Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts, Shane Steichen Provide Optimism in Introductory Press Conference

Starting point is 00:00:00 A first impression is a lasting one, and if day one of the Shane Steichen era is any indicator, then Colts fans have plenty to be optimistic about moving forward. 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 for 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 00:00:55 Today's show is brought to you by Ultimate Football GM. If you've ever dreamed of becoming an NFL GM and managing your own football franchise, then this game is definitely for you. To download, just visit ultimate-gm.com or look it up on the App Store. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo code LOCKEDON in all caps inside the game, so be sure to do that. I'm Jake Arthur from HorseshoeHuddle.com here to talk to you today about the Shane Steichen introductory press conference. Featured him, owner Jim Irsay, and general manager Chris Ballard. I was in attendance, so I will tell you all about it, tell you what I thought.

Starting point is 00:01:37 But first, just some really useful information. I know I've found useful recently. Other listeners have said so as well. So a couple episodes that we've done somewhat recently talking about Shane Steichen. So Zach and I spoke with Ben Solak of The Ringer back on the January 20th episode. Ben's been covering the Eagles for a long time. He is just he's really smart, knows a lot about what he's talking about. Probably gave us the most detailed look at Steichen that we've heard yet. So definitely want to listen to that. And then Zach and Shad in my absence on the Tuesday morning episode, they shared some really good information back and forth and linked up with some potential staff hirings that Steichen could make. So definitely listen to that. I've found it very,

Starting point is 00:02:27 very useful. Like I said, other people have as well. So hopefully you will also. So looking at the press conference from Tuesday morning, this is usually the case with head coach hirings, but I just thought it was noteworthy here as well. So there were a lot of, you know, players, coaches, scouts, staff. It seemed like the entire building from the Colts facility was there to watch this press conference. And, you know, most notably, you know, Bernard Ryman was there, Quentin Nelson, Michael Pittman, you know, some of those guys were there and just watching their new head coach intently. Taequann Lewis as well, who I'm sure he's rehabbing his injury,

Starting point is 00:03:11 but he's an impending free agent. So good for him to at least get to meet his new potential head coach in kind of an off-the-book setting. So first impressions, first going off what Jim Ursae and Chris Ballard had to say, they did acknowledge that, yes, this was a very exhaustive, unorthodox, I guess, approach to finding a head coach, just like Chris Ballard said it might, you know, going after the Super Bowl. And, of course, you know, Shane Steichen was in the Super Bowl as offensive coordinator of the Eagles. So that, you know, that's part of why it took so long. But, yeah, they just wanted to be thorough.

Starting point is 00:03:55 They wanted to interview a diverse background of people. Ballard even said, you know, they had a diverse group of candidates that they interviewed. And although some of them checked off many boxes that they were looking for, Steichen actually checked off every box they were looking for in a head coach. Jim Irsay was very complimentary of him as well, as he tends to get. He likes to get really kind of amp people up a little bit. But he mentioned that he thought Steichen had a little bit of that offensive magic that is

Starting point is 00:04:28 hard to duplicate in the NFL. Ballard wasn't necessarily as straightforward with this because he is a GM. He's trying to protect the team's information, but Ursae did pretty much just come right out and say, Hey, you know, we got a new quarterback to usher in. We really want this, who we think is a really sharp offensive mind, to lead this guy and develop him. Steichen, of course, has a history with Phillip Rivers and the Chargers. He obviously didn't develop Rivers.

Starting point is 00:04:59 Rivers was a veteran by the time Steichen got there. But, you know, obviously Jalen Hurts with the Eagles finished second in MVP voting. Steichen had Justin Herbert with the Chargers when he was a rookie, one of the most prolific rookie quarterback seasons we've seen, perhaps even bigger than Andrew Lux. And we all saw that firsthand, obviously. So that's kind of Steichen's thing. He's been able to work with these quarterbacks and get the best out of them. And the proof's kind of in the pudding that he's got the most out of young guys and gotten clear development out of Justin Herbert and Jalen Hertz, who are, you know, a lot of teams would look at those guys and say, yes, I would like

Starting point is 00:05:38 to start my franchise centered around these guys right now. That's a pretty impressive track record that Steichen's got. The best thing about this, we've said this a million times on the show already. So the Colts have the fourth pick. There's four quarterbacks out there who are widely considered first-round talents. You've obviously got Bryce Young, Will Levis, C.J. Stroud, and Anthony Richardson. They're all on the table at this point. They all could be considered very workable players for Steichen. They all can move around a bit, although some of them do run

Starting point is 00:06:12 more than others. They've all got adequate arms. We'll get to more of what Steichen is looking for in a quarterback later, because I want to make sure we get, you know, kind of the setting out there first, but then, you know, really get to the nitty gritty of what is this Colts team going to look like? Cause Steichen, I think put plenty out there. But no, you know, the, the quarterback thing is, is great. And it's one of the biggest selling points as to why he got this job. Phillip Rivers even vouched for Steichen. Ursae said that he talked with rivers kind of throughout the process at least later in it uh and philip rivers you know really couldn't speak higher of stykin so that that was really good to hear uh he said that uh he had a leadership and a presence

Starting point is 00:06:57 about him that came through in the interviews which is good because you know one reason that jim ursae loved jeff saturday so much was you know the leadership all that stuff keeping guys accountable you know we've we've heard the accountable word again a million times by now but it sounds like steichen is not going to be lacking in that department either and just looking at old interviews and things from former players and other former coaching colleagues it sounds like that's not going to be an issue whatsoever. So we're going to move on and talk to more about what Steichen's going to bring to the Colts in a moment. You know, when your team is going through a head coaching search,

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Starting point is 00:08:58 That's LOCKEDON in all caps. So make sure to check it out today. To download the game, just visit ultimate-gm.com or look it up in the app store. That's ultimate-gm.com ultimate football GM. Start your dynasty today. Okay. So the process of getting your head coach, that's exciting in itself. But now that Steichen is with the Colts, what does that look like? You can see the things he's done with the Eagles and say,

Starting point is 00:09:29 ooh, that's pretty. But the player pool is just not the same there. The Eagles have A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith. They have the best offensive line in the league. They do have a nice rushing attack, which we know the Colts can duplicate as well, but they also have that young established quarterback in Jalen Hurts. So it's not that the Colts aren't, you know, they can get there. They're just not there yet. It's going to take some work from first I can to get there. But he himself, he said he's going to build a team on four pillars. That's character, preparation, consistency, and relentless. That is pretty coach speak,

Starting point is 00:10:09 but it sounds like he honestly does live that through everything we've seen him say from what we've seen former players say. He's a very detail oriented guy. He is obsessed with the details. He wants guys to get it right. He is cut from that Nick Sirianni cloth. Excuse me, another cough there. Another thing that I thought was intriguing that he said, the Colts are going to pass the score, pass to score and run to win. Meaning, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:38 passing is really the most important part of the offense, but you do still have to run. And something Frank Reich used to say is they need to run it when they want to run it. You know what I mean? Like when it's third and short, when you need those yards that are supposed to come by rushing, that's when you really have to capitalize. So yes, Jonathan Taylor is still going to be an enormous part of the offense and everything, but I think things are going to lean more heavily towards the pass now and they will still use the run. It's going to be the opposite way of how old school football is seen. I think as long as they have the personnel to dictate it, basically, you know, run, run, run, run, run to set up the pass play action,

Starting point is 00:11:21 things like that. You can do that in reverse nowadays. You know, the pass can action things like that you can do that in reverse nowadays you know the pass can be used in an extension of the run game screen passes things like that i think we'll see that uh but again it's also i think steichen's gonna dictate it based on the personnel he has what are these skill position players capable of doing and uh to me that really that really screamed for a couple of guys on the Colts that they're just really going to come out and have a much bigger impact even than they did as rookies, and that's Jelani Woods and Alec Pierce. I do think the Jonathan Taylors and Michael Pittmans of the world

Starting point is 00:11:58 will be taken care of. They'll be fine, but I just see a guy like Steichen being able to use a Jelani Woods. He can see what a tight end mismatch looks like and utilize it. Across the league, these teams that have that guy, they use it and they go to the shed with it. We've seen it throughout NFL history. And I'm not trying to compare Jelani Woods to the greats, but when you have a tight end that's a clear mismatch, teams hammer that. Going through recent history, Antonio Gates, Jimmy Graham, obviously Travis Kelsey, Rob Gronkowski, those guys, when you have a tight end who is an athletic

Starting point is 00:12:37 freak and is bigger and more athletic than the guy guarding him, you use him. And Steichen has done that before. You know, when he was with the Chargers, obviously I said Gates. With the Eagles, there was Dallas Goddard. You know, he's got that track record of using those kind of athletic guys. And then Alec Pierce, he is, again, he's like, what, 6'4 or so. He's got a great wingspan. He's usually going to be as fast or faster than the guy guarding him we he's we saw as a rookie that he is just a mismatch problem you put him one-on-one you throw him a jump ball more than likely he's going to come down with it and i think steichen is really going to value that i mean he

Starting point is 00:13:16 he allowed a guy he allowed like davante smith again who's not the biggest guy in the world at all he he could he allowed him to get plenty of contested catch opportunities. And now imagine that with a guy who's three, four inches taller than him. So I just really think those guys are going to be focal points of the offense moving forward. It's just hard for me to imagine Stike and not seeing those options and just really hammering home them. But one of the most important things that was talked about today was quarterbacks. While Chris Ballard, again, wouldn't be as forthcoming with this,

Starting point is 00:13:56 it seemed like Jim Marseille basically came out and said, yeah, we'll take a quarterback. And then he mentioned that Bryce Young, he said that quarterback from Alabama looked pretty good. So like I mentioned earlier, I think all four of those quarterbacks are on the table. I really don't know now. I do. So I think they all have, they can all be generally accurate.

Starting point is 00:14:22 Accurate, you know, they're athletic. They can move around a little bit you know strong enough arms but the four things he's specifically looking for uh accuracy decision making ability to create and like an obsession with their craft like they have to constantly be looking to get better the the philip ervers tom brady's peyton manning's of the world guys with that mindset. And that, that honestly, that last part is going to be a deciding factor that a lot of us don't see, because that's what, that's what comes up behind closed doors. Guys could talk about wanting to get better. They could post videos on Instagram, but like who's doing the dirty work when they

Starting point is 00:15:03 can't sleep at night and is working on their footwork or looking at old plays and stuff, you know, that's the kind of stuff these coaches really want. And I think that'll really be the, the final thing that, that'll make their decision for them because it's a really important one. Again, I could see with any of these four, but now I think if I'm going to take one guy whose stock is maybe a little lower now, just in my opinion, after that, it'll probably be Levis. Just because I think Bryce Young, although he lacks the size, I think that Chris Ballard would be more likely to take him knowing that the head coach is going to be Shane Steichen. That doesn't eliminate the size concerns and the potential to get injured. But if Steichen says, I can make this guy a star, he might believe him.

Starting point is 00:15:59 Obviously, C.J. Stroud, I think C.J. Stroud probably fits every team at this point. He can move around plenty. He's got a good arm. He can be deadly accurate, makes good decisions. He's probably the front runner for a lot of teams. But yeah, Levis probably goes to the back of the line of those four for me. Anthony Richardson is the ultimate wild card because he's got the highest ceiling of everybody. He can run it better than anybody in the class. His arm talent's nuts. He's got plenty of arm strength.

Starting point is 00:16:29 He's capable of making some pinpoint passes. Does some of those things that other guys don't. When you say that it'd be great if the Colts got Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen or this guy or that guy, who does the things other guys can't, that's Anthony Richardson in this class. So he might be the riskiest one, but if you're looking for big swings, man, pairing Anthony Richardson with the head coach that's perfect for him in this,

Starting point is 00:16:57 that might be the way to go. We've talked about it on here before. We'll talk about it more, I'm sure. But that's definitely something to keep in mind because now that we have the head coach hired, we're now going to move on from head coach discourse all over Twitter and the Colts message boards and everything to quarterback discourse. So that's going to be fun to usher that in. So the Colts are going to have some interesting off-season prop bets, I'm sure. And for those, we recommend that you guys bet with FanDuel.

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Starting point is 00:18:23 more dives into stichen and the Colts. So something I definitely want to mention, if you guys haven't been checking out HorseshoeHuddle.com, please do so. Like we've said, we got a couple of new guys in Sean McGinnis and Dustin Adams that we're just over the moon about having. I am just very honored to be the editor of these guys. You know, this group is awesome. They've been putting in the work. They're bringing you great, great Shane Steichen content,

Starting point is 00:18:51 just, you know, ceiling to floor, anything you're, you're going to want to know they they've got it covered. So check that out. We're probably going to spend a lot of that into topics here. So it's going to be really interesting content from us moving forward.

Starting point is 00:19:05 Follow at locked on Colts at Jake Arthur,FL and at Zach Hicks too on Twitter. Also subscribe to Locked on Colts on YouTube and wherever you listen to your podcasts. We would also love your ratings and reviews as well. We'll see you guys tomorrow.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts, Shane Steichen Provide Optimism in Introductory Press Conference

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