The Indianapolis Colts need a reset as an organization. The general manager continues to find more failure than success; the head coach is 7-25 against teams that are .500 or better in his three-plus years on the job, and the defensive coordinator has been a DC for nine years in the NFL and has only once had a unit rank in the top half of the league in yards allowed or points allowed.
Changes need to be made, and that means a massive culture change. No one who is currently available to be hired would be a better option for the new head coach than former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.
The 54-year-old is currently working as an analyst for NBC Sports after being let go by Pittsburgh after last season, a season in which he led his team to the playoffs. Think about that for a second, Colts fan. While Indy struggles to make the playoffs in any season, and hasn't since 2020, Pittsburgh got so bored with Tomlin making the postseason that they let him go.
Indianapolis Colts should look to Mike Tomlin to help change the future of the franchise
Tomlin was the head coach of Pittsburgh for 19 years, and he made the postseason 13 times. He didn't have much recent success in the playoffs, but he did win a Super Bowl with the Steelers in 2008. The team reached another Super Bowl in 2010, but lost to the Green Bay Packers.
The coach's offenses weren't always great, but he liked a conservative, ball-control approach that augmented a good-to-great defense. In 12 of Tomlin's 19 seasons, his defense ranked in the top 10 in points allowed. Six times, the unit ranked in the top five.
His teams were known for elite discipline and players buying completely into the team-first philosophy. The Colts currently appear to be a fractured group. The head coach, Shane Steichen, leads the offense, but the defensive coordinator, Lou Anarumo, was given full rein by the general manager, Chris Ballard, to bring in former players who weren't high-end successes before.
That won't be an issue moving forward. Ballard fired on Monday, and the team now needs a new GM. Coould Tomlin do that instead of be the head coach? Maybe.
Steichen doesn't deserve to be a head coach, but he could be a very good offensive coordinator. He just shouldn't be doing that with the Colts. He isn't good enough to beat teams that are even mediocre regularly. He even lost to the winless Tennessee Titans after leading 13-0 at halftime. (Tennessee won 26-20.)
The next few weeks aren't going to be easy, either. Next, the Colts will play the Minnesota Vikings, who haven't lost yet and have a defense that will likely gobble up quarterback Daniel Jones many times (he was sacked six times against Tennessee). After Minnesota, Indy plays the Jaguars in Jacksonville, a place Indianapolis hasn't won since 2014.
In Week 9, the Indianapolis Colts will host the Dallas Cowboys, which could be a winnable game, but Dallas has the kind of offense that could overwhelm the poorly coached Indy defense.
Nothing has changed since Ballard joined the team in 2017, and things didn't get better with Steichen. The organization needs a coach and definitely needs a new general manager, like Mike Tomlin, who has the mental strength and personal history to take a losing franchise and turn it into a good one.
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