Indianapolis has officially hired Shane Steichen as head coach, signing the Eagles offensive coordinator on the dotted
line Monday night, one day after Philadelphia’s sad 38-35 loss to Kansas City in Super Bowl LVII.
The Colts will publicly introduce Steichen in the coming days, giving Indianapolis its first chance to hear about the
new coach’s objectives.
Insider: 10 views on why the Colts pursued Steichen
Steichen, the youngest Colts coach in franchise history at 37 years old, was originally identified as the team’s top
target around noon on Super Bowl Sunday, after it was rumored that the Colts had alerted the remainder of a deep
pool of candidates that they had made a final decision.
According to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard, determined to avoid
repeating the mistakes that led to Josh McDaniels pulling out of the Colts at the last minute in 2018, cast a much
wider net this time, initially interviewing 13 candidates before bringing in eight for lengthy second interviews that
included one-on-one time with Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay and work on specific game situations.
Because Steichen was preparing for the Super Bowl, he was the final in-person interview, which took place in
Philadelphia just before the Eagles left for Arizona.
While Steichen prepared for Kansas City’s defense, the Colts made their selection and identified the man they want
to replace interim coach Jeff Saturday. The iconic former Indianapolis center had gone 1-7 as the team’s head coach
after being poached from ESPN’s airways to replace Frank Reich, who had a 40-33-1 record over four seasons. Reich
has already been hired as the head coach at Carolina.
The Colts have barred defensive coordinator Gus Bradley and the rest of his staff from interviewing for lateral moves,
hoping to maintain momentum from a defense that performed admirably until the severity of the team’s collapse
brought down the numbers in December and January.
