Your new coach

 Your new coach, Indianapolis, is a former quarterback who's never been a head coach in the NFL, and who comes to Indy from Philadelphia, where he was the offensive coordinator for the Eagles.

Your new coach is a guy you probably never heard of until two days ago, unless you're an avid fan of the Eagles. Or unless you saw him on the sidelines during the Super Bowl the other day, from which he came directly to Indy to be introduced as your new coach.

Your new coach has been described as an offensive genius, a "savant', a guy who turned a young quarterback into one of the NFL's best, after which that quarterback led the Eagles to the Super Bowl. 

Your new coach ...

"Wait, wait, wait, waaaaiit," you're saying now. "Frank Reich is not the new coach of the Indianapolis Colts. He's the old coach, the one they fired at midseason so they could turn the team over to an ESPN analyst."

Yeah, but ... I'm not talking about Frank Reich.

Or maybe I am.

I dunno. It's kinda confusing.

Kinda confusing, because the Colts introduced Frank Reich again yesterday, only this time his name was "Shane Steichen." He's only 37, but everything Reich did in Philly, he did, too. And everything everyone was saying about Reich five years ago, they were saying about Steichen yesterday.

He has "great passion for the game and love for the players" (Philip Rivers, who was the Chargers QB when Steichen was in San Diego). He does wonders with quarterbacks (Norv Turner, the head coach in San Diego when Steichen was there). He has a great offensive mind and he's a good family man and, hell, he even succeeded Frank Reich as the Chargers quarterbacks coach in 2016.

He's Frank Reich 2.0, in other words.

Or, not.

I dunno. Like I said, it's confusing.

That's because the only difference I see between Frank Reich's news conference in 2018 and Shane Steichen's yesterday is the fact Steichen IS only 37, and Reich was ... not. So he's considered a rising star who's enormously respected, while Reich was a guy who'd been around for awhile and was enormously respected. 

That difference is why we should willing to give Steichen the benefit of the doubt here. It's why we should not assume he'll continue following the path Reich blazed, right up to the moment he gets fired so Jim Irsay can bring in another ESPN analyst.

A lot's going to depend on which quarterback the Colts select in the NFL Draft in April, and whether or not Steichen can craft an offense that enables him to succeed the way he did for Justin Herbert in San Diego and Jalen Hurts in Philly. The evidence suggests he can.

The mitigating factor, of course, is it's the Colts, and Chris Ballard is still the GM. As we've all seen, they could screw up Christmas morning.

Hopefully they won't this time.

Hopefully they give Frank Reich half a chance to work his magic.

Sorry. I meant Shane Steichen.