Colts promote quarterbacks coach to offensive co-ordinator

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts made it official Monday: quarterbacks coach and former CFLer Marcus Brady has been promoted to offensive co-ordinator.

He will become the NFL's third Black offensive co-ordinator, replacing Nick Sirianni who took the Philadelphia Eagles head coaching job last week. The other two Black offensive co-ordinators are Kansas City's Eric Bieniemy and Tampa Bay's Byron Leftwich. Those two teams will meet in the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.

Brady had been the Colts quarterbacks coach each of the past two seasons after serving as Indy’s assistant quarterbacks coach in 2018. He spent the previous 16 seasons in the CFL — the first seven as a quarterback with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Toronto and Montreal, the last nine as a coach and six of those as the offensive co-ordinator with the Alouettes or Argonauts. Brady was part of Grey Cup championship teams in 2009 and 2010 with Montreal and 2017 with Toronto.

It's been a busy couple of weeks since the Colts were eliminated in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

Longtime left tackle Anthony Castonzo and starting quarterback Philip Rivers announced they were retiring. Then came the Sirianni announcement.

And things could get even busier for Colts coach Frank Reich this week.

NFL Network reported Sirianni plans to hire Colts defensive backs coach Jonathan Gannon as his new defensive co-ordinator and Indy's passing game specialist, Kevin Patullo, to serve in a similar capacity with the Eagles.

Gannon started his coaching career as a student assistant at Louisville then followed Bobby Petrino to the Atlanta Falcons in 2007. Gannon joined the St. Louis Rams as a college scout in 2009 and worked for them as a pro scout in 2010 and 2011 before leaving for Tennessee. After a brief stop with the Titans, he spent four seasons on the Minnesota Vikings staff before he was hired by the Colts in 2018.

Patullo, a New Jersey native, spent his first two seasons in Indy as the receivers coach. He's also worked with the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, New York Jets since starting his coaching career as a graduate assistant for South Florida in 2003.

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