Entering Week 9, is 2023 already a lost season for the Colts?

Colts’ new coaching staff

When Jim Irsay made the decision to fire Frank Reich last season and replace him with Jeff Saturday, it hindered the ability of the franchise to continue to develop last season’s draft class as well. While Saturday kept the coaching staff intact, they had to deal with a complete change in how the team was run mid-season.

This is now the third new head coach in two seasons and while Shane Steichen seems to have this team headed in the right direction, they will still have some growing pains to deal with this season. This is a completely new scheme (at least offensively) that the team is now trying to perfect. This scheme is far more complex than what Reich ran, and the franchise has not seen a player under center like Anthony Richardson in quite some time.

With the complete scheme change with the addition of Richardson, the franchise has finally moved away from the statues they had previously with Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, and Matt Ryan. Wentz did have some mobility but nothing that kept any opposing coordinator up at night.

Steichen is like a chameleon, and he can adapt the players he has to his system easily, but it won’t happen overnight. We have seen some slow starts from certain players like WR Alec Pierce and QB Anthony Richardson. While Richardson was stunted due to injury, he had a monumental task of not only learning an NFL offense but he having the entire weight of the franchise on him, which will continue going forward into next season.