Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Keep or Fire Shane Steichen?

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

The Indianapolis Colts' loss to the Denver Broncos brought a new low to the Shane Steichen Era. Should the second-year head coach be given another chance, or is it time for the Colts to move on? Beco...me a Locked On Colts insider! Ask your burning questions and get prompt answers from someone who's around the team every day! Get special access from the locker room, practice field, and press box! JOIN HERE! Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms:🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-nfl/ Follow Jake and Zach's written work on HorseshoeHuddle.com, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, @LockedOnColts, and @ColtsOn_SI, as well on TikTok and Instagram! You can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.Hillsdale CollegeAll of Hillsdale’s courses are self-paced so that you can start whenever, and tune in wherever. Plus, you can go deeper with readings, quizzes, discussions - or just enjoy the lectures. Go right now to hillsdale.edu/lockedon to enroll. There’s no cost, and it’s easy to get started.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

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Starting point is 00:00:00 With the Indianapolis Colts failing to make the playoffs for a second year in a row, is it fair to question Shane Steichen's ability to be the head coach of this team? Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you all for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.
Starting point is 00:00:36 And you guys can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. Visit Fanduel.com to get started. Hello everyone, my name is Zach Hicks, your resident film nerd of HorseshoeHuddle.com and my partner Jake Arthur is our credentialed Crocs on the ground as always. We are here with a scathing episode, my guys, because that's basically what the rest of the season is going to be. So today we are focusing completely on Shane Steichen at head coach. We're going to talk about ultimately
Starting point is 00:01:12 what the verdict is going to be and what it should be for his job safety after the season, or at least what we think is going to happen there. A lot of different directions we can take that final segment. We're also going to make the case for why Shane Steichen should be given a little bit of leniency and why he should return this next season in 2025.
Starting point is 00:01:32 But first, we're going to start off with why the Colts should fire Shane Steichen. And Jake, this is a conversation I never imagined we'd be having by the end of this season. I mean, last year we're riding high. I know we didn't make the playoffs last year, but the Colts finished nine and eight coming off of that disastrous 2022 season. Shane Steichen got the offense to scoring over 20 points in just about every single game with Gardner Minshew at quarterback.
Starting point is 00:01:59 Heck, they got Gardner Minshew into the playoffs, into the not the playoffs, into the pro bowl last year. They got him $15 million in a starting job on another team. Right. And so Shane Steichen was looking very much like the next bright young head coach in the NFL. And it looked like we had this offensive guru on our hands. And this season, aside, I mean, look, the Anthony Richardson conversation is certainly part of this. Anthony Richardson has not had a great season. There's been a lot of craziness with that quarterback position, but even aside from the quarterback position, it has not been a great season for Shane Steichen as a head coach. We've seen a lot of regression from his team.
Starting point is 00:02:41 We've seen a lot of, dare I say, antics from his team and just the way things have been handled, the way the benching was handled, the way a lot of other things have been handled have just not looked great. And we've seen now for two years in a row that when his team has been in control of their own destiny for the chance to make the playoffs late in the season. And again, we can look at the quarterback situation, all these other things, but late last season, they had to win a couple games down the stretch to make the playoffs late in the season. And again, we can look at the quarterback situation, all these other things, but late last season, they had to win a couple games down the stretch to make the playoffs.
Starting point is 00:03:10 They lose to the Jake Browning Bengals and the Taylor Heineke Falcons and the swing pass to Goodson against the Texans in week 18. And then this year, this dud against the Broncos, his teams have fallen apart late when they have a chance to make the playoffs. So I think there's a lot of nuance to this conversation.
Starting point is 00:03:28 But ultimately, I mean, this is going to be two straight years where Steichen is not going to make the playoffs with the Colts. And I do think it's fair to question if he is the guy for this team going forward. Yeah, I mean, before getting into the nitty gritty and the finer details, just on principle, in terms of accountability, Shane Steichen is, you know, the guy in the front. He's the one that is supposed to go down with the ship. You know, he it's on him when things go poorly or, you know, go well. You know, he earns praise as well. Right now, they're six and eight. They have regressed despite having. Now, this is not all him, but this team is largely the same as it was last year, except for they have the quarterback that they were waiting on and which was their excuse for not getting into the postseason last year.
Starting point is 00:04:20 They had their triple threat on offense, and it's regressed. For most of the season, they have had Anthony Richardson, Michael Pittman Jr., and Jonathan Taylor. You could throw Josh Downs in there as well. When you look at the names and, honestly, the salary that's put into this and the amount of playing time, there's no reason they should have regressed this much. They look incapable of beating really good teams, which is odd because they've been in control at some point in most of these games, but they just
Starting point is 00:04:55 have shown that they are not ready to be a consistent competitor. They have no killer instinct and they do not know how to maintain a victory. And the amount of games that I feel they've lost rather than the opponent has won is shocking. Like, you know, you've talked about the one in seven record against teams over 500. And think about like think about that, how many leads they've relinquished, or they've been close, and then doing this stupid thing or committing these penalties. Like, it's not been the ref screwing them over. It's not been them getting dominated by opponents. They take themselves out of so many games. And that's a direct reflection of coaching. Yeah. I mean, everything you thought
Starting point is 00:05:42 you were getting in year one you know kind of got the path because of gardner minchu and then there was so much you know the same roster came back and you got all these guys back you're like oh now they're gonna cook in year two and not only has it been inconsistent but it's been so sloppy so flat like so not productive and here you are like you're you're not technically mathematic mathematically eliminated from the you are like you're you're not technically mathematic mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet but you're done like what's it going to accomplish if you beat these three cupcakes you have coming up it doesn't matter anymore like this season has already been written
Starting point is 00:06:17 like even if they win these games like we mentioned last night the season and what we make of it really ended last night. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And one thing I wanted to add on with what you said there is I think one thing that we can say about this Colts team this year is we have yet to see a game at any point this year where the Colts have looked like a good team in four quarters or they have been a consistent team for four quarters. And I'm not saying your head coach needs to be a miracle worker and get these, you know, you could say substandard players at some positions to be these all-world athletes or all-world talents. But I do think it is reflective of the coach when there's
Starting point is 00:06:56 no consistency with this team whatsoever. What they do in the first quarter could lead to the worst second quarter we've ever seen. Heck, we saw a pretty competitive first half against the Broncos to one of the worst offensive second halves we've seen in the NFL in years. And that's on your head coach because this is not the first time we've seen it this year. We have seen this team consistently crumble and fall apart and have long spurts where the offense can't do anything or the defense can't do anything. And that is on your head coach. You know, it's on the players too, but ultimately the one in charge of all of them is the head coach. So yeah, man, it's, it's been tough. It's been tough this year for this, for this roster, for this roster, they mostly ran back. They brought a lot of guys back who bought into this system, bought into this coaching staff, bought into this team.
Starting point is 00:07:42 And we're seeing the same mistakes over and over again. So yeah, it falls on your head coach when things like this happen. And then you also look at like, look, Shane Steichen was brought here to be the play calling guru, the guy who makes everything easier and makes things work for the young quarterback. And again, we can point fingers at Anthony Richardson all we want but who was one of the guys who was all about drafting Anthony Richardson who was the one who made the decision to start him early in year one who's been the guy who literally your whole reason you were brought here is to make Anthony Richardson work like we can use the Richardson excuse for him like hey
Starting point is 00:08:20 he's got a bad quarterback back there and that's why his offense isn't working. But that's his hand-picked quarterback. If that quarterback fails, it's on him. Like, even if the quarterback just simply doesn't have it, it's also on him. You know, like, we do this with Chris Ballard, too, which, don't worry, guys, we have an episode on Chris Ballard like this coming, for sure, 100%. But we do this with Chris Ballard, where it's like,
Starting point is 00:08:44 oh, the rest of the roster and everything's good it's just they don't win when the quarterback isn't good but who's picking the quarterback you know who's picking who's in charge of making sure that quarterback is good you know like it why do you get why do you get like an okay for the rest of the team and then when the quarterback falters it's like oh that's on the quarterback that's not on the person who picked him like shane syken was brought here to make the quarterback falters, it's like, oh, that's on the quarterback. That's not on the person who picked him. Like Shane Steichen was brought here to make the quarterback work and the quarterback regressed this season. So even on a micro level like that with Shane Steichen, he has failed in season two.
Starting point is 00:09:14 When you even look at the rest of the team, though, I mean, I hate to use this S word here, but they look soft in a lot of games. They're a bad tackling team. They're not overly physical. They can't run the ball in a lot of games they're a bad tackling team they're they're not overly physical they can't run the ball in a lot of games they're not I don't know man like I this team has regressed in every single way and at the end of the day you have to hold someone accountable and I think Shane Steichen as the head coach does need to be accountable in a lot of ways for what this team has looked like this
Starting point is 00:09:45 season. Yeah, just two quick more things for me before we move on to some of the positives. I am cool with his mentality to be aggressive. You know, I'm a proponent of going for it on fourth down and going for, you know, two and everything like when the game flow calls for it. That's fine with me. What I don't love, and so far he strikes out a lot with this, is leaning into the ideas of what he wants to do rather than considering the players he wants to execute it or putting certain players in too big of situations that they're not prepared for.
Starting point is 00:10:23 There was last year with Tyler Goods, and we've talked about that ad nauseum, agree or disagree. You know, there's A.D. Mitchell with that pass yesterday. And then, you know, there's Jonathan Taylor being taken out of the – I forget which game it was, but Jonathan basically didn't play in the fourth quarter, and Trey Sermon was back there to run some stupid option play on fourth down. And of course it didn't work, but it's taking your game.
Starting point is 00:10:48 Yeah. It's taking the ball out of your best player's hands because of a cool idea you have. That has not worked. He's like over in that. It seems like at least in critical situations. And then the most, the most simplest thing of it all is if the Colts elect to get rid of Chris Ballard, it might just be an entire sweep. That has nothing to do with Shane. If they get rid of Ballard,
Starting point is 00:11:11 Steichen very well might be gone as well. So that's out of Shane's hands. And again, it has nothing really to do with him, but that's just kind of the likelihood of it all. But we've talked our negative here. We're going to move on to the positive and why the Colts might see it fit to actually keep psyching and give them one more chance. Locked on Colts is sponsored by BetterHelp. Guys, the favorite part of the holidays for me is not having to worry about playoff football.
Starting point is 00:11:40 Playoff football is a very stressful time for a lot of teams that, you know, make it to the playoffs. But fortunately, covering the Colts, we don't have to worry about the playoffs. It's very nice to kind of just ignore that part of the season every year. But how do you guys stay cozy during the winter months? For some, wrapping up in a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate and watching a movie with the family is the best way to spend the month of December. Well, therapy is a great way to bring yourself some comfort that never goes away, even when the season changes.
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Starting point is 00:13:27 So don't miss a moment of the action. Watch the college football playoff presented by Allstate live on TNT, TruTV, TBS, and Max. All right, so now we're going to get to why it might be possible for the Colts to keep Shane Steichen. And again, the way we ended the last segment, kind of rolling into this one, the most simple thing is, you know, you're kind of a package deal when it comes to Shane Steichen, Chris Ballard, Anthony Richardson. If the Colts elect to keep Chris Ballard,
Starting point is 00:13:58 or if Jim Irsay elects to keep Chris Ballard, that likely means that they're going to give this thing one more shot and that they're going to see what the trio of Ballard, Steichen, and probably Anthony Richardson could do heading into year three. I mean, this thing was never supposed to be an immediate fix. Everything is about Anthony Richardson and his development. I mean, that's why they did what they did or didn't last offseason with staying so static in their personnel moves, is it was about Anthony's development. So they may not be ready to pull the plug after two seasons. And that honestly seems to be the most forward reason why Steichen might be the head coach in 25. Yeah, I think that really is the biggest thing going for him and Anthony Richardson even
Starting point is 00:14:49 is how the three of them are kind of a package deal. Or at least in our minds, they are a package deal. Maybe the Colts' minds, they're not. But I think if you do give Anthony Richardson another season, you probably want to keep the continuity with Shane Steichen and have, you know, those two guys either sink or swim together. So I do think, you know, if you are not done on Anthony Richardson, you're probably not done on Shane Steichen. Now, again, all this changes.
Starting point is 00:15:16 If you ultimately decide to fire Chris Ballard, then you probably should get rid of everybody because you want to give the new GM a clean slate. But if you do keep Chris Ballard, you probably keep Shane Steichen and you probably keep Anthony Richardson at quarterback. And, you know, like you said, this wasn't supposed to be an immediate thing. I mean, you knew what you were getting into when you took a 20-year-old quarterback who did not have great stats in college.
Starting point is 00:15:39 Like, you knew this was going to be a long process that wasn't going to look great at times and have its issues. And to give Shane Steichen at least a little bit of credit here and to kind of defend him a tad bit. I know the NFL is very much a what have you done for me lately type of league. But part of me looks at what he did with Gardner Minshew the year before. And looks at the flashes this year they've had with the run game and the QB run game. And the moments where the explosive plays have been there. And I'm like, there's something there with him when it comes to calling plays and getting this offense going. It hasn't been great this year. I'm not going to, I'm not going to sugarcoat it, but there is something with him.
Starting point is 00:16:19 Now, is it enough for me to say, let's, let's absolutely keep him and this thing can turn around? No. But is it enough for me to have pause about firing him? I think so. I think so. He's got, you know, a very good resume in the NFL and he's done some good things here. I mean, this team's probably going to end up being 18 and 16 over his two years with the team by the end of this season, maybe 17 and
Starting point is 00:16:46 17, whatever it's going to be. So around 500 with essentially the exact same roster that won four games in 2022, but with a super raw quarterback in Richardson starting a handful of those games and Gardner Minshew in the corpse of Joe Flacco. Like those were his quarterbacks. And I know I said in the first segment that the quarterback is on him when the quarterback struggles. But again, you can also look at it like this team is still winning games despite bad quarterback play. Now, again, something needs to change, obviously, for that to eventually become winning more games or the quarterback play just getting better. But I don't think that like he like he hasn't been horrendous, you know, and I know the standard needs to be higher than that,
Starting point is 00:17:28 but there are some things to hang on to with him. It's just, is it enough to give him another year? I don't know, but he hasn't been some like obvious firing. Like this is horrendous. This is the worst coaching job in football. Like I do think there are some wins and losses with him. And there has been aggression this season, but there are some good things with Shane Steichen as well. Like the offense being pretty good with Minshew last year, like having good moments this year. You know, I think he makes good decisions when it comes to like the fourth down go rates
Starting point is 00:17:59 and stuff like that and when to be aggressive. So I do like aspects of him, but is that enough to keep him? I don't know. I really don't know. Right. I do think it's an improvement over what was going on before, for sure. And one thing I look at when the Colts are losing
Starting point is 00:18:17 or they've relinquished a lead and whatnot, I often look at the lack of execution on the field. Like they've got a bunch of veteran players who just are not playing up to the standard. And that's really not anything that Shane can control. Like guys can get benched in this and that, but there's been a ton of times where I'm just, I'm way more feeling negatively about the lack of execution than I am the scheme and things like
Starting point is 00:18:45 that. And that goes for Gus Bradley as well, that we'll talk about. Yeah. And sorry, I don't want to interrupt you here, but it's actually one thing I wanted to say with your plays over players argument that you made in the first segment is one argument for Chris, for, for Shane Steichen, who are the players? Like, like if you want to say players over plays, right. You're insinuating, go to your star player instead of, you know, drawing up a great play for like Tyler Goodson, you know, draw up an adequate play for Jonathan Taylor and that works. But Jonathan Taylor and Michael Pittman Jr. who are your stars on offense kind of showed you what they're going to do when the playoff game matters this past weekend. You know, like they went to the players on some of these plays and what happened?
Starting point is 00:19:27 They let them down. So I do again, I think it's ultimately on the head coach, too, when we see this as a constant problem throughout the whole season. But I don't think this is a very great team on paper. Like, I think it's an adequate team. They have a capable roster to beat bottom feeders and stuff like that. But I don't think it's like this star-studded roster that should be a top playoff team. Even if you were getting top-tier quarterback play, you're not winning a Super Bowl with
Starting point is 00:19:56 this roster. There's just too many holes on defense. There's too many holes even on offense with tight end and depth when it comes to the offensive line, depth running back. And even your star players are underperforming. So to Shane Steichen's defense, I guess, I don't really know. Like, what was the ceiling of this team? Even if Richardson had some phenomenal super development year, the ceiling of this team was like 11 wins, maybe 12 wins,
Starting point is 00:20:21 and then like a playoff exit in round one or two. Like, and that's in the best case scenario. So I guess kind of the defense of Shane Steichen is like, what did we expect him to do with Ballard's roster this year? It's not this fantastic roster. Yeah, I agree. Like at the end of the day, like there's gonna have to be some hurt feelings this offseason when it comes to players and who's back and who's not and what's not and what expectations ought to be for certain guys. The last part for me is the Anthony Richardson benching thing was polarizing. And when you look back at it, was it the right decision? Was it not? At the end of the day, I feel it has somewhat worked. Anthony looks different than he did before it. It was a bold, ballsy choice.
Starting point is 00:21:06 It wasn't a super popular choice, even in the locker room and some out in the media. But he did it. He recognized they needed to start winning. I don't think that really correlated to what the personnel move was, but it lit something in Anthony and he changed. Now the numbers don't necessarily look too much different, but it feels a lot different. Like, I don't know that, I don't know that Anthony Richardson leads those fourth quarter comebacks without the benching and kind of like being recentered and being brought back down to earth. It felt, it felt like at the time he got benched, everything was spiraling out of control and something had to happen.
Starting point is 00:21:48 Like it was a huge chaotic problem. Something needed to happen. They made a drastic choice of what they did, but it's kind of worked on their way out of it. So that's a tough decision that a coach has to make and he did it. So credit to him there. But coming up, what's the verdict? What do we think will happen or should happen in this instance? Get ready to tackle the NFL action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Because right now
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Starting point is 00:22:56 Like all these things considered, I guess what do you think the Colts will do in 2025 and what do you prefer for them to do? When it comes to what I think the Colts will do in 2025 and what do you prefer for them to do when it comes to what i think the colts will do i ultimately think this team is going to finish either eight nine or nine and eight like i'm kind of toss up with the titans game this weekend but i think they'll beat the giants and the jaguars to finish the season uh so yeah they'll be eight and eight or eight and nine or nine and eight, kind of right around 500. And I think we'll just get the company line again. Like, I, I don't know, maybe I am just filled with apathy at this point. I know we said that word a lot in 2022. But at least there was like a little bit of anger before the apathy. Right now, it's more so like,
Starting point is 00:23:44 deja vu turned into apathy you know like apathy built off of deja vu is oh i've seen this story before i know what ballard's gonna say i know who's going to be the scapegoat i'm so sorry gus bradley that you're going to be the scapegoat and i know who's coming back and who's going um maybe i'm being arrogant with that but i i think i think we can mostly guess what's going to happen this offseason based off of history of the last eight years uh so I think it's like can we back for one more year at at the least um and I think it'll be like the last chance for him and Richardson and maybe Ballard I don't know maybe Ballard for uh Steichen and Richardson to really get it going in 2025.
Starting point is 00:24:29 But that's what I think will happen. Should happen, I'm kind of more 50-50 with it. I don't know if I would fire Steichen. I see the argument both ways, and I'm trying to avoid the pure emotional reaction of saying, like, fire him like fire that was unacceptable on Sunday fire him because I do see the some of the good aspects of him but I just don't know if he can do it with this team it just there seem to be so many issues with this roster and this organization right now and I don't know if Steichen's the one to lead them out of the dark with that so when it comes to should happen I don't know this organization might need like a
Starting point is 00:25:10 Dan Campbell type to come up and just light a fire in everybody and I don't know if like the hot shot young offensive coach like Steichen is really the guy for this team so I'd maybe lean towards firing but will happen I think him and Ballard will be back I think Richardson will be the quarterback next year and it'll be the company line of how Ballard needs to be a little bit better and Steichen saying he needs to be better and blah blah blah blah blah like we've gotten the last eight years with this team I I agree I I think the trio will probably be back but there will be heads that role within the coaching staff probably. Yeah, there'll probably be changes that they make. You know, Gus Bradley is the most likely, it seems.
Starting point is 00:25:53 But, you know, maybe you see like a Cam Turner, you know, shown the door. Maybe Tom Manning goes and like accepts a college OC job. I think there there probably will be changes made in the coaching staff that are not necessarily at the top. I'm going to have to believe it, or I'm going to have to see it before I believe it on Chris Ballard being fired. And I don't think the Colts would fire Steichen without doing that with Ballard as well. So that kind of rolls into what i think they should do i feel more positive about steik and then i do ballard like it just it just seems like things would possibly be different with different decisions being made in regards to personnel
Starting point is 00:26:36 um but god that's that's that's the toughest thing i i would not do it if ballard wasn't fired as well but if they were to fire ballard I am probably more on the side of just clean sweep. Yeah. Because it just makes the most sense. You're probably not firing a GM and not firing the head coach along as well. But if you're going to make these wholesale changes, it feels like it just needs to be a total flush of the system and a true rebuild yeah like you you have a quarterback that you kind of like and think could be special sometime but you have to start trying to find solutions everywhere you know that includes quarterback
Starting point is 00:27:21 you know someone new to compete with richardson That means finding a new head coach, finding a new GM. Like you have to just go in a different direction. So I wouldn't just like single out Steichen and fire him. I would only, I would only do it if they're just, you know, if they're going through with Ballard as well, that's, you just package them together. But at the end of the day, I do think, you know, this team seems content with status quo and continuity and this and that.
Starting point is 00:27:53 We hear that a lot. So I think the main figures will be back in 2025 with some tweaks here and there. You know, some notable names probably will not be back but by and large the biggest names will yeah i i do feel comfortable in saying like again i think that steichen and richardson will both be back in 2025 but i do think if it looks like this in 2025 then i think i think that both of them are going to be fired or gone after 2025 um i don't think you can have another season of missing the playoffs with Shane Steichen and have three straight playoff, like non-playoff seasons with him and Richardson not developing into your starting quarterback. I don't think you really have an argument for him anymore at that point, but ultimately I don't think they move on from Steichen. I mean, they gave him a long deal.
Starting point is 00:28:42 I think his contract goes until 2028, I believe. And I know that doesn't matter too much for most teams, but when you're like the Colts and you're a little bit cash strapped compared to other organizations, it does matter a little bit, at least. But yeah, they have him under contract till 2028. I think he's shown some good things.
Starting point is 00:29:01 I think he's certainly got some potential. I just, I don't know what this roster, man. And I don't know what the roster changes are coming. So part of like, I guess I'm just kind of talking through my feelings here. You're like my therapy right now, Jake. So I'm just talking through my feelings a little bit with this. But like, part of me is feeling that like Steichen's kind of set up to fail in a way. And this isn't even to excuse Steichen either, but he kind of walked into a situation with a bunch of dudes that he really didn't have much influence over keeping or like they were just in place and they're not going anywhere.
Starting point is 00:29:39 Like all these players on this team, he didn't really get a chance to reshape the roster. Like a lot of head coaches that come in with a new general manager get to do is you get to reshape a roster and build the team in the mold of your head coach that's true this team is very much in the mold of their general manager rather than the mold of their head coach and and maybe that those things go hand in hand i'm not saying steichen is very different from Ballard, but I do think he didn't really get the chance to change this roster wholesale the way that maybe he wanted to. And now he's got to make it work with underperforming big contract guys and make it work with all those
Starting point is 00:30:16 other things. And again, I'm not absolving him. He had a big hand in picking the quarterback, and the quarterback regressed in year two and has not had a great year two. And a lot of that is on him. The team has been inconsistent on him. But also, I do think a lot of this starts at the top with Chris Ballard. And like you said, if you move on from Ballard, I think you should move on from Steichen and just give the new GM a fresh start. So it's complicated, man. It's complicated. Like you want to move on from the eight year guy who hasn't got it done, but you don't kind of want to move on from the two year guy who's had mixed results. But because they're tied together, you kind of have to move on from both, you know? Yeah, absolutely. Again, the whole thing is a package deal and we don't really know what goes on behind closed doors.
Starting point is 00:31:01 Like there may have been, you know know verbal agreements in place of like you guys will get these next couple years to to do whatever however in this season although i don't think there's really much more to gain because if you if you sweep these next three games you're probably still missing the playoffs but there is still a lot to lose yeah what we know is jim ursae three games if you sweep these next three games you can sell it to jim ursae you can sell a nine win team baby you sure can but at the same time we know how much jim ursae love or hates to be embarrassed and especially lose afc south games that's true if. If they lose against the Titans and or the Jaguars, who have been two of the worst teams all season,
Starting point is 00:31:52 like nothing big happened and then they were bad. They have sucked all year. If either of those teams embarrass them, especially the Jaguars at Lucas Oil Stadium, week 18, we could see some emotional stuff happen. Look at what happened with the Jeff Saturday situation. There is emotion at play here sometimes.
Starting point is 00:32:11 And again, there's not a ton more to gain, but there could be a world of stuff to lose if these last three games don't go well. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. We'll do our best to cover these last three games, but also we're going to do more stuff like this. Someone recommended we should call this Macro Monday, like the macro conversations on Mondays.
Starting point is 00:32:30 And I think that's a good way to say it, because we're not really interested in talking about these final three preseason games, essentially, is what these final three games are going to be. Heck, they're playing against preseason quarterbacks in these final three games with Mason Rudolph and Tommy DeVito or Tim Boyle and Mac Jones. So we're going to treat them like preseason games. We're going to do more macro stuff like this about the Colts roster and get your guys input on, again, what do you think the Colts should do? Should they keep Shane Steichen? Should they move on? Do they need more of a Dan Campbell type personality?
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