Shane Steichen will enter his fourth year as the Colts' head coach with a record a tick below .500, and with the goal of finding answers and solutions to the problems that've kept his teams out of the playoffs over the last three seasons.
"Obviously, a very disappointing season," Steichen said Monday, after the Colts finished 2025 with seven consecutive losses and an 8-9 record. "Didn't go the way we wanted it to go. I hate it for our fans. I hate it for our players. It wasn't good enough, bottom line. .500 in this league is not good enough. I'm honored to be the head coach here and privileged to be the head coach here. I'm going to do everything in my power and work tirelessly to get this thing fixed this offseason so we can get over the hump and get into the postseason."
The Colts are currently in the midst of the franchise's longest postseason drought since 1988-1994, though Steichen's teams have been in the hunt in each of the last three years. In 2023, the Colts fell a handful of yards shy of an AFC South title in a Week 18 loss to the Houston Texans. In 2024, the Colts lost critical December games to the Denver Broncos and New York Giants. And in 2025, the Colts lost every game they played after their Week 11 bye, going from contending for the AFC No. 1 seed to eliminated from the playoffs before kicking off in Week 17.
Figuring out how to reverse those late-season losses is chief among Steichen's priorities for the upcoming offseason.
"That's going to be a deep study of mine this offseason for sure," Steichen said. "I think it's a mindset, I think it's a belief too, that every time you step on the practice field – and it starts with me and possibly looking into even more end-of-game situations. We do them, I need to probably do them more, to put those guys in position to be successful when those situations occur. So, that's going to be something I'm going to look at deep. Obviously, because you've got to be great in November and December, and we weren't good enough this year."
Most of those post-Halloween losses have been by narrow margins; the Colts were a handful of plays away from beating the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 12, the Houston Texans in Week 13 and the Seattle Seahawks in Week 15. But getting his team to make those critical plays toward the end of close games is another area where Steichen feels he needs to improve moving forward.
"You look around the league, you saw a game last night (Steelers-Ravens) that came down to a field goal," Steichen said. "That's what this league is. It's going to come down to that. Like I said, it's going to be a play here, a play there, a call there, a call here to get that thing done. I think again, it's that belief that, 'Hey, we're going to find a way to win this game no matter what the circumstances are.' That's what I've got to do a good job of coming up, is instilling that belief. I think the guys do believe but I think it's got to be just a little bit more. It's got to be a little bit more to get over the hump."
The one thing Steichen didn't entertain was excuses for why the Colts' 2025 season, specifically, plummeted so significantly. The Colts lost starting quarterback Daniel Jones in Week 14 (and had lost backup quarterback Anthony Richardson Sr. in Week 6) and were without three defensive stalwarts for large swaths of the second half in defensive tackle DeForest Buckner (who missed Weeks 10-15 and Weeks 17-18), cornerback Charvarius Ward Sr. (who missed Weeks 7-10 and Weeks 15-18) and cornerback Sauce Gardner (who missed most of Week 13, then Weeks 14-16 and Week 18).
Having a team's best players stay healthy is not necessarily something Steichen can control going forward. The solutions he's looking for go well beyond whether certain players are able to play or not.
"I've learned in this league, being in this league for 16 years, that injuries are part of it," Steichen said. "We all know that, and you've got to find a way to overcome those injuries as a coaching staff, as players, whatever it is. We always say, next man up. It's a cliché in the coaching world, but it is the truth. The next guy up has got to show up and play. And as coaches, we've got to put them in position to go be successful."
