According to head coach Shane Steichen, he hasn’t had conversations yet regarding his coaching future with team owner and CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon yet, but the two organizational leaders continue to chat weekly (via 1075 The Fan’s Kevin Bowen):
Honestly, this isn’t exactly surprising given that the Colts still have one game of football left to play, even if their playoff
hopes have been already dashed. Not to mention, Steichen is still under contract through the 2028 season.
Even by virtue of that multi-year contract, it’s not that Steichen’s job is completely safe by any means, having not made the playoffs in each of his first three seasons as head coach of the Colts.
However, those internal conversations between first ownership (including Irsay-Gordon’s two sisters), and then with Steichen, will likely take place fairly soon after the season. It would be surprising if any of those critical leadership decisions have been made final as of now, especially regarding Steichen’s future job security.
To Steichen’s credit, even after losing starting quarterback Daniel Jones for the year in Week 14, as well as suffering other critical positional injuries, his team hasn’t quit the last three weeks—even if it has lost six straight games, dating back to Jones’ factured fibula that eventually led to the season-ending Achilles injury.
The Colts were in it to the final seconds last weekend before Riley Leonard’s Hail Mary attempt was picked off.
Certainly also helping Steichen’s cause is that prior to Jones’ injuries, he was coaching a historically elite unit, and the league’s most prolific offense at the time. Under Steichen, Indianapolis was once sitting at 8-2 and surprisingly atop the AFC before Jones’s injuries struck, which the team clearly couldn’t overcome in retrospect.
The fact that Jones, as a pending 2026 free agent, appears to be the Colts only realistically viable starting quarterback option for next season (*assuming he can timely recover), and it makes sense to pair him with Steichen once again—especially after the new pairing showed so much initial success together in 2025.
At this point, it appears more likely than not that Steichen returns—at least for next year’s 2026 campaign, as him and Jones seem to be a package deal in the short-term.
However, given what we’ve seen from the Colts in recent seasons, anything is quite possible going forward.
