indy Star article on HC choice

[JAFF]

Insider: 10 thoughts on why Shane Steichen is Colts' target as new coach

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...h/69897255007/

1. One of the longest coaching searches in the history of the game has come to an end. And after one month, 14 first-round candidates, eight second-round candidates and hours of discourse about a bold new direction for the franchise, the Colts wound up hiring another Eagles offensive coordinator coming off a Super Bowl and a man from Frank Reich's coaching tree.

What Shane Steichen says about Colts coaching search

2. The decision says plenty about where this franchise thinks it is and what it needs right now. The shift wasn't as dramatic in the end as it seemed when bombs were going off left and right last season. That's because the Colts not only retained general manager Chris Ballard but empowered him, which meant returning to his core principles and style. Ballard didn't view the Reich tenure as a failure. He knows that going 40-33-1 is pretty impressive when it involves five Week 1 starting quarterbacks in five seasons. But anything can run its course in the Not For Long. The Colts needed a new voice and a different flavor. But they weren't trying to reinvent the wheel.

Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen helped lead a top-five offense in order to become the top target of the Indianapolis Colts' search for a new coach.
3. Steichen is the hire for two key reasons: He's a talented and versatile offensive mind, and he's a fiery personality who will challenge players publicly. The former mattered to Ballard, a more defensive-oriented scout who has always tried to hire that prototype, from Bruce Arians to Josh McDaniels to Reich to now Steichen. The latter mattered to Irsay, who has been longing for a different style of leader than he's had in the past. Steichen's intensity wasn't a fit for every team, but it can be for a Colts locker room that has asked for some more public displays of player accountability. Steichen's experience climbing the coaching ladder from defensive assistant to offensive quality control to quarterbacks coach to non-play calling offensive coordinator to the voice in Jalen Hurts' ear adds some substance to the style. He's a compromise on the spectrum from Reich to Saturday.


Will Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud be the fit with Shane Steichen?

4. The Colts have been haunted by the quarterback carousel for four years now, and this is the time to end it with a draft pick. That is both hopeful and terrifying. First-round quarterbacks are more bust than boom when a 22-year-old is asked to rise above the pitfalls of a losing franchise before he's physically, mentally or emotionally ready to overcome. Nail that position and you can become the Bengals, surging from 2-14 to a perennial Super Bowl contender. Whiff and you end up as the Jets, forever watching someone else win the division. Getting it right takes not just a good play caller but a supportive run game, healthy culture and overall staff, and the Colts approached this search with that mindset. It's why the finalist group included a special teams coordinator in Rich Bisaccia and a defensive coordinator in Raheem Morris. When it came time to break ties, they leaned into a candidate who has spent years obsessing over this position. If Steichen gets nothing else right but hits a home run with the drafted quarterback, this will be a successful tenure.


5. Steichen's past three quarterbacks were Phillip Rivers, Justin Herbert and Hurts. Every tier of mobility, anticipation, age, personality, arm strength and experience is present in that lineage. He helped Herbert win Offensive Rookie of the Year in an explosive downfield passing attack and aided Hurts to a runner-up finish in the MVP race in a run-run-pass-option offense. The Colts are almost certainly drafting a quarterback this year, but with the No. 4 pick and no consensus rankings yet, it could go a few different ways. It helps to hire a brain rather than a scheme so that either Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud or Will Levis or Anthony Richardson can find an ecosystem tailored to him and not what a coach wishes he could be.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts took tremendous strides under offensive coordinator Shane Steichen in order to finish second in the league's voting for Most Valuable Player this year.
Shane Steichen is the third-youngest NFL head coach

6. Steichen is the third-youngest coach in the NFL behind the Rams' Sean McVay and the Vikings' Kevin O'Connell. He is six days older than Matt Ryan. Skepticism is natural: Can he hire a high-level staff? Can he delegate with a defensive coordinator or special teams coordinator? Can he dive deep enough into the designs of an offense to help a rookie quarterback while he's also trying to do all of this? The Colts spent hours upon hours talking through all of this. The support system became critical. They happened to have a defensive staff that worked with Steichen for four-plus seasons with the Chargers. They also had a rising star special teams coordinator in Bubba Ventrone. We will see what Steichen's staff ends up looking like, but given that he's a first-time head coach building it after the Super Bowl, I'll be surprised if he doesn't retain Ventrone and Gus Bradley. It helped that not all of the support system was an arranged marriage.


7. The staff hire that will define Steichen's tenure will be on the offensive line, often regarded as the most important assistant on any staff. After spending a league-high $41 million on the offensive line in 2022 and watching it sink their season, the Colts need to hit this hire out of the park. It's going to be the biggest return on investment imaginable once they pay Jonathan Taylor, and it'll be the best shot they can give a rookie quarterback of maintaining health and finding comfort early on. The Colts have no way to replicate any of what the Eagles have become without first getting stout enough to run their slow-developing plays.

Who will Shane Steichen hire to coach the offensive line?


8. Steichen would be wise to recruit Roy Istvan, Philadelphia's assistant offensive line coach for the past five years. He's spent that time working with Jeff Stoutland, the NFL's best line coach next to Bill Callahan of the Browns. This year, the Eagles finished 5% better in rushing than any other team in football, according to Football Outsiders' DVOA metric. They were No. 6 in adjusted line yards, No. 7 in power situations and No. 2 in second-level success. The Colts won't have a catalyst like Jason Kelce, but they should steal as much as they possibly can of the Eagles' structure, technique, blocking scheme and attitude.


9. One attraction Irsay and Ballard likely had to Steichen and the Eagles' system is how much and how well they run the ball for being such a quarterback-focused place. In the divisional and conference championship rounds, the Eagles ran it 88 times to just 49 passes. You saw them employ it in the Super Bowl as a way to keep their pass rush fresh and to keep Patrick Mahomes on the sideline, too. The key to running that much and seeing payoff is efficiency and the deception it creates for the passing game. A quarterback run threat adds pages to the playbook, and Hurts just turned in 760 yards and 13 touchdowns in 15 games. It's something to consider in selecting the next quarterback.

10. The games are coming, and we'll waste no time second-guessing decisions then, but it helps to lay out why the team landed on a coach and the ways it will try to make this all work. It's all far from a guarantee, though. The Colts are chasing a high bar in the long run, in a division with Trevor Lawrence and in a conference with Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Herbert and others. They're a better team than the 4-12-1 team they were last season, but they're also a few tiers from the squads we watched battle it out in the Super Bowl. You have to start somewhere, and the Colts have the first piece to a giant puzzle. Now it's time for them to see that vision through.