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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Paul Bretl

One important area where Colts’ Shane Steichen must improve in 2025

As Shane Steichen heads into this third NFL season as the Indianapolis Colts’ head coach, his messaging to the media has to improve.

“Shane and I have had discussions about that, in terms of pure messaging,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said via the Indy Star. “You all are going to find out anyways.”

The job of an NFL head coach is all-encompassing and goes well beyond just the Xs and Os component. How that individual addresses the media and the messaging around the team is crucial as well.

And as we saw during the 2024 season, Steichen very much has room to grow in this regard.

Two of the more noteworthy instances centered around quarterback Anthony Richardson.

The first occurrence came when Steichen made the decision to bench Richardson following the team’s Week 8 loss to Houston. This decision, of course, came on the heels of Richardson tapping out for a play against the Texans.

However, to the public, Steichen said that had nothing to do with the decision and that the real reason behind the move was that Joe Flacco gave the team the best chance to win.

But standing in front of the podium for two weeks and repeating that statement tends to fall flat when the offense is struggling mightily with Flacco under center.

It wasn’t until after Richardson was reinstated as the starter that we learned that the team wanted him to focus on the day-to-day preparation that comes with being a starting quarterback–and even the specifics behind that from Steichen wasn’t all that clear.

Then just a few weeks ago, Steichen said that Richardson was dealing with soreness in his back and that was what was keeping him out of practice heading into Week 17.

We would later learn, however, that it was back spasms that Richardson was navigating, which at one point had him crawling around his house because he couldn’t walk.

“He wants to protect the players,” added Ballard, “which I respect — and he should — but there’s certain times where our messaging needs to be better.”

Another instance came when Steichen was questioned about players being late to meetings and he started his reply with “not everyone’s gonna be on time every time.”

While, sure that’s true and Ballard isn’t worried about Steichen holding the team accountable, from a messaging standpoint, it again falls flat.

The media and fans certainly don’t need to know everything that is taking placed behind closed doors, and as Ballard said, Steichen is trying to keep as much as he can internal. But in doing so, he left his quarterback out to dry and didn’t dispel any notions about the work ethic of his team.

Messaging matters and it’s an area that Steichen will have to improve upon.

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