Eagles assistant Shane Steichen may land on Colts radar if he isn’t already
History has this weird way of repeating itself. Once upon a time, the 2017-2018 Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl but lost their offensive coordinator, Frank Reich, as he took over as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. Fast forward to the present, and this year’s Eagles, like the 2017 version, are also on a quest for Super Bowl glory. There are so many parallels between that team and this one, and there’s a growing theory, one that suggests their stories could end in a similar fashion.
Think about this for a second. What if the current Eagles won it all? What if, after they did so, they again lost their O.C. to Indy? Shane Steichen to the Colts makes a lot of sense, and even though there’s been nothing stating that Jim Irsay is even interested, no one should be shocked if that’s how things shook out.
Might Shane Steichen’s story mirror that of another high-profile Eagles coordinator?
Though some of you hate the comparison, this year’s Eagles get mentioned in the same breath as the 2017 roster often (and for more reasons than one). Truth be told, we could spend hours discussing the similarities.
Both teams saw impressive starts. Both teams were seen as being viable contenders, and as was the case with Doug Pederson in 2017, Nick Sirianni is enjoying his second full season as the team’s head coach. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Doug Pederson was fortunate to have a gifted young quarterback and a legitimate MVP candidate who was just in his second full season as the team’s starter. Stop us if this sounds familiar. Doug also had a couple of high-profile assistants, Jim Schwartz and Frank Reich.
The former was his defensive coordinator, one who had been a head coach before. The latter, Reich, was on quite a few of the other 31 NFL teams’ radars. Fast forward, and we’re witnessing the same story with Nick Sirianni’s assistants.
His defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon, hasn’t been a head coach yet, but he was interviewed this past offseason for a few vacancies. That will again be the case in 2023, but while this hasn’t been said as often, no one should ignore Shane Steichen, and next February, we don’t believe he will be ignored.
With the way the Eagles’ offense has performed and in light of the leap that Jalen Hurts has made, there’s no reason to assume that Shane won’t pop up on a few radars as well. We mentioned history earlier and its penchant for repeating. Think about this for a second.
Word travels quickly in NFL circles, and it didn’t take long for the news of Frank Reich’s firing to become a headline. Adam Schefter was the first with the story. Schefter also reports that Jeff Saturday will assume the role of interim head coach for the time being, but conventional thinking would suggest that Indianapolis would be in the market for a head coach at season’s end.
We’ve seen the Colts’ and Eagles’ paths cross recently. When Indy needed a head coach, they hired the Eagles’ O.C., Frank Reich. When Philly moved on from Doug Pederson and they needed a head coach, they hired the Colts’ O.C., Nick Sirianni.
If the Colts were to raid the Eagles for an assistant, we wouldn’t be shocked. It isn’t like we haven’t read this story before.
Philadelphia lost their offensive coordinator to the Indianapolis Colts after hoisting their first Vince Lombardi Trophy. Don’t be shocked if they win it all at the end of this season, and don’t be shocked if they again lose their O.C. and he winds up in the same city that Frank did. Again, history has a way of repeating itself.