INDIANAPOLIS — There will be no change of heart this time.
The Colts have their man.
Indianapolis has officially hired Shane Steichen as head coach, signing the Eagles offensive coordinator to the dotted line Monday night, the day after Philadelphia’s heartbreaking 38-35 loss to Kansas City in Super Bowl LVII.
The Colts will formally introduce Steichen in the coming days, giving Indianapolis its first chance to hear the new coach’s plans.
Insider: 10 thoughts on why the Colts went after Steichen
Steichen, the youngest Colts coach in Indianapolis history at age 37, was first revealed as the team’s top target at noon on Super Bowl Sunday, after it was reported the team notified the rest of a deep pool of candidates that the Colts had made a final decision.
Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard, determined to avoid repeating the mistakes that led to Josh McDaniels backing out on the Colts at the eleventh hour in 2018, cast a much wider net this time, initially interviewing 13 candidates, then bringing in eight for lengthy second interviews that included one-on-one time with Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay and work on specific game situations, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer.
Because Steichen was getting ready for the Super Bowl, he was the final in-person interview, and it took place in Philadelphia, right before the Eagles departed for Arizona.
While Steichen got ready for Kansas City’s defense, the Colts finalized their decision and found the man they want to take over for interim coach Jeff Saturday. The legendary former Indianapolis center had gone 1-7 as the team’s head coach after being plucked off of ESPN’s airwaves to take over for Frank Reich, who had a 40-33-1 record in four-plus seasons. Reich has already been hired as the head coach in Carolina.
Steichen spent two years with Reich in San Diego and forged a tight relationship with Reich’s primary protégé, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni. That likely provides some continuity for the franchise, not only because of his link to the previous staff but because of his links to the current one.
Building half of a Colts coaching staff
The Colts have kept defensive coordinator Gus Bradley and the rest of his staff from taking interviews for lateral moves, intent on preserving momentum from a defense that played well until the magnitude of the team’s collapse dragged down the numbers in December and January.
Steichen knows Bradley well.
“I’ve got a ton of respect for Gus Bradley,” Steichen told Philadelphia reporters in November. “I worked with him for four years in L.A. Hell of a football coach, hell of a human being.”
By retaining Bradley, Steichen would presumably only have to assemble his offensive assistants, cutting the hard work of filling out the coaching staff in half and allowing him to start implementing his vision for the Colts.
Steichen hasn’t spoken much about his head coaching philosophy.
For the past couple of months, Steichen has shut down an increasing number of questions about the possibility, even as the Eagles’ success sent his star skyrocketing and made him an interview target for three teams: the Colts, Panthers and Texans.
But Steichen has also been an offensive coordinator for three seasons, one with the Chargers and two with the Eagles. Pieces of his coaching philosophy have inevitably been part of his meetings with the media, particularly how to develop quarterbacks and offenses, skills that will be critical in Indianapolis.
Shane Steichen and Philip Rivers
Nearly a decade of working with Philip Rivers taught Steichen how a quarterback should approach the game.
When Rivers moved on to Indianapolis in 2020 and Steichen was promoted to offensive coordinator full-time, he used the lessons he’d learned from Rivers to develop Justin Herbert into the NFL’s Rookie of the Year.
“A lot of it is, obviously, getting to know him as a person and how he learns,” Steichen said in 2020 with the Chargers. “Because everyone learns differently, and once you learn how they learn, it helps the process move forward. … Understanding how he sees the game and how he processes information is big.”
Rivers, for example, could hear a concept or a play and see it in his mind. Other quarterbacks need to see it on tape, or on the field. With Herbert in Los Angeles and then with Hurts in Philadelphia, Steichen was able to connect quickly enough to accelerate their development. Herbert transformed from a spread quarterback into a passer who could line up under center and play in a play-action offense. Steichen figured out the best way to maximize Hurts’ rare blend of mobility and downfield playmaking.
Unlike Reich, who spent a decade and a half as an NFL quarterback, Steichen’s playing career never reached football’s highest level.
Shane Steichen's playing experience
Steichen played in 23 games over four seasons at UNLV.
“You’ve got to be honest with them, you’ve got to love them up when they do well and you’ve got to correct them when they don’t do it well,” Steichen said in his first interview with Philadelphia media after Sirianni hired him in 2021. “Playing the position as well, I’ve been there. They’ve got to be who they are. You can’t change who these guys are personality-wise, you’ve got to adapt to that and then you can teach them and grow them within their personalities.”
From the interviews Steichen has conducted over the past three seasons, it appears that honesty takes place behind the scenes. Publicly, Steichen typically praises his players and the coaching staff for the offense’s successes, and typically takes the blame for negative plays, a practice Reich often employed.
Steichen’s offensive philosophy seems to mirror his approach to teaching quarterbacks.
While Philadelphia uses a run-heavy, explosive passing attack that frequently puts Hurts on the move in the pocket and uses his mobility to target open receivers, Steichen typically says the attack malleable, determined not by him but by the available players.
“When you go into a new situation, new team, you’ve got to find out about your players,” Steichen said in his early days in Philadelphia. “You go through that process virtually, but when you get them on the grass the last couple of days, and you see their movements and their skills, and see what these guys do well, you want to put them in position to make plays. … That offense is going to be molded, and we’re going to tailor that to these players.”
Building this Eagles offense took a lot of work from Steichen, Sirianni and the rest of the Philadelphia offensive staff.
When they took over in 2021, Steichen acknowledged in one interview that the coaching staff did an enormous amount of prep work to get ready for Hurts. They evaluated and discarded concepts from the college game, the professional ranks and even the Eagles’ film archives to fashion an offense that both fit Hurts like a glove and felt natural to Steichen and Sirianni.
What the Colts need from a head coach
But that’s how the Colts’ new head coach has always seen his role on the team, to fit the offense around his players. That is an interesting approach, given that Indianapolis is likely getting ready to dive headlong into the process of finding the right quarterback. The Colts hold the No. 4 overall pick.
For the first time in his career, Steichen will have significant input on landing the quarterback he wants, and it will be interesting to see how he approaches that responsibility.
Once that work is done, Steichen will likely dive into the process of accentuating his new quarterback’s strengths and building an offense that fits the QB.
“I truly believe the separation is in the preparation,” Steichen told Philadelphia reporters in January. “The way we go about our business in the meeting rooms, carrying it down to the players and trying to put our guys in position to make plays. … Seeing what we’re seeing on tape, trying to take advantage of those things.”
All of the tape on Steichen has come from his role as an offensive coordinator.
Now that pen is finally on paper, Steichen can start establishing who he’ll be as a head coach.
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