Shane-O-Mac

The head coaching search is finally over, and the Indianapolis Colts have hired former Eagles’ Shane Steichen to become their new head coach. A few weeks ago, Brian Callahan was my favorite for the job, as he would inherit a similar weakness the Bengals had – a weak offensive line. He has a good offensive mind and creative at getting his playmakers the ball. That said, his run game play calling was uninspiring, with Joe Mixon getting tackled for losses time after time on slow developing straight run plays.

In comes Shane Steichen, who is a much better fit due to the familiarity of the Eagles’ offense. Some are already clamoring Reich 2.0, but I read a simple quote from Shane that stuck and made me deter any notion he’ll be similar to Reich: “If something is working, stay with it.” And we’ve seen it many times this season. How many QB sneaks from Hurts have you watched this season? It seemed like every time the Eagles had short yardage to go, they ran a QB sneak. Defenses see this coming and still cannot stop it. How many times have they got back to back QB draws, or back to back throws to either Devonta or AJ? Plenty. If the defense can’t stop you, why would you call anything else? Keep it simple, and keep running it back until they stop it. The Eagles were among the best in offense this past season, and although they fell a game short of the ultimate Super Bowl, looked mostly unstoppable.

This is what the Colts need, not unpredictable and head scratching play calling. There are already enough problems as is, with the Colts offensive line regressing this past season. Reich’s mentality seemed like, ‘if something isn’t working, try it again until it works.’ Plenty of times Reich would draw up long developing plays for a struggling offensive line. Plenty of times Reich would have the wrong personnel at the goal line. And plenty of times, Reich would call the wildest plays on 3rd and short (a Matt Ryan play action with receivers running deep crosses leading to a 15 yard sack still haunts me).

Now, this may all be moot. The Eagles probably had the best offensive line in the league, which allowed Jalen Hurts to sneak, run, and throw with plenty of time in the pocket. They could call anything and it would 70% work, as the offensive line would dominate the opposing team’s line. This may not work for the Colts. There will be much to improve on through the draft and free agency.

With the Steichen hire, I am going to take a shot at the Colts’ strategy for the draft and free agency. I believe Anthony Richardson at QB fits Steichen’s offense best now. He is by far the best running QB in this draft class, and has a cannon for an arm. There are some accuracy and progression issues, but he can become a much better Jalen Hurts if he approaches his ceiling. He’s still very raw, so I believe the Colts would be able to trade down a bit for him (to at worst 10th pick), as other teams may want a more traditional QB such as Young/Stroud/Levis.

Shoring up the offensive line is arguably the second biggest priority in the draft, especially at RG and OG depth, and acquiring more picks will help. Raimann at LT had improved throughout the year, so that side of the line isn’t a big concern. If Nelson and Kelly stay healthy and motivated and Braden Smith continues what he has been doing, this offensive line should be back within the top 10 offensive lines in the league. There were many changes and a lot of shuffling going on last season coupled with bad QB play and WRs not getting separation, so hopefully there will be some continuity for the new Colts’ QB.

Trading down and grabbing an extra pick allows the Colts to either draft a fast receiver to keep defenses honest, as there aren’t many good receivers in free agency this offseason. Pittman is a great #2 receiver and very durable on the catch, but he won’t beat the defense deep with his speed. Alec Pierce will be going into his sophomore season and has potential, but can he develop into that WR1? Parris Campbell (if we re-sign him) is the Colts’ fastest receiver, but he has never been asked to run deep routes, even in college. If we acquire a late first round pick, we may have a shot at Quentin Johnston from TCU, absolutely a true X receiver who can get past the secondary with his speed and has a large catch radius. Jordan Addison also has the ability to create separation, but is known to drop a bunch of passes and gets bullied on contested catches. Being contested won’t be an issue if he’s open, and he could be a candidate for Richardson’s deep passes.

Hitting on this draft at RG is a must, and taking a gamble on WR is needed. At QB, I have confidence in Steichen developing a QB prospect, as he has done it with Herbert and Hurts. Looking more and more at Anthony Richardson’s game film, I’m more confident the Colts will favor him in the draft over the other QBs, even if he isn’t necessarily more polished. They will definitely do their due diligence, and if the Colts draft Levis or Stroud instead, I’m confident Steichen will maximize their potential and create a game plan that fits their strengths.