By the end of the 2024 season, there were plenty of calls from fans and analysts alike for the Indianapolis Colts to completely clean house. Chris Ballard, Shane Steichen, Gus Bradley... people wanted them all gone. Yet by January, only Bradley was let go, with Ballard and Steichen given another chance for 2025 - and possibly their last.
NBC Sports analyst Patrick Daugherty recently released a ranking of all 32 head coaches in the NFL, and Steichen... well, he dropped in the rankings a little, but still ended up squarely in the middle of the pack. But he still might be overly generous with the embattled head coach, who came in at #20.
"You can’t be that bad of a coach when you have as many wins as losses through two years on the job with Gardner Minshew, Anthony Richardson, and Joe Flacco at QB. On the other hand, they don’t hang banners just because you prevented the bottom from falling out (ok, Indy might do that). Nevertheless, with Daniel Jones being the latest proposed quarterback solution from an increasingly-embattled Colts front office, Shane Steichen appears poised to remain stuck in the murky middle for 2025. Steichen inarguably made progress last season, better deploying Richardson’s dual-threat skill-set and eking out a 6-5 record with the second-year pro under center despite disastrous passing. The defense remained subpar, though that’s not Steichen’s forte, and GM Chris Ballard has been struggling to supply difference-making talent for years now. Steichen is simply caught between a desperate GM and erratic owner. Those circumstances almost always result in a coaching pink slip even if most impartial observers can agree he deserves better. Deserve, of course, rarely has anything to do with it in the NFL."Patrick Daugherty
It's true that Steichen has had issues beyond his control to contend with, like Ballard's terrible strategy regarding free agency, and one of the worst DCs in the league. But if we're being honest, a good number of the problems surrounding the Colts were of Steichen's own making.
Under Steichen, the Colts have fostered a major culture problem, and there were whispers that he lost the locker room last season - largely due not only to his benching of Anthony Richardson, but how he handled the benching. Numerous players openly said they weren't told that their quarterback was being benched, and had to find out about it on social media. And while play-calling was supposed to be one of Steichen's biggest strengths, he floundered last season, seemingly incapable of calling an offense that worked for his dual-threat quarterback until late in 2024.
He's also been roundly criticized for his penchant for throwing players, and Richardson in particular, under the bus. Analysts and fans alike harshly criticized his handling of that situation, to say nothing of whether or not Richardson should have been benched at all. But then, when Richardson had a back injury late in the season, Steichejn did it again, blithely and cavalierly telling the media that he was merely sore. Later, he was forced to admit that the real problem - back spasms - was much worse than initially let on, so much so that Richardson couldn't even walk. And then hewouldn't let Richardson talk to any reporters after the game, an unprecedented move that was called a messaging disaster.
There's been plenty of talk about how Ballard needs to improve or lose his job in 2025, and that's a fair analysis. But Steichen, from where we're sitting, is in the same position.