Should the Colts keep Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen?

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein

You live and die by your decisions. Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen put their cards on the table and made the gutsiest move of their careers by benching young quarterback Anthony Richardson for veteran Joe Flacco. The way it was handled was as poor as it can possibly be and the sudden return to Richardson as the starter shows there is a lack of a plan behind closed doors in Indianapolis.

The Ballard era has been an interesting one to say the least. Things were off to a nice start with Andrew Luck at the helm and a playoff berth and win in Ballard’s 2nd year with the team. After Luck left due mostly to the negligence and ineptitude of the previous administration, the Colts were on the lookout for new quarterback, but that new quarterback didn’t come around until the 2023 NFL Draft. The Colts drafted Anthony Richardson to rectify years of poor quarterback play.

Going back a bit, Chris Ballard has done a very good job of acquiring talent, especially through the draft. He drafted star players like Quenton Nelson, Jonathan Taylor, Michael Pittman Jr, Josh Downs, Braden Smith, Bernhard Raimann and Grover Stewart… just to name a few. He traded for DeForest Buckner and signed/claimed key players like Kenny Moore, which bolstered an incredibly strong roster. The Colts were/are loaded at many different position, yet the inability to find a quarterback has haunted this team for many years. At the end of the day, a great quarterback can mask an entire team. The teams Andrew Luck quarterbacked were much less talented than the Colts teams of the past few years, yet the Luck teams had a lot more success. So while Ballard did a great job finding talent, he couldn’t find a quarterback.

In his defense, it’s damn hard to find a quarterback, but that’s why he gets paid millions a year.

After years of inexcusable quarterback mistakes, going for Philip Rivers (who was very good but didn’t help the Colts in any way for the future), followed by Carson Wentz and then Matt Ryan, the Colts finally landed a young 1-of-1 player they could finally go the playoffs and contend with. His ceiling was as high as any player in the NFL, but he was raw and needed development. He surely needed more than 10 games to prove himself.

The Colts had a variety of options with him, as they could’ve gone with the Patrick Mahomes approach of letting him sit and learn fully for a year before starting. They could’ve gone with the Josh Allen approach which is to throw him into the fire and learn through reps. They could’ve gone with the Lamar Jackson approach where you introduce him through gadget packages for 10-15 plays a game. The Colts decided upon the Allen approach, which proved to be somewhat successful last season before Richardson missed the majority of the season due to injury. This season, the Colts went back to the Josh Allen approach, which means the team is living and dying with Richardson’s play. While every team wants to win, the team would have to be comfortable with losing games due to Richardson’s lack of experience. The last thing the team can do in this situation is bench him. While you can disagree with the approach they took and personally I did as I strongly align myself with the comments of Kurt Warner (who says what I believe much better than I can explain) and believed that he needed to go with more of a Lamar Jackson approach of slowing working him in from Year 1. The Colts went with the all in from day 1 approach and when you go with that, you are all in for at least 20something games, not 10 games.

The benching of Richardson after 10 games showed a lack of patience from the administration and that demonstration indicated to me that they do not know how to develop quarterbacks. If this group can’t develop quarterbacks, then we are simply wasting our time as no team in today’s NFL can win with an average or below average quarterback. Ballard and his team took all these years to finally make a serious investment in a young quarterback and this is how they treated it.

In my opinion, it’s the equivalent of buying stock in an upstart company with low revenue but a lot of growth and market share potential. Instead of holding on to that stock for years, they sold it after 5 months. And while the Colts have re-bought the stock after selling it, the simple act of selling indicates that the investor is:

1. Not confident in the company
2. Not patient in the company
3. Doesn’t truly believe in the company

If you are all in to that company, you are riding it to the top or to the ground.

When looking at Shane Steichen, it’s obvious he’s a great offensive mind with good scheming skills and play designs. That’s what made him a great offensive coordinator, but being a head coach entails a whole new set of challenges and requires new skills. In my opinion, he has not displayed those skills and has showed a lack of leadership during the Richardson benching.

Many fans rightfully ripped Chuck Pagano as a coach for many schematic and on-the-field struggles, but one thing he was without argument was a true charismatic leader. The head coach is a leader above all else, someone who commands respect at every moment during his tenure. The second that respect is questioned or gone, it’s time to move on. The perfect example of commanding respect and showing leadership of that in today’s NFL is Dan Campbell, who’s belief in his players coupled with his massive frame making him an imposing and redoubted figure in his locker room and his speeches inspire confidence in all of his players. Don’t believe me, go read all of the Lions’ players quotes about him.

In recent weeks, players such as Kenny Moore have questioned the effort levels of the players on the team. He also suggested that these issues with effort and commitment are a “year to year thing”. Maybe Kenny is the only one who feels this, but this was never heard from in the Patriots locker room or during the Dungy-era Colts locker room. In fact, if you look at the best coaches of the 21st century, you never see a player who has these types of complaints. Ryan Kelly also had public comments on Richardson and while his language wasn’t aggressive or disrespectful, they were unnecessary to disclose to the media. Strong locker rooms don’t have these types of issues. So while Ryan Kelly, in my opinion, was out of line to say anything negative (implied or otherwise) about the leader of the offense, to me it actually showed a lack of control by Steichen on his locker room. I’ll return on this point later on.

There are/were many coaches who were great offensive coordinators who just didn’t cut it as a head coach. From Norv Turner to Joe Philbin to Todd Haley to Josh McDaniels, the list is endless. Smart offensive minds just can’t seem to be great head coaches and it just further proves my point that the #1 quality a head coach must have is not scheme or Xs and Os related; it is leadership related. Steichen has not demonstrated that in his time as the head coach. His actions in the Richardson benching were simply wrong. It’s become apparent that Richardson was benched for attitude or behavioural issues, but the benching caught the entire team by surprise according to many of their quotes, but how it was done also left Richardson with many questions, as seen in his own interviews. The suddenness of the move and then the suddenness of the return also shows a lot of indecisiveness and lack of confidence in himself. The weirdness of the situation will only hurt Richardson’s confidence as well, which is the absolute worst thing you can do with a quarterback. Once the confidence is gone, it’s extremely difficult to get back; ask Carson Wentz who was an ACL injury away from being the MVP of the NFL. Wentz went from being near the top of every quarterback ranking list to bouncing around on 4 teams in 4 years.

To me it’s simple: you drafted Anthony Richardson, you live and die with him. If you’re Shane Steichen, you are doing everything you can to build his confidence, make his transition as easy as possible, put him in the best position to succeed and protect him on and off the field. From a schematic perspective, Richardson thrives on RPOs and I could probably count on one hand how many RPOs they call a game for him. The running game with Jonathan Taylor is a huge help as well and yet the team randomly abandons it during games. They are calling long developing pass plays that put a lot of stress on him. He’s not being put in a spot to succeed on the field. Off the field, based on all the press conferences with Steichen, I don’t get the impression that he’s protecting his quarterback. Instead of staunchly supporting his quarterback, he kept repeating the words “the process” and was rather vague on things. While being vague to the media isn’t a bad thing, giving free soundbites to boost your quarterback’s confidence and morale is never a bad thing; he failed to do those things until this week when he was renamed starter as Steichen said he had a “phenomenal week of practice”. In regards to the media, it isn’t a coincidence that great teams all sound alike. The players all sound like the head coach and give rather vague but always positive answers. When looking at the Colts, the players and the coaches’ quotes are all over the place, which is a sign of disconnectedness.

So to answer the original question of the article, the answer has to be related to results. Have the Colts improved since Chris Ballard started in 2017. The answer is no. Have the Colts improved since Shane Steichen took over last season? The answer is no. The lack of improvement is apparent and the last month was probably the lowest point the Colts have had since the Luck retirement. Chris Ballard is a fantastic evaluator and Shane Steichen is a incredibly smart offensive mind, but the fact remains, if they aren’t showing good results or serious improvement, it’s time for a change. People can be great coaches or executives, but just the wrong fits. Both these guys will likely be successful with other franchises, but it’s clear they aren’t a strong fit in Indianapolis as the team has not improved. That’s why I believe that change is needed after this season, unless the Colts can magically go on a crazy run in the last 2 months of the season. Somehow, I doubt it.

I’ll finish off by saying that if it comes out that Jim Irsay meddled in the Richardson business and overruled the administration/coaches (which would put them in an impossible position), I will denounce this piece and apologize. Until that day comes and if it ever comes, I have to go with what I see and what I see is an incompetent front office and staff that are guiding this team to nowhere.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein