The Indianapolis Colts are facing major problems right now. They faced a humiliating loss to the New York Giants, and following season-long controversies, questions have begun to be leveled against head coach Shane Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard. Fans have been clamoring for change, and rumors are growing louder and louder about what the future may hold.
Will Shane Steichen keep his job?
Steichen has been criticized fiercely for overseeing an Indianapolis team with lax discipline and no clear vision for the future. A recent report in the Athletic from Zak Keefer and James Boyd featured some damning information about the team's leadership.
“There’s no vision,” one veteran Colts player said. “From the top down — from the front office, to the coaches, to the players — no one is ever on the same page, and every year at the end, we’re sitting here losing. If you look at the best teams in the league, they all have a vision, and they commit to it. The Chiefs keep winning because they have a vision. The Lions turned things around because they have a vision. There's no vision here."
Under Steichen, the Colts made the controversial decision to bench their starting quarterback, Anthony Richardson, in favor of veteran QB Joe Flacco... only to then swerve back to Richardson two weeks later.
“They were trying to hold (Richardson) accountable, which is understandable, but then the guy they put in wasn’t the guy either,” one Colts veteran told the Athletic. “So when they went back to A.R., at that point it’s like, ‘OK, but what are we doing?’ That really affected the team.”
Members of the team openly criticized the state of the team, and Steichen then threw Richardson under the bench yet again, mischaracterizing a back injury as mere soreness, when in fact, he was having severe back spasms, which he later said was due to a disc issue that meant he could barely walk. "After a promising debut in 2023, head coach Shane Steichen regressed this year both as a play caller and franchise figurehead; his refusal to answer direct questions during news conferences created multiple PR messes," Keefer and Boyd wrote.
Then there's his problems as a play-caller. As Nate Atkins wrote, Steichen is too obsessed with his playbook, even if it is to the detriment of his own players.
"Not everything a young quarterback needs is a tricky play design. It's also not all that a franchise is looking from a coach when it needs to break a complacent mold and take a real step.
...
"His season would prove that mentoring a quarterback like Richardson required more than a play sheet. Not only was this 22-year-old not a finished or even halfway begun product as a passer with just 17 starts above high school and a surgically repaired shoulder, but he was even more raw as a personality who hadn't lived through the structure most quarterbacks have.
Steichen knew he had to protect his quarterback at times, but he took that only in the literal sense of keeping hits off of him in the run game. So he turned a run-centric offensive personnel into a deep passing team, asking for accuracy and decision making and chemistry and pass-catching skill sets that don't exist yet. The confidence he poured through that all-gas-no-breaks approach only further empowered a quarterback whose baseline personality is happy-go-lucky, and Steichen's staring at the play sheet left him blind to the slips in that quarterback's preparation until it all came to a head with a 10-for-32 performance and a tap-out in a devastating midseason loss to the Texans.
Does this mean Steichen is at risk of losing his job? Insiders have mixed opinions.
The Athletic's Dianna Russini told the Scoop City podcast that he's likely to stay. "I've had some conversations around the league, in terms of Shane Steichen," she said. "I don't get the sense that they're going to make a move at this moment. But that could be something that changes."
Yet Cory Woodroof at USA Today said he's more likely to be fired after the season imploded. "Steichen is only in his second season on the sideline in Indianapolis, but a promising 2023 has been derailed by uncertainty at the quarterback position," he wrote. "Anthony Richardson’s struggles aren’t all on Steichen, but he and general manager Chris Ballard might take the blame. This feels more likely than it did earlier in the season, but it’s by no means a guarantee that the Colts make changes."
Chris Ballard's seat is on fire
General manager Chris Ballard, according to most insiders, should be extremely concerned about his job. SI reported that "there have been at least murmurs of front-office shuffling in Indianapolis" regarding the general manager position, while Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler at ESPN+ indicated that while owner Jim Irsay holds Ballard in high regard, it may not be for much longer.
The people I've talked to there believe Ballard has been in good standing, but the ugly Week 17 loss to the Giants isn't exactly helpful. The pulse of the building, at least before that game, was that Ballard might be OK. But as was reminded to me -- owner Jim Irsay fired Ryan Grigson three weeks after the 2016 season. It seems like anything can happen.
Similar sentiments were echoed at the Athletic. "Ballard is no longer a young GM. And for Irsay, a man who’s always selling hope — in many respects, he’s the biggest Colts fan out there — there is little left," they wrote. "Fans are fed up, exhausted by false promises and underwhelming seasons. Ballard’s approach has grown stale."
They further added that the quarterback issue is another one putting Ballard's job at risk. As Keefer and Boyd wrote, "Ballard’s failure to find an answer at quarterback was costing the franchise. Stellar seasons from linebacker Shaquille Leonard, Buckner and Taylor, among others, were being wasted because the Colts couldn’t find stability on offense. Or, in some cases, even competency."
Whatever happens in the future, one thing is beyond clear: the Colts organization is a mess. And if there is any hope of improvement next season, drastic changes need to be made.