Below is a transcript from The Simple Handicap podcast (listen here), presented by Right Angle Sports. We’ll be doing a first-look preview of all 32 NFL teams, followed by more complete team previews prior to the season. Interested in signing up for the RAS NFL service? Join here.
When you look from the outside in, there’s a ton of reasons to be optimistic and even excited about the Indianapolis Colts in 2023.
First and foremost, the hiring of Shane Steichen as head coach. Everything that he has done and said the last three months is what you want to hear. He cleaned out the offensive staff. There’s only two guys on the entire offensive staff older than 38. This is a very young, modern-focused offense, from the top all the way down. This is one of the youngest coaching staffs in the entire NFL. When you think about that, when you think about the scheme he runs, people get excited. Because he comes from the Eagles, and his scheme helped get them to the Super Bowl.
The best explanation of what Steichen does is that he runs the football-version of a modern NBA offense. He’s after 3-pointers or layups. Last year, more than 65 percent of Jalen Hurts’ passes had an intended air yards distance of less than 5 yards. But he had a very-high 18 percent deep-ball rate on his throws. So almost all of Hurts’ throws were short, easy layups, or deep shots downfield. Steichen is going to bring this approach to Indianapolis and put his quarterback in good position.
Let’s talk about the Colts’ expected signal caller, rookie Anthony Richardson out of Florida. After the Colts drafted him, everyone immediately pointed to Steichen’s history with Hurts, also a dual-threat. Richardson’s accuracy is being questioned by critics. “But he’s a freak athlete,” his supporters say, “working for a creative play caller who will maximize his skill set just like he did with Hurts.” Richardson has been working all offseason with some of the best quarterback whisperers in the game, and observers have raved about his arm talent and deep-ball ability. The accuracy issues, the optimists hope, are a result of bad footwork rather than bad throwing motion.
Everywhere you look in Indianapolis, it’s positivity.
It’s hard to believe, because the Colts were about as low and desperate as any NFL team we’ve seen in recent years. The contrast in how we talked about the Colts in December, and how we’re talking about them in July, is completely different. The unmistakable message we keep hearing is that all of this is exciting and all of this could work.
But!
It’s an entirely new offensive staff. It’s a head coach calling the offensive plays—sometimes a struggle in Year 1 for new hires—a guy who is renowned for his offense but also a guy who has gotten to work with Justin Herbert and Hurts while surrounded by immense skill position talent. It’s a rookie QB who had a ton of concerns coming out of college, who was viewed as being overdrafted, and will now have to come in and work with skill position talent that scares nobody and an objectively bad offensive line. The more you look, the more you realize that there’s a lot of things that will have to go right for the Colts to deliver on the upside that many believe they have. And they’ll have to do it in the strongest AFC we’ve seen in years, if not decades, if not ever.
It’s a lot to ask for.