Indianapolis Colts coach Shane Steichen has remained tight-lipped on which quarterback the team may sign.
The 37-year-old seems keen to dip into the draft in search of a new player at the all-important position who will best suit his offence, but the Colts could seek to acquire a new slinger via trade instead. One of the players mentioned is Lamar Jackson - whose future has been one of the biggest storylines across the offseason after he requested a trade from the Baltimore Ravens last month.
Despite there being a possibility of signing Jackson from the Ravens, team owner Jim Irsay made it clear at the owner’s meetings that there were significant hurdles in place regarding a potential pursuit of the 2018 NFL draft’s first pick. This opinion was shared by new coach Steichen, 15 days before the first round of the NFL draft is set to commence.
Furthermore, the Colts are expected to use the No. 4 pick to draft a potential quarterback of the future. “We’re focused on the draft, and we’re focused on the guys that are in the building at the moment,” Steichen said. The American has worked with a variety of NFL quarterbacks over the last 12 years such as pocket passers like Philip Rivers, big armed youngsters such as Justin Herbert and athletic mobile passers like Jalen Hurts.
Therefore, it is difficult to hone in on exactly which specific type of player he is looking to recruit. However, it seems clear that Steichen wants a vertical passing offence that creates explosive passing plays, as he alluded to on a recent podcast episode with Jason Kelce.
“Once you see those explosive plays happen, that’s how you score points,” he explained. “You have to create those explosives. How do we create those and how do we scheme up guys to get down field? When you get those one on one match-ups like we did this last season, it was nice with (DeVonta Smith), AJ (Brown), Dallas (Goedert), and Quez (Watkins). All those guys are vertical threats, which was awesome.”
The Colts’ quarterback search is well underway, having already wrapped up a meeting with Florida's Anthony Richardson and are scheduled to meet with Ohio State's C.J. Stroud later in the week.
Last week, they watched Kentucky's Will Levis work out in Lexington and both Stroud and Alabama's Bryce Young separately. "I think it's both. You kind of know (who they are) from the film, but then you see them in person," Steichen said regarding his belief that workouts and interviews are important when assessing new potential new players.
"But really, getting to know them -- I think that's a big part of this process -- is really getting to know who that person is, their work ethic, their character, all those little different things that you want in a player."
When asked what he looks for in a quarterback, he added: "I'm looking for good guys. I mean, that's the biggest thing," he said. "Obviously, there (are) the tangibles and the intangibles, and I'm not going to get into all the details of what I look for, but really I want good guys in this building."
