Why Eagles OC Shane Steichen is a powerful match to guide Colts

This has been the writing on the wall for the Colts: Their veteran quarterback carousel will finish in 2023, after years of spinning spherical and spherical, with a younger signal-caller Indianapolis hopes will be its franchise quarterback. With the No. 4 total decide within the 2023 NFL Draft, and the likelihood to maneuver up even larger, the workforce is positioned to seize its man. Finally. 

So naturally, a historical past of quarterback improvement gave the impression to be an apparent attribute for proprietor Jim Irsay and basic supervisor Chris Ballard to search for within the subsequent Colts head coach.

Apparently, that high quality was a must have for Indianapolis. 

The Colts on Tuesday formally named Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, 37, to be the twenty first head coach in franchise historical past, concluding one of the exhausting teaching searches in current NFL reminiscence. 

Steichen had been Philadelphia’s offensive playcaller for the previous season and a half. In 2022, he was on the forefront of Jalen Hurts’ transformation from a mean to an elite quarterback. The 24-year-old Hurts was named to his first Pro Bowl and completed second in NFL MVP voting behind Patrick Mahomes. Hurts’ brilliance shined by means of within the Eagles’ Super Bowl LVII loss to the Chiefs, when he accomplished 71% of his passes for 304 yards and a landing and added 5 carries for 70 yards — a Super Bowl report for a quarterback — and three touchdowns. 

In seven seasons with the Chargers — with whom he rose from an offensive high quality management assistant (2014-15) to quarterbacks coach (2016-19) and offensive coordinator (2020) — Steichen additionally labored with former Pro Bowl quarterback Philip Rivers and a rookie Justin Herbert. 

Among his 15 seasons as a starter, Rivers performed a few of the greatest ball of his profession with Steichen as quarterback coach. In 2018, Rivers tied his career-best passer ranking (105.5), and in addition had his second-highest completion charge (68.3%) and landing charge (6.3%). In 2017, he had his greatest interception charge season (1.7%). 

Herbert, in fact, had a record-setting rookie season in 2020, when Steichen was the offensive coordinator. He broke the NFL rookie report for passing touchdowns (31) and threw for greater than 4,000 yards en path to AP Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. 

The expertise of the Eagles offense this previous season apart, Steichen (in collaboration with coach Nick Sirianni) did an excellent job of constructing the unit round Hurts’ strengths. The former second-round decide drastically improved as a passer — he accomplished a career-high 66.5% of his passes for 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns with simply six interceptions in 15 video games — however was additionally unleashed as a runner, his power in school. In 2022, he rushed 165 instances for 760 yards and a career-high speeding 13 touchdowns, by far probably the most amongst quarterbacks. 

There’s irony in that the Colts’ reply for head coach has direct ties to their previous one, Frank Reich, whom they deemed to not match to guide the workforce after 4 and a half seasons. As a Chargers offensive high quality management coach, Steichen labored beneath Reich, the workforce’s offensive coordinator on the time. 

But Steichen’s résumé speaks for itself, boasting expertise guiding a number of high-level quarterbacks who’re nothing alike in several schemes. That lends itself to whomever the Colts resolve to draft. At quarterback, Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Kentucky’s Will Levis and Florida’s Anthony Richardson will all be choices. 

Ultimately, quarterback improvement wizardry alone will not make Steichen a profitable coach. There’s a lot extra that comes with the Colts job — from cultivating a imaginative and prescient, constructing the suitable employees and bringing within the gamers to maximise a workforce that was consumed in chaos final season. It’s why we have seen greater than a month of interviews on this head coach search, which began with not less than 13 candidates.

For Indianapolis, Steichen have to be the suitable man for his or her quarterback and the workforce. Only time will give us that reply.

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