In a move which now comes as no surprise, the Colts officially have their new head coach in place. Per a team announcement, Shane Steichen has been hired to lead the team’s staff.
The now-former Eagles offensive coordinator was considered the frontrunner following a report just before the Super Bowl indicating he was the Colts’ top target. His hire comes after he also received interest from the Panthers and Texans, a sign of how much his stock has risen recently, especially after a hugely successful campaign in Philadelphia in 2022. 
Steichen, 37, joined the Eagles in 2021 after a lengthy stint with the Chargers. That time saw him spend one season as the team’s full-time OC, one in which Los Angeles ranked top-1o in scoring in the NFL. Expectations were high for him when he paired up with Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, and they were certainly met. Philadelphia put up impressive numbers in the run game in particular in 2021, and took a step forward this past season.
The Eagles entered the year with question marks regarding quarterback Jalen Hurts‘ ability to cement himself as the team’s unquestioned starter. He quickly put those to rest over the course of a dominant campaign, helping lead Philadelphia to the No. 1 seed in the NFC and putting himself in the MVP conversation. Steichen’s unit ranked third in both scoring and total offense in the regular season.
Blowout victories in the divisional and conference championship rounds set the Eagles up for Sunday’s Super Bowl. In the title game, Hurts delivered a highly commendable performance and the team as a whole outplayed the Chiefs in a number of key categories. While it wasn’t enough to secure a victory, Steichen drew further praise to cap off his time in Philadelphia and set him up for what will be a tall task in Indianapolis.
The Colts struggled mightily on offense in 2022, averaging 312 yards and 17 points per game. That led to Frank Reich‘s midseason firing, and the controversial decision to replace him with Jeff Saturday. The latter remained in contention to land the full-time role until somewhat recently, as the list of candidates began to shrink in the lead-up to today’s announcement.
Steichen will follow in Reich’s footsteps in terms of making the move from Eagles offensive coordinator to Colts head coach. He is the second-youngest HC in franchise history (and the youngest during their time in Indianapolis), and third-youngest in the NFL. He will attempt to steer the Colts to the postseason by orchestrating a rebound on offense, something which will depend in large part on the play of their yet-to-be determined starting quarterback.
With this expected news now official, the Eagles will likely look inwards for Steichen’s replacement. QBs coach Brian Johnson has long been named as the staffer to watch with respect to filling in at OC in the event Steichen went elsewhere. Johnson himself drew plenty of interest from outside teams, but the door is now open for him to take on an increased role without leaving the NFC champions.
After all that nonsense, they made a really good hire. Assuming they bring in a rookie QB, they got a great coach for putting him in a position to succeed.
It was only nonsense because people decided it was taking a long time. Turns out coaching is important and maybe others should spend more than a half day evaluating the guy they already decided on plus a token minority candidate.
The Jeff Saturday hire added a heaping scoop of nonsense before the process even began.
Not to mention second guessing coaches on and off the field and in public as well. Can’t imagine why anyone would ever think an Irsay decision was nonsense.
The Jeff Saturday hire was a pretty low-risk interim option for Irsay/Ballard. Saturday was already a consultant for the team and familiar with the front office and coaching staff. While Saturday likely saw it as an opportunity to burnish his resume, to Irsay he was little more than an old friend coming in the help out for a few weeks and nothing more. To Ballard, it gave a little cover to insulate him from the fallout of a failing offense and failure to find a long-term solution at QB in the wake of Andrew Luck’s abrupt retirement.
Serious blind squirrel finding a nut energy here, but…
Good hire.
Does anyone else find it ironic that the Colts are hiring an Eagles OC after a run to the Super Bowl to be a first time head coach? Didn’t they just fire the last hire like that?
Yep. Also their former OC’s former OC. But Philly hiring Reich’s OC to replace the fired Pederson, for whom Reich was OC, was a little like that too, and it sure worked out there.
Another hire that makes me wonder why Bienemy keeps getting bypassed. Is the message that he is not really the guy calling the shots on the offense? I mean, the guy seems to have a track record
In comparison, Steichen doesn’t have the same track record and benefitted from a tremendous O-line.
Not a Chiefs fan. Just seems odd to me
I think Bieniemy’s inability to get a shot is silly, regardless of whether he’s calling the shots in KC (it’s not like any of McVay or Shanahans OCs were running the show either), but I find it hard to quibble with the Steichen hire. Absolutely benefited from a great line, but I think the versatility and adaptability he’s shown is really impressive. He has such a varied background and toolkit, I feel like whatever young QB they get, he’ll be able to tailor something to him.
Yep, agreed. Interesting how teams ascend and their young assistants draw interest. The Eagles and the Bengals are recent examples. Makes the Bieniemy situation look even more strange
I honestly think Bienemy needs to leave the Chiefs and take an OC job somewhere else. Yes, he has input into the Chiefs offense, but nowhere near the full reigns of the job like what Shane Steichen had in Philly. So if Eric really wants to be a head coach, he needs to go to a team where he runs the offense and is the one calling plays. Washington quickly comes to mind as a destination where he could do this.
He might need to do that, even if it’s holding him to a standard that didn’t apply to Reich, Sirianni, Taylor, McDaniel, or O’Connell. But if he’s going to do that, seems dicey to choose Washington, where he’d likely be working under a lame duck head coach. Baltimore, maybe.
The problem is that it’s a two way street. Bienemy can’t just say, “Okay, I want to be OC with Washington (or whomever).” It has to be offered.
He’s a poor interviewer, he doesn’t run his team’s offense, and he’s known for multiple assaults, including against women. Sound like somebody you want your team to hire?
Interviews are one of the least effective criteria for hiring someone in just about any field. Interviewing for a job is a different skill than doing it. Lots of the most successful head coach hires in recent years weren’t playcallers before they were hired. And since when does the NFL care about assault, let alone cases from 30 years ago?
Only 1 Golden Ticket Remains. It’s currently covered in sand, lost in the desert.
Watching the Colts presser here in Indy, both Jim Irsay and Chris Ballard alluded to a lot of input from Philip Rivers, who played under Steichen and also wrapped up his career with a season with the Colts. Rivers is considered by many to have coaching potential in the league and that the Colts braintrust reached out to him to weigh their decision is interesting.
Ultimately, Steichen is only going to be as successful as the coaching staff he surrounds himself with and the level of talent Ballard and his front office staff are able to put together on the field. Word is that Gus Bradley has been asked to stay as DC, which leaves Bubba Ventrone (special teams) to decide if he is willing to continue in his role after interviewing for the head coaching position and also who Steichen might be able to bring in as OC. As a rookie head coach, Steichen would be smart to look for a veteran playcaller that has experience developing young QBs — perhaps someone like Steichen’s former Chargers boss, Mike McCoy (should the latter be looking to move back into an OC role from his current QB coaching gig in Jacksonville).
Voice – you say they should hire a veteran play caller as OC, yet Steichen already said he’d be calling the plays.
this one as an eagle fan sucks. once he took over as play caller after the raider game on 2021 this offense took off. I wanted to keep Shane in Philly very badly. hopefully the new OC can pick up where Shane left off. Rumors are that QB coach Brian Johnson is going to be the new OC for Philly to keep hurts in the same offensive system
Jim Bob Cooter is still available.