The Indianapolis Colts entered Sunday afternoon without anything left to play for.
Despite their historically hot start to the year on offense, spearheading an 8-2 record going into the bye week, Indy’s season ended with a Houston Texans win over the Los Angeles Chargers the day prior.
The free fall from atop the NFL down to league purgatory, where Indianapolis began 2025, has been steep. There have been several contributing factors. Injuries on both sides of the ball, particularly to quarterback Daniel Jones, forced a 44-year-old Philip Rivers out of retirement.
Now many, inducing myself, criticized the decision to throw a five-year retiree onto an NFL field completely cold. The Colts could’ve called it a season, packed it in and turned the page to 2026.
Instead, Rivers has Indianapolis fighting down to the last snap. Even this Sunday—in a 23-17 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars with nothing left to play for but pride—the Colts never looked like a team that’s given up.
It’s a testament to how head coach Shane Steichen has coached not just this recent stretch of games, but the entire season.
When Jones was healthy, the Colts offense was on a historic pace. High scoring numbers week in and week out. Jonathan Taylor was averaging well over 100 rushing yards a game. Efficiency was superb. The overwhelming number of receiving weapons left defenses in a position to pick their poison as the Colts were poised to take the helm as the team to beat in the AFC.
But after losing Jones to a torn Achilles, the Colts offense took a big hit. Both the run and pass games became extremely limited without the threat of his legs. That didn’t stop Steichen from dialing up a clever gameplan for Indy’s trip to Seattle.
A run-first offensive attack (Taylor had a season-high 25 carries) paired with quick passes at or near the line of scrimmage to aid the rusty Rivers. A focus on clock control and stingy defense. Combined together, Steichen’s genius got Indianapolis into a position to send the game to overtime as Rivers had the ball late with a chance to set up a game-tying field goal.
While the plan was ultimately unsuccessful, the performance was well above what anyone expected from a Colts team rocking with a grandfather under center.
The same can be said for the next week. A more comfortable and confident Rivers was given more freedom to push the ball down the field. Had a severely understaffed defense been at full strength, perhaps Rivers and the Colts could’ve given the red-hot 49ers a run for their money on national television. Instead, San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy diced up a secondary missing its top two cornerbacks, posting 295 yards and five touchdowns in a 48-27 win for the visitors.
During the latest defeat Sunday afternoon, Steichen combined the two plans. The offense was more balanced—31 pass plays to 22 run plays. The Colts were less aggressive defensively, but got some big turnovers in important situations in their own territory. Again, like Seattle, Indianapolis had a chance to win the game late, just couldn’t get down the field in time.
If you give Steichen a healthy quarterback for this stretch, the result wouldn’t be a winless run. That the Colts were able to compete and remain in these games, against tough opponents, for the entire 60 minutes speaks to Steichen’s leadership and creativity as a head coach.
Steichen could’ve given up as soon as Jones was done for the year. Sent out Riley Leonard to get some developmental snaps, shut down hobbled veterans to allow younger players a chance to make a name for themselves.
But no. Steichen chose to fight.
Fighting included making changes to the team’s schematic approach with different personnel in order to best position Indy to win games. While no victories have been tallied since Nov. 9 in Berlin, his sheer desire to do whatever necessary to stay in the playoff hunt, regardless of how bleak the circumstances seemed, prove Steichen is made up of the ideal stuff teams need in a head coach.
With this in mind, Carlie Irsay-Gordon and the rest of Indy’s new-look ownership have several important decisions to make once the clock hits zero this Sunday in Houston. With general manager Chris Ballard seemingly primed for an exit after a near decade-long run, it’s common for teams to depart from both their general manager and head coach at the same time in order to wipe the slate completely clean.
This is an unusual scenario in which packaging Ballard and Steichen together would be imprudent. Letting a young and feisty leader of men who got his team to rally around him despite a disastrous run of form—not to mention his inventive playcalling—walk out the door would be a major mistake. Indianapolis would be set back further than it already is.
If it doesn’t work out down the line with a new structure around Steichen, roster and football operations, then fine. Move on at no cost.
But right now is not the time.
