Indianapolis Colts’ Shane Steichen: Daniel Jones ‘Limited’ Wednesday, but ‘Good to Go’ vs. Texans

Indianapolis Colts’ Shane Steichen: Daniel Jones ‘Limited’ Wednesday, but ‘Good to Go’ vs. Texans

Well, happy uh Thanksgiving Eve to everybody. Um uh today we’ll conduct a walk through. Um just want to give these guys rested up obviously late in the season. Um just giving, you know, guys time to heal their bodies, their nicks and bruises. Um so they can be fresh and ready to go for Sunday. Um looking forward to Sunday. Obviously being back home. It’s been a while to be in front of our home crowd. Um we’re excited about that challenge, excited about the opportunity uh that we got ahead of us. Houston’s a hell of a team. They’re playing good ball right now. Uh defensively, I think, you know, statistically they’re the best. um in the league right now and they’re getting a getting after it pretty good and uh we’re excited about that challenge coming up. When you have a stretch where you guys are on the road as much as you have been, do you think that takes a toll on the team? I don’t know. I think every year the schedule is what it is and you go out and execute uh the best you can to your ability and we’re excited, you know, for the opportunity to be back at home though in front of our home crowd. How big of a loss is Ashley Dan? Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, Dulan’s one of our special teams aces obviously plays a lot for us in roles on offense. So, so losing a guy like that hurts us, but like we always say, it’s the next man up, next man mentality. Get ready to go. Daniel, yeah, he’ll be limited today. We’re having a walk through, so we’ll list him as limited. Um, but he’ll be good to go uh this week. Shane, six games to go. Um, what you show your team knowing what’s on the line this week and these other games? Yeah, there’s always obviously a sense of urgency um obviously going into November, late November, December games. Uh but really today I just kind of shared about you know obviously with Thanksgiving but being thankful for the opportunity that we get as a football team to go out and compete each and every week and the blessings you know that this game’s you know given all of us the opportunity uh to go out and do what we do and and love what we do uh and be a blessing for other people. And I thought you know I thought our guys did a heck of good job. We did the horseshoe helpings yesterday uh and you know fed over 3,000 people and we had over 50 guys there. I thought that was just a testament to our guys uh and what it means to, you know, help out other people, you know, during this time of Thanksgiving. Hey Shane, with uh with with Daniel, is this something that he might have to manage for a bit just because you’re in season now, you know? No, he he should be good. Like I said, I mean, he he’s going to practice this week be fine. I mean, just like he played in the game. I mean, we should be good to go. With this weekend being just how special is that for you and the rest of the lock to be able to kind of represent these different organizations? Yeah, I think um I think it’s huge. I think to represent, you know, certain causes uh that people have, foundations, obviously the kick in the stigma, you know, that we have here at this organization, you know, that Kayn does. I think it’s a testament, you know, to helping other people. Um so, I’m looking forward to that. And, you know, I’ll be wearing the kick and the stigma shoes. So, uh that’ll be fun. Go into games with a set number of touches you want for JC. Um yes and no. Well, I mean, you go out and see how it plays out. You always want to get them as much touches as you can and see how the game plays out and see the flow of the game and that’ll dictate it. Shane, that the defensive ends for Houston obviously get a lot of attention, but what do you see from their secondary? Yeah, I mean, they’re pretty feisty all around. I think, um, Stingley’s, you know, one of the best in the league. Um, you know, last number four, he’s a hell of a player, too. And I think the one guy, Bolick, secondyear player, he’s running around and making a ton of plays at the safety position. Um, you know, so they got a lot of talent on the front and the back end, too, and they’re flying around, you know, making a lot of plays. They’re usually a fourman rush, I guess, right? Is it because those guys get home and then because that’s the fact, how much how tougher does it make attacking them because you don’t Yeah, I think obviously when you fourman rush, the coverage, they got more coverage on the back end. Um, so yeah, we got to be precise in our pass game. We got to be good in the run game with our IDs and all those things that you go and do each and every week, whether it’s fourman rush, fiveman rush, six-man rush. Uh we got to prep be prepared for all that. When you run into bumps in the road in the regular season, how what is your coaching technique? Um you know, do you try to move past it and just focus, you know, coach your guys to focus on the next week? Is it um I guess could you maybe speak a little? Yeah, I think anytime you know you lose games like obviously you win close games, you still got to clean up those things. You know, we won some close games obviously lost a close game last week. Um but you always clean those things up and you kind of flush that Monday and then get ready to go for your next opponent. And I think with every setback, it’s a set up for your next opportunity. Um, and we got a great opportunity at home against a division opponent. This game really ramps up um the AFC South battle. This team hasn’t won one of those a decade. Um, is that something that you mentioned this week? And you feel like that’s something that guys are aware of. Yeah, I think anytime you want to win a championship, you got to win, you know, division games. And obviously we got a division game coming up, you know, at home against a really good opponent that we’re looking forward to. Still no Anthony. Yeah, no Anthony. How would you evaluate uh Daniel over the last three weeks? The numbers from like one through eight, first eight games compared to the last three games are kind of drastic. So, how would you view him last? Yeah, I still think he’s playing at a high level. I think anytime um you go through a season, you’re going to have highs and lows um and then you battle back from those. But even like last week, I think, you know, he was completing balls. I think he had 100 passer rating. I don’t know, I think it was 14 or 16 at one point. Um he’s playing good ball, you know what I mean? And so it’s just it’s just winning those like I said like winning those games at the end. Um I think finishing’s a big part of it and going forward but he’s been playing you know fantastic for us all season. Sh you talk about a walk through to give some guys rest at this point in the season. Has the mentality changed over the years about late season practice reps to kind of keep guys a little healthier? Yeah I think around the league if you look around the league I think a lot of teams you know have walked through Wednesdays um just as you get going. It’s just such a long season from training camp all the way till now and you want to make sure these guys are fresh and ready to go late in the season so they can play with max effort. Was there a time in your career that you had to come around to that way of thinking because maybe 20 years ago when you’re just getting Yeah, for sure. I think, uh, there’s a lot of things that play into there’s a lot of sports science, you know, that’s taken, you know, transition over the last, you know, decade. Um, and just making sure these guys are in tip-top shape, you know, going into this going into these games, especially late in the season. You still all about stove top box stuff? I do like stove top. I’m I am a fan. Um but I do like honeybaked ham. Mashed potatoes are solid. I mean it’s all good. Do you do you I you normally watch the Thursday night game, but with three games on Thursday, is it still just Thursday night? Oh, it’ll be great. Um obviously we’ll practice Thursday morning. Um and then get those guys home with their family, you know, early afternoon and spend some time with family and friends and be thankful for a lot, you know, that we’re all blessed with. Um and then watch the football. It’ll be good. Where does Thanksgiving fall on your power like holiday power ranking? It’s up there. It’s probably top three. I’m going Christmas number one. Thanksgiving’s probably two. Um my wife loves Fourth of July. She loves Fourth of July. I think she likes being in the sunshine and being out. What’s that? Yeah. You get more time with the kids. Yeah, that’s probably why she loves you so much. Shane, when you when you watch football on TV, like can you turn it off? Like it’s hard. It’s really hard. Um, even when we had the buy, you’re watching games and looking at certain things and I know it’s the TV copy, so you can’t see the full picture, but yeah, you’re looking at a lot of things and, you know, dissecting it. So, yeah, you find yourself taking notes when you’re when you watch games. Yeah, every once in a while I’ll I’ll put stuff in my phone for sure like, oh shoot, that clip in the second quarter, I got to go back and watch it, you know, coach’s copy of that one or whatever it may be. For sure. Hey Shane, I know last week the fourth quarter and that was the only time didn’t go the way you guys wanted, especially offensively. What do you need to see from your guys this week against a tough defense in Texas? Yeah, I think just being efficient, you know, being efficient all the time, not sometimes. I thought we were pretty efficient there. The first three quarters and the fourth quarter wasn’t efficient enough and uh we got to finish those games out um like we did against Atlanta and Arizona, those those games. So just finishing at the end. Do you like having the opportunity after a game like um Sunday went like to have an opportunity to go against I think you called them the number one defense in the league like is it almost in a way nice to have a big battle like that coming off a loss and feel like you can get right back at it opportunity to respond to it. Yeah, it’s a great challenge. I think when you have those tough losses is how you respond as a football team and we got to respond the right way by how we prepared this week um going into this game. What have you come to appreciate about Treadwell? Man, his story is unbelievable if you think about it. You know, former first round pick. Um, bounced around the league, but just does everything right. And you can see the gratitude and the gratefulness that he has, um, playing this game, the way he practices, the way he prepares. Um, obviously being a practice squad guy for us last two years, getting, you know, elevated, um, making the plays he does on special teams. Um, you know, sometimes there’s setbacks, you know, in people’s career and how you handle those and that adversity and how you go through it, have the right mindset and he’s been phenomenal, uh, with that. I mean, just a great teammate. Um, it’s a pleasure to have him on the team. The receiver room seems to really like universally like and respect him. I mean, what kind of impact can that have? I think it’s huge. It’s great for young players to see that. You know what I mean? I mean, he can be kind of a sounding board for the young players. young players go through tough times and challenges, you know, throughout their career. But to see the way his path has went. Uh just to say, hey, stick with it, man. Keep the right mindset, keep the right mentality. Um you know, lead with your character and who you are as a person, how you battle through those things, you know, will say a lot about, you know, who you are as a person. Shake a couple more. As a play caller, when you when you play against a team like Houston where they’ve got these two pass rushers, they only have to win a couple of plays to affect the game. You have to understand that there’s going to be probably some bad plays. I mean, Braden and Bernie have to be right 16 plays during the game. Yeah, for sure. There’s always going to be ups and downs throughout every game, no matter who you’re playing. And you got to overcome, you know, you’re going to have good plays, you’re going to have some bad plays, and it’s overcoming those things and staying efficient. Um, you know, first and second down, not putting yourself in those long yardage situations and, you know, being productive that way.

Indianapolis Colts HC Shane Steichen previewed the team’s matchup with the Houston Texans and advised the plan for QB Daniel Jones (fibula) this week. (video via Jake Arthur)

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