According to SI.com’s Albert Breer, the football brain bond between Indianapolis Colts starting quarterback Daniel Jones and his head coach Shane Steichen was already on full display during Week 1 of last season as part of their initial pairing:
“And Jones was already getting there in certain ways, maybe best illustrated through a Week 1 example from last year that Steichen brought up,” writes Breer.
“On Fridays and Saturdays, Steichen and Jones would have a one-on-one meeting on how Steichen would call
the game, and what Jones was most comfortable with that week. So they got to the fourth-down, gotta-have-it part of Steichen’s playsheet, and a run/pass/run option play came up. Steichen said if the Dolphins were in a soft Cover Zero look, the play would be really tight, and probably wouldn’t work.
“He’s like, Well, I can get this protection, and then I got a one-on-one in zero on the outside, and I’m going to check this and throw it to [Josh] Downs,” Steichen recalled. “Sure enough, he goes over that with the guys in the Saturday night meeting. And it comes up in the game. But we just talked about it. I didn’t put kill on it. I said, ‘If you see it, get to it.’ And he got to it, checked the protection and threw a quick out to Downs for a first down.”
Of course, it’s now history, but the reason that Jones won the Colts starting quarterback job last training camp and preseason wasn’t necessarily solely because of his on-field play. Rather, it was a lot of the things that Colts fans didn’t get to see firsthand off of it: being the first one in and the last one to leave the team facility, his understanding of the offense and its intricacies, the extra film study, the bonding with teammates, etc.
Both Steichen and him showed great initial chemistry, even being seen attending a Butler game courtside together in the early goings of last season—meaning they were spent time together even outside the complex.
In his first season under Steichen, Jones was well on his way to a breakout season before critical later season injuries derailed his career year—eventually succumbing to a season-ending torn Achilles suffered in Week 14.
That being said, the quarterback-and-head coach pairing showed a lot of initial production and promise together, and the Colts will be looking to continue that momentum offensively from where it left off around midseason.
