Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Is Shane Steichen Perfect for the Indianapolis Colts?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Colts found a promising coach from the Eagles once before. Will they go back to Philly for their next head coach? Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast 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. Today's show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs, which helps you find the candidates that you want to talk to faster. Just post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash LockedOnNFL.

Starting point is 00:00:58 I'm Jake Arthur. He is Zach Hicks. And you know the two of us from HorseshoeHuddle.com, of course. Today, we're going to keep our head coach interviews going. We're going to learn a bit about one of the Colts most intriguing head coaching candidates. That's Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen. To tell us more about one of the hottest coaching candidates of this year's cycle is Ben Solak of the Ringer. What's up brother? How you doing? Good to see y'all fellas. Hope you've been well. Absolutely. Yeah, we're just talking off air. You know, you and I talked in camp when you were at Colts Camp, and the vibe was different. Quite a bit different.

Starting point is 00:01:40 It was a fun season to watch from afar. I can't imagine it was as fun to cover, but I had a good time. No, in the thick of it, it was not great. It was not great. So Shane Steichen, Eagles, that side of it has been great. Nick Sirianni, the Colts former offensive coordinator, current Eagles head coach. He's a high quality offensive mind in himself. But how much of Philly's offensive success would you attribute to Steichen? Like how much of things do you think are on his plate and what might make him a decent head coaching candidate moving forward? I'd say the majority of the offensive credit when you dole it out in terms of like the scheme stuff and the play calling stuff belongs to Steichen.

Starting point is 00:02:19 Nick Sirianni was obviously, he came in from Indy and he was calling plays in the first season in which he was the head coach and Steichen was kind of just the offensive coordinator and in this time the Eagles were just trying to figure out what they were right they didn't know uh how good Jalen Hurts was going to be and how much of a leash they wanted to give him and the best way to build an offense around him and of course in that 2021 season they didn't have AJ Brown yet you know what I'm saying it's like they weren't nearly what they look like now so they're just kind of trying things they're just kind of like poking around uh and it was it was interesting

Starting point is 00:02:47 because neither sirianni nor steichen was coming from a background with mobile quarterbacks right i mean like sirianni and steichen were coaching philip rivers and you know whoever's in indy like it was just they didn't have the same uh they didn't have a mobile quarterback the way they have with jalen hurts and so then this season you step in and and nick sirianni says all right like you know we've you know got a year two uh later in the season back in 2021 i gave up play calling to shane stykin and that kind of coincided with when jalen hurts and the offense started a little bit good and i was like okay he was like yeah the second call plays again this year it's like all right cool like interesting and then the eagles walked out with just a really really really effective

Starting point is 00:03:25 offense and what's cool is they didn't run a system right it wasn't like they walked out with the mcveigh offense and the shanhan offense and we could all post little graphics and little clips and be like their second league in motion their third in the league and under center play action right it wasn't like that where like they were running like a family like he's striking to come up in this family he knew how to run this offense so he was running it for the eagles and they were kind of making it work there they they would walk out one week and they'd be all shotgun and all zone read and all rpl and walk out the next week and they'd be 12 personnel and they'd be running gap power and they'd walk out the next week and they'd be spreading out four wide and wide receiver

Starting point is 00:04:00 screens and one-on-ones they'd be be running, you know, West Coast concepts. They were very comfortable on a week-to-week basis of kind of feeling out the defense, saying, all right, what do you not like today? What are you bad at, right? You're running quarters, where are you weak? You want to cover three, where are you weak? You want to blitz, where are you weak? And then hitting that, and hitting that in a variety of ways

Starting point is 00:04:18 and hitting it across the course of four quarters. They also were really good in-game in saying, okay, we thought this was going to work it's not working let's get off it quick let's get to something else right they weren't really the steig has never been an obstinate play caller he's really good about the second quarter but you know the eagles if you remember the first half of the year had like 20 points per second quarter and the next closest team was like the titans with seven right they're really good about the second quarter kind of figuring out like okay this is like this is what's gonna work this is not what's gonna work let's go you know pedal to the metal and we attack

Starting point is 00:04:47 which to me speaks to a um a really balanced coaching staff and a really smart coaching staff right the only like guy in the offensive room that really has background like mobile quarterbacks and college style offense with the eagles run is brian johnson the quarterback coach so i can didn't come from this which to me indicates that like he is much more so interested in what works than he is in what he knows. And that's the best thing you can have in terms of a coach who designs stuff. And then, like I said, the situational play calling. They're really good in short yardage. They're really good in goal line.

Starting point is 00:05:13 They're good at calling change-ups. It's all very, very impressive. Now, that's my read. And that's been a lot of people's reads. Connor Orr wrote a great piece about Steichen for Sports Illustrated. That's the general read. We'll see. You know what I'm saying? In the event that Steichen goes somewhere else and it's not a lot of people's reads. I mean, you know, Connor Orr wrote a great piece about Stuyken for Sports Illustrated. Like, you know, it's that's the general read. We'll see. You know what I'm saying?

Starting point is 00:05:27 Like in the event that Stuyken goes somewhere else and it's not a Jalen Hurts and it's a totally mobile pocket passer, like hypothetically, wherever he ends up, then he's going to have to design a more diverse passing game because Eagles don't run a lot of pass concepts. They run like seven concepts over and over and over again, and they don't really get any more complex than that. So it's always difficult to extrapolate and say like yeah this guy does this and he'll be able to take this to the next place he goes but from what i've seen over psych in the last two years he's a smart cookie he cares about what works and he knows how to get what works he knows

Starting point is 00:05:54 how he knows how to figure it out and to me that's that's really awesome that's exciting to see yeah yeah for sure and you know he has a really impressive background working with philip rivers as qb coach working with justin her, and now with Jalen Hurts. And he's had a lot of success every single place he's gone. Something I find interesting, though, is what we see a lot with teams is when they do fire a longtime head coach. Frank Reich was an Indy for quite a few years, and he had a lot of success. And obviously it went downhill this past season. But you usually see teams go to a very, very different style of coach and just a

Starting point is 00:06:25 very different direction. You know, it's always like, if we go rah, rah, defensive guy, one time we'll go innovative, young offensive mind this time. When it comes to Steichen versus Frank Reich, how do those two kind of compare as coaches from your experience with both of those guys? I'm very sorry, Zach, I got a text from my sister and I was looking at it. I did not hear your question. Can you say your question again? No, you're good. I was saying that a lot of, you know, a lot of when we, when we see coach teams go a different direction with head coach,

Starting point is 00:06:55 you know, we see them go to that very different style. You know, if you have a Frank Reich one time, you'll go like a Dan Campbell the next time, or you'll go a Mike Vrabel next time. Very, very different style of coach. How does Steichen kind of compare to Frank Reich as a coach? Is he more of that? Like, yes, he's an innovative offensive mind,

Starting point is 00:07:11 but is he kind of like Frank from, from a lot of the ways that you've experienced with those two guys? I mean, I would say like Shane's certainly younger. And so he's certainly got a better thumb on the pulse and like, not better, but like, he's got a different spirit, a different energy to him. Right. He's kind of of like uh you know probably like a little bit more fun a little bit more jokey a little bit more high energy but both of the guys are like football obsessed they're very detailed and they love to teach i wouldn't i wouldn't say that that uh

Starting point is 00:07:37 steichen is so different than reich that if you were to come in and become the head coach of the colts the first thing that would come to your mind would be like, oh, wow, what a culture change. Oh, wow, what a shift in prototype. I think they're still pretty similar. It's just Reich's probably got a decade or two on Steichen that kind of changes the energy levels a little bit. They're cut from a similar cloth, though. If you just trace the Doug Peterson to Frank Reich to Nick Sirianni

Starting point is 00:08:02 to Shane Steichen line and kind of fold in some Ken Wisenh hunt from the chargers days in there and like you know just generally this group of guys they just they they speak west coast they love details and they really love teaching they really really love coaching they're like getting and getting their hands dirty that i think that prototype works if it didn't work previously i don't think you want to get off of it and i would also say and i think you'd agree with me zach i'm not ready to say the frank reich prototype didn't work previously i don't think you want to get off of it and i would also say and i think you'd agree with me zach i'm not ready to say the frank reich prototype didn't work in indie i think other stuff didn't work in indie and frank reich's not there because of that you know so um there's nothing wrong with going for uh you know you get yourself a a damico ryan's again it's like young firebrand you know doing karate on the sideline defensive coach nothing wrong with that

Starting point is 00:08:41 i just don't think you have to move off of the Frank Reich prototype. Yeah. Love to hear that, honestly. And, yeah, we could talk all day about what was or wasn't with the whole Frank Reich thing. And, obviously, that was the tip of the iceberg in a season that just was a significant bummer. But one of the more exciting parts of it is you get to focus on a new head coach and new quarterback pairing this year. We know they're going to get a new head coach, obviously. Well,

Starting point is 00:09:11 a new official head coach. I can't say. I was about to say, how positive are we that head coach is going to be different now? New permanent head coach. New quarterback is pretty much a guarantee. So with Steichen, is there any of these top four quarterbacks who you look at and you're like, damn, I really want to see them matched up with a Steichen type? Yeah, I mean, I would want a quarterback with mobility if I were hiring Steichen to be my head coach off of what he did in Philadelphia. Now, I'm pretty confident that when you get Steichen into the interview room and you ask him, like, all right, how do you rise from this offense? And he talks about how they ran it for Jalen Hurts. And then you ask him, like, hey, what would you do

Starting point is 00:09:49 if your quarterback couldn't run like Jalen Hurts? He's got to have a really good answer, right? Like, as Zach brought up, Philip Rivers to Justin Herbert, like, they were just dicing kids up from the pocket. You know what I'm saying? So I don't think it's incapable there, but if you're hiring Shane Steichen to be your head coach, which, like, two years ago nobody was trying to do,

Starting point is 00:10:03 it's because of what he's done with Jalen Hurts. So you want to chase that that that trail you want to go down that direction in which case like yeah you're anthony richardson and you're will levis are going to be the guys that that fit that more so than your bryce young you know cj shroud levis isn't a crazy good athlete i think he's more of like a like a tannahill than he is a daniel jones in terms of like how well he moves at his size or some of these bigger, thicker guys. Um, but I'm more comfortable running him than I am running a Bryce young just because of the body armor, right? The density. I don't really want to incorporate Bryce young in my running game Stroud, uh, from Ohio state, not much of a running

Starting point is 00:10:35 quarterback. Richardson's the guy that's, that's really exciting. Right. And if like, you know, you're at the point where you're hiring Steichen and I brought up Brian Johnson previously, the Eagles quarterbacks coach, he was in Florida, uh uh before he took the Eagles job and so he's the sort of guy who he's going to know Richardson and if you're hiring Steichen and Steichen's bringing an OC with him and he's talking about Brian Johnson then that's the through line to Anthony Richardson we're like they're going to know that guy and if Johnson likes him and thinks he's worth the development then like that makes sense for the Colts that's the sort of thing you chase if this hire ends up being the case.

Starting point is 00:11:06 Yeah, yeah, for sure. And that kind of leads to my next question here. You mentioned Brian Johnson there. If Steichen were to get the indie job or just any job in general, do you think he would kind of pick a lot of his staff from that Eagles staff, like pick apart what you guys have there? Or do you think he'd go more veteran? Because I know the Eagles have a lot of really interesting staff members there,

Starting point is 00:11:24 but they have a lot of really young guys. Kevin uh kevin patalo or patulo i think is his name as well brian johnson on defense nick ralphs who i think is like just turned 30 you know would he go with that younger staff or do you think he'd probably search around the league for more like veteran type guys to surround himself with so i would say that at like quarterback and wide receiver and and position like past game coordinator i think you can go young i think you should go young because i like the modern i the modern approaches that that you see at those spots right like to me like you know like gerald bevel designs a good west coast game the same way that shane steiking he does but steiken understands like it's like the joe

Starting point is 00:12:02 lombardi thing with the chargers right like lombardi puts a good offense on the field like x's and o's it's just he doesn't run the offense that 2023 needs he runs the offense in 1993 needs right and so like i don't mind having young coaches at those spots what i will say the big thing for steichen in the in terms of filling out his staff is the offensive line coach spot uh the eagles have now had like four consecutive or actually three consecutive extremely good offensive coaches in the building chip kelly doug peterson and uh nick sirianni at head coach all of them great all of them generating good offenses over their time there the one through line is offensive line coach jeff statlin who was hired by chip kelly out of the college ranks never coached in the nfl before was awesome for

Starting point is 00:12:49 chip and then they fired chip they gutted his entire staff except for one spot just out on the offensive line coach doug came in he was the offensive line coach the entire time doug was there they fired doug they gutted his entire staff except for one dude and that was just out on the offensive line coach and he's now the running game coordinator and he's been with steichen the eagles offensive line is the best unit in the league and is the uh aside from what shanahan kyle shanahan does in san francisco it's the most versatile running game in the league and when you when you fold them like a quarterback run stuff it maybe even is more versatile because they have that extra layer

Starting point is 00:13:20 uh so if steichen's going to indy and he's saying i got you know these young guys that i like and i got these guys from the chargers days that i like we're gonna bring them all in the big question that i would have for him if i was an owner looking for the hires okay who you get an offensive line coach because what we've seen the way that that coaching position matters to elite offenses year in and year out we've seen the same guys using the shanahan tree running that wide zone give stuff we've seen the way that brian callahan matters to the browns we've seen the way that don discarnacian matter to the patriots and we've seen the Shanahan trade, winning that wide zone give stuff. We've seen the way that Brian Callahan matters to the Browns. We've seen the way that Don Discarnecchia mattered to the Patriots. And we've seen the way that Stalin matters to the Eagles.

Starting point is 00:13:48 So that's who I would like. I don't care too much about youth and age. And like, you know, you want to get like a young guy who thinks he's got some clever ideas, a wide receivers coach, go for it. Who's making this running game work? Who's going to be my offensive line coach? Well, Ben, I'm sold. I'm pretty sure Steichen was Zach's number one candidate still, right?

Starting point is 00:14:07 Yeah, throughout the whole process, yeah. Yeah, I know there's new candidates coming out literally like every single day, but Steichen's been your guy throughout. So I'm sold. Love what you had to share with us. Thank you for joining us today. And everyone, if you don't already, Ben's not just an Eagles guy. He's a national writer.

Starting point is 00:14:24 If you're not following him on Twitter, get him at Benjamin Solak. Yeah, don't take my off as a coordinator. Hands off. Ben knows I've been eyeing Stuyken the whole time. I appreciate you guys. Have a fun offseason. See you, buddy. See you, brother.

Starting point is 00:14:41 Bye. Next, why Stuyken might just be the best man for this Colts job despite some other candidates. But first, as a small business owner or a hiring manager, you know that success in 2023 all depends on the team members that you surround yourself with. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. With LinkedIn Jobs, you can hire qualified candidates more efficiently by matching open roles with people who have the skills, values, and experiences to help you achieve your goals. They go beyond resume data by using insights from your job post, company, and their 875 million member profiles to put your post in front of the most qualified candidates. Identify the most qualified candidates on LinkedIn Jobs and connect with them fast and for free.

Starting point is 00:15:29 LinkedIn Jobs makes it easy to screen and rate applicants based on your job qualifications all on one platform. It's why small businesses rate LinkedIn Jobs number one in delivering quality hires versus the leading competitors. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster post your job for free at linkedin.com locked on nfl that's linkedin.com locked on nfl to post your job for free terms and conditions apply so i don't think the colts will have to use linkedin jobs if they want to hire steichen but but dude, I'm, I'm in all, all Steichen needs to do is hire Ben as his hype man. And, uh, and I think there we go.

Starting point is 00:16:11 Ben does a great job of, he talks a lot. He says a lot when he's talking, you know, you get him started, he's going to keep going for 45 minutes, but every minute of that 45 minutes is going to be very informative. So I always love Ben. I've known him for half a decade now at this point been good friends with him but yeah no shane steichen uh he is he is uh definitely like you know we've seen this trend a lot lately that the the what you want to hire for your head coach is the young offensive mind uh preferably from the mcveigh tree apparently everyone's from the mVeigh tree, apparently. Everyone's from the McVeigh tree or the Shanahan tree.

Starting point is 00:16:46 You know, Matt LaFleur with the Green Bay Packers. Obviously, they've had one of the better records in the league the last couple seasons. You look at Zach Taylor there with the Bengals. They went to the Super Bowl last year. Obviously, McVeigh was the first one with the Rams a couple years ago, and he's a Super Bowl champion now. We are seeing these young coaches get their teams into the playoffs and far into the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:17:07 Seven of the eight remaining coaches right now in the playoffs are offensive-led coaches or coaches that call plays or have a heavy hand in play calling. So if you're looking at this group of coaching candidates, outside of Ben Johnson, who has pulled his name out of all the running and is going back to Detroit. Shane Steichen is that guy. He's that offensive coach. He's that guy who's a young, innovative, innovative mind that has shown the ability to work with multiple types of quarterbacks. And I love what Ben said there that yes, his, his type of guys, probably the mobile quarterback, probably

Starting point is 00:17:39 the Anthony Richardson home run, you know, swinging for the fences with Anthony Richardson or swinging pretty close to the fences with the fences with Will Levis you know those are his guys with mobile guys but with Shane Steichen I do think you can work with any kind of offense you know he can be working with a pocket passer he can be working with that pure pocket guy like he did with Phillip Rivers when he was a QB coach back with the Chargers uh he can work with kind of a dual threat guy or a mobile guy that can win from the pocket like Bryce Young because he worked with Justin Herbert. And Justin Herbert's not like a running quarterback, but he is a creative passer in the backfield.

Starting point is 00:18:13 So I think with Shane Steichen, you have a very experienced yet young offensive mind that has shown the ability to innovate and shown the ability to be a great advanced scout and adjust on the fly. So yeah, I think Shane Steichen, for me, has been number one throughout this whole process, and he will be until the very, very end, even if he's not the pick, because I just think that's the mold. I don't know what the Colts are going to go with that mold,

Starting point is 00:18:36 but I think that's the mold to succeed with, and Shane Steichen just checks every single box. Yeah. A couple of my biggest takeaways from what Ben was talking about is quality game planning. You know, it's, it's not sticking to your guns and doing what you do every single week. It's based on what the defense is going to give up. And I think that was something so frustrating for you and me throughout, throughout the season was here's how the Colts can attack this. What did they not do?

Starting point is 00:19:05 Exactly what we said they should do. It feels like the Eagles and Steichen are more apt to adjust to defenses. And that's another thing, in-game adjustments. This is working, this isn't working okay. Let's tailor things a little differently. They just apparently know how to do that. And we've, we've we've seen success just this season with Jalen Hurts and Gardner Minshew wasn't all bad. You know, I remember watching I forget what holiday it was probably Thanksgiving, but Gardner Minshew playing and I was like, man, I mean, this is their backup quarterback, but

Starting point is 00:19:39 everything looks good. Like this coaching is really good. And so that that's just really encouraging for me. And I love the idea of Steichen really being able to work with whatever quarterback. Right. And, you know, if, if he's hired to be the guy we know from Ballard's experiences with Frank Reich that he'll be like, okay, which type are you most comfortable? Like, who do you see unlocking your offense the most? And having that marriage between head coach and quarterback, both in their first year together, I just really liked that idea of having a guy who can focus on the offense, whether he would retain Gus Bradley or bring in his own guy or whatever. But

Starting point is 00:20:19 I would just be really optimistic about that. I don't, other than him not having experience being a head coach before, it seems like a really high ceiling hire. Yeah, I would say that I think for those of you out there who want Gus Bradley back, which I know there's a handful of you guys that want him back. I'm honestly not against it. I really like Gus Bradley. I think he did a lot of good things. I think the chances of Gus Bradley staying on as defensive coordinator just skyrocket if

Starting point is 00:20:49 shane steichen is hired mainly because they work together with the chargers when when it was a san diego chargers they both worked there together and then also this year when they played against each other you know steichen's offense was clicking for most of the year they come against indy the second game under under the just sat thing you know the whole just Saturday era and they only scored 17 points against this Indy defense you know this Eagles offense was clicking uh for the whole year up until that point and then that kind of started their little bit low looking season uh so I think he has experience with Gus Bradley he's worked with him before and then he saw firsthand this year how that defense was playing under Gus Bradley and they played his team pretty well.

Starting point is 00:21:26 So I do think that will be a nice little connection. And I think that's the way the Colts would go if Shane Steichen becomes head coach. But, yeah, I'm sold, man. I really like Shane Steichen. I think he's going to be a really good head coach. I don't know if he gets it this cycle or if he's going to get it in Carolina or get it in Indy or wherever. But I think one day he's going to be the next of these young offensive coaches that we're talking about around the league.

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Starting point is 00:22:23 You can thank me later. All right, Jake, I think that's all we got here. Do you have anything else you want to say before we, uh, before we close out this? It's, I was going to say it's a mini episode, but we really didn't go that short. We're kind of getting close to our thing. And again, you let Ben talk a little bit and it's going to keep running and keep running. You're going to get great information regardless. Oh, I had more questions in the chamber I wanted to ask, but I was like, all right, we're good. We're going to get over. But no, that was that was a great conversation. Obviously, you guys can tell by this episode in the past few. Our theme right now is let's learn more

Starting point is 00:22:54 about these head coaching candidates. And we're not done because the Colts list just keeps growing. They added Rich Passaccia today as of us recording this. So we'll figure something out for that, too. We have we have more of these recording this. So we'll figure something out for that too. We have, we have more of these to go. So hang with us. Yeah. Make sure you guys are following us on social media at locked on Colts at Jake Arthur,

Starting point is 00:23:12 NFL and at cakes to on Twitter. Also subscribed locked on Colts on YouTube, wherever your podcast. And thank you guys for making us your first listen of the day for your next listen, check out the locked on sports today. Podcasts, the biggest stories of the day, plus instant reactions, big game recaps, and the take of the day for your next listen, check out the locked on sports today. Podcasts, the biggest stories of the day,

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Is Shane Steichen Perfect for the Indianapolis Colts?

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