see things play out for a while before making any choices.
April 21 is the first date that teams with returning head coaches can begin the first phase of their offseason workouts. That phase will consist of two weeks of meetings and conditioning work, so it will be May before things get going in earnest on the competition front.
Free agent linebacker E.J. Speed is heading to Houston.
The Texans and Speed have agreed to a one-year contract.
Speed was a 2019 fifth-round pick of the Colts and has played his entire NFL career in Indianapolis. For most of his career he played more on special teams than on defense, but two years ago he became a defensive starter, and last year he started all 15 games he was healthy enough to play and was on the field for 98 percent of the Colts’ defensive snaps in those games.
The emergence of Speed as a defensive starter was a big part of the reason that former Colts linebacker Shaquille Leonard quickly went from All-Pro to backup to released in 2023.
Speed is No. 86 on our list of the NFL’s Top 100 free agents.
The NFL will play seven regular-season games outside the United States in 2025.
Although the league has discussed as many as eight international games, the NFL confirmed that the seven teams that have already announced they will give up home games to play overseas will be all of them this year.
Three regular-season games will be played in London, with the Browns and Jets giving up home games to play at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the Jaguars giving up a home game to play at Wembley Stadium.
For the second straight year, the opening Friday of the NFL season will be in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with the Chargers playing a home game at Arena Corinthians.
Germany will host its fourth NFL regular-season game, and for the first time that game will be in Berlin, with the Colts making Olympiastadion their home.
Spain will have its first NFL regular-season game with the Dolphins playing a home game at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid.
And Ireland will get an NFL game for the first time with the Steelers playing at Croke Park in Dublin.
The league is showing no signs of slowing down on its aspirations for international growth, and 2026 will include the first regular-season game in Melbourne, Australia. It won’t be a surprise if the NFL is eventually playing 16 regular-season games a year outside the United States, with every team in the league traveling overseas once.
Chris Ballard has had a lot of opportunities to find a long-term solution at quarterback during his time as the Colts’ General Manager and he’s tried a lot of different approaches to the position, but none of them have resulted in a clear win for the franchise.
This year’s attempt involves signing Daniel Jones to compete with Anthony Richardson for the starting job leading into the 2025 season. Jones was once seen as the answer for the Giants before injuries and poor play led to his 2024 release and Richardson has had issues on both of those fronts over his first two years in the NFL.
In an interview with the Colts’ in-house media team, Ballard said that he believes that the competition is going to help both players do their best work and that the team is going into it without any preconceived notions about who will wind up on top.
“Between Daniel and Anthony, you’re going to see a really good competition,” Ballard said. “It’s going to be a spirited competition, but I also think it’s going to be one where they help each other to grow too. We thought Daniel’s skillset, and Anthony’s skillset. There’s a lot of similarities there. So offensively, I think that’s going to help our offensive staff, so okay, we don’t have to make these wholesale changes with one guy or the other. We got to make the best decision for the team. Whatever the outcome is, the outcome is based on performance.”
Drafting Richardson fourth overall in 2023 was the biggest swing that Ballard has taken at the quarterback position, so bringing in Jones opens up the door for a pretty damning evaluation of that decision. Whichever way the decision goes, anything other than a trip to the playoffs might make it difficult for Ballard to continue selling himself as the guy with the right vision for the organization.
Stanford G.M. Andrew Luck publicly had said nothing about the multiple misconduct investigations regarding coach Troy Taylor. Privately, Luck had reportedly doubled down.
Less than a week later, Taylor is out. Stanford has announced that Taylor has been fired.
The statement from Luck creates the impression that he simply changed his mind about Taylor.
“Since beginning my role as General Manager, I have been thoroughly assessing the entire Stanford football program,” Luck said. “It has been clear that certain aspects of the program need change. Additionally, in recent days, there has been significant attention to Stanford investigations in previous years related to Coach Taylor.
“After continued consideration it is evident to me that our program needs a reset. In consultation with university leadership I no longer believe that Coach Taylor is the right coach to lead our football program. Coach Taylor has been informed today and the change is effective immediately.”
Taylor’s performance likely didn’t help matters. He was 6-18 in two seasons on the job.
And so now the job is open, very late in the cycle. Which means there’s a chance some other program will suddenly lose its head coach, setting off a ripple effect that will impact multiple schools. Unless Stanford gives the job to someone already on Taylor’s staff.
Luck’s statement acknowledges the possibility of an “acting coach” for 2025.
Quarterback Quinn Ewers is set to work out at Texas’s Pro Day on Tuesday and he has a few visits lined up after he goes through drills in Austin.
Albert Breer of SI.com reports that Ewers is set to visit with the Colts, Raiders, and Cowboys. His visits with the Colts and Raiders would count as their 30 pre-draft visits while Ewers qualifies as a local prospect exempt from that cap with the Cowboys.
Breer reports that Ewers is also expected to meet with the Raiders and Jets ahead of his workout and that he’ll have dinner with the Saints on Monday night.
The Raiders traded for Geno Smith, but may have eyes on taking a rookie to develop behind him. The Colts signed Daniel Jones to compete with Anthony Richardson and the Cowboys have hinted they will draft a quarterback with Dak Prescott’s backups Cooper Rush and Trey Lance moving on this offseason.
Safety Julian Blackmon is one of a handful of players on PFT’s list of the top 100 free agents in the league who hasn’t found a home for the 2025 season, but that may be changing soon.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Blackmon, who was No. 81 on that list, will visit with the Panthers on Monday.
Blackmon has spent the last five years with the Colts after being selected in the third round of the 2020 draft. He started 62 of the 66 games he played over that span.
Blackmon had 300 tackles, 10 interceptions, 1.5 sacks, 21 passes defensed, two forced fumbles, and four fumble recoveries during his time with the Colts.
A day after adding another quarterback, the Giants have added another receiver.
The Giants have announced — sort of — that they have agreed to terms with veteran receiver Zach Pascal.
Undrafted in 2017, the 30-year-old Pascal has played for the Colts, Eagles, and Cardinals. He has 169 catches for 2,057 yards and 16 touchdowns in 112 regular-season appearances, with 47 starts.
Pascal appeared in 17 games last season with Arizona, mainly on special teams. He had 68 total offensive snaps and 278 special-teams snaps. He caught no passes in 2024.
In the latest example of a somewhat unusual trend, the Giants posted on their website a blurb crediting the news to “reports.” Instead of simply confirming it. Or debunking it.
Or adding something like this: “The Giants did not respond to a request for comment from the Giants.”
