Evaluating Shane Steichen’s Third Season As Colts Head Coach
- Steichen's Colts offense thrives, but struggles to win close games and against division opponents.
- Richardson project a failure, highlighting Colts' need to develop talent and handle adversity better.
- Steichen's overall .500 record reflects inability to consistently win games without dominant offensive performances.
INDIANAPOLIS – Three years into the Shane Steichen era and we are still waiting on a berth into meaningful January football.
Another 8-9 mark in Year 3 for Steichen means he’s a .500 coach (25-26) through three years leading the Colts.
Let’s examine the third season as head coach for Steichen:
Wins
-Daniel Jones Growth: Unquestionably, the presence of Shane Steichen helped Daniel Jones reach a level of play that he hadn’t in his NFL career. Jones flourished for the first two months of the season, with Steichen bullish on his potential in the Colts offense throughout the 2025 offseason. While the Anthony Richardson project is on the brink of failing, what Steichen got out of Gardner Minshew, and now Jones, is certainly impressive.
-Historic Offensive Stretch: In general, what the Colts did offensively through the first two months of the season is some of the best football we’ve seen on that side of the ball in franchise history. From a play calling standpoint, I remain high on Steichen. Is he perfect? No. But this is a Colts offense that still produced a top-10 scoring unit despite having to start Philip Rivers and Riley Leonard for nearly a quarter of the season. Steichen gives the Colts a strong offensive mind.
Losses/To Be Determined
-Richardson Project: It is trending towards the Anthony Richardson project being a failed one in Indianapolis. This was a misidentification pre-draft and then a mishandling of the developmental project. Steichen was more than on board with the selection of Richardson, but clearly the Colts underestimated the attention needed and the full-on commitment to seeing what is there with the No. 4 overall pick.
-Beating Texans, Jaguars: The record against the Texans and Jaguars is an ugly 2-10 under Steichen’s watch. That’s awful. And a huge reason why this divisional drought now continues for an 11th straight year. More of this frustration in regards to that record against those teams is we are not talking about the Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes, or the Bills with Josh Allen. Demeco Ryans was hired the same cycle as Shane Steichen, yet the record is 1-5 against him. And the Jaguars just hired Liam Coen, and that record is 1-5. Flat out, division games mean more. And the Colts have wilted when that intra-division competition has risen under Steichen.
-Finding Other Ways To Get It Done: Shane Steichen is an accomplished offensive mind. I firmly believe that. But as a head coach, his teams are 25-26, with a 7-22 record against teams above .500. The Colts have to find ways to win games without a banner day offensively. They are 3-17 in games they score 20 points or fewer. To put that into perspective, the Texans are 8-14 in such games as they now have 3 playoff wins in the last 3 years. The Colts have to find ways to win games in different, uglier fashion. A score of 20-17 or 17-13 or 19-16 might pop up a time or two in a season. It might be necessary when you are down a starting quarterback. That’s reality in handling adversity. The Colts must do it better.
