Editorial

Indianapolis Colts Hire Philadelphia Eagles Offensive Coordinator Shane Steichen As Head Coach

(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Andrew Powell Sports and Entertainment Blogger
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The Colts have officially named their new skipper.

After going through 14 candidates in five weeks for the head coaching position, the Indianapolis Colts have announced that they have decided on Shane Steichen, who is fresh off of a NFC championship season with the Philadelphia Eagles, as the offensive coordinator.

Steichen is now tasked to rebuild a football team that finished 4-12-1 in 2022 and is looking for stability at quarterback — something that hasn’t existed since Andrew Luck’s retirement.

The rising star of Shane Steichen has been going on since 2015 with his reputation as a quality control coach, and that has now led him to being one of the NFL‘s 32 head coaches.

Here were the 14 candidates that the Colts were looking at: Shane Steichen (who they ultimately decided on), Raheem Morris, Jeff Saturday, Rich Bisaccla, Aaron Glenn, Wink Martindale, Brian Callahan, Ejiro Evero, Eric Bieniemy, Bubba Ventrone, Mike Kafka, DeMeco Ryans, Ben Johnson and Dan Quinn.

If I was the Colts’ hierarchy, I would’ve considered bringing back Jeff Saturday, but would have eventually crossed him off of my list because of both lack of experience and results in 2022, and there’s just too many distractions with him, and with new candidates, Shane Steichen and Eric Bieniemy would have been at the top of my list. I would have also included DeMeco Ryans on my top-target list, but it was pretty clear from the get-go that he was going to the Houston Texans. (RELATED: Super Bowl LVII Becomes Third Most-Watched TV Program Of All-Time With An Incredible 113 Million Viewers)

So that would have left me with Steichen and Bieniemy (the most fresh out of a Super Bowl, so it works out great), and out of the two, I would have done exactly what Indianapolis did — pick Steichen. Bieniemy is a great offensive coordinator, but he has Patrick Mahomes to work with, which taints him just enough for me to side with Steichen. What he was able to do with a young Jalen Hurts is impressive, and that’s what would’ve been my deciding factor overall.

Good choice by the Indianapolis Colts.