Shane Steichen Reveals what's led to Jalen Hurts's Success
New Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen got the job in part because of the success of his former pupil Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Steichen was hired as offensive coordinator for the Eagles in 2021, Hurts's second season. Hurts went on to throw for 3,144 yards and 16 touchdowns while rushing for 784 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Hurts led the Eagles to the Super Bowl last year with a 14-1 record as a starter and had 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns against just six interceptions. His quarterback rating improved from 77.6 in four starts as a rookie to 87.2 and 101.5 in his two years under Steichen.
When asked about Hurts, Steichen was full of praise for his dedication.
"I think the first and foremost talking about Jalen, is the work ethic that he had was second to none," said Steichen. "The way he went about his business. I think that's a message to all players, especially young quarterbacks."
"You want to be successful in this league, you can have all the talent in the world, but you gotta work at it."
"That's what he did. He's a talented player. I think that for all quarterbacks, different types of quarterbacks, it doesn't matter, I think that's the one common denominator is they love ball. They work at it. They want to continue, improve and get better."
Steichen was asked if he sees some similarities in Hurts No. 4 overall draft pick Anthony Richardson who has done nothing but impress with his off-the-field work in Indianapolis.
"Yeah, he's been doing a tremendous job so far, and we gotta keep that going through the season," said Steichen of Richardson. "It's a gauntlet season, 17 weeks, new opponent every week. new game plan every week, and we've gotta be ready to roll."
Richardson was named the starter early last week, and the idea of seeing him play the role of Hurts in the Colts' offense is a tantalizing proposition.
Hurts was a more prolific passer coming out of college. He played in 56 games at Alabama and Oklahoma and had over 1,000 passing attempts with a 65.1% competition rate. Richardson played in just 24 games (one season as a starter) had had 393 attempts with a 54.7% completion rate.
However, from a tools perspective, Richardson is bigger, stronger, and faster with a bigger arm than Hurts. ESPN's panel of analysts already ranked Richardson with the sixth-strongest arm in the NFL.
Is he better than Hurts right now? Obviously not.
Can he be better? That's the question Steichen was hired to answer, and he likes what he sees so far in his rookie quarterback
