The Indianapolis Colts prepared for their Week 17 game against the New York Giants without their quarterback. Yes! Anthony Richardson remained absent from the practice throughout the entire week this time. The team’s head coach Shane Steichen addressed this issue earlier, but now he has another story to tell.

During a press conference after losing to the Giants, reporter James Boyd asked Shane Steichen about Anthony Richardson’s back. And his reply was – “It was back spasms. It was bad. He wasn’t able to go, otherwise he would’ve been out there. He just wasn’t able to go today.” Now this new statement confused the public, hence, the HC recognized that he should have been more clear about the QB’s injury. That’s the reason, he accepted his injury blunder and said, “I should’ve said spasms. …”

Well, Shane Steichen isn’t one to spill all the details he believes in keeping things under wraps. When asked why he didn’t mention Richardson’s spasms earlier, he stuck to his approach. He’s the kind of coach who plays it close to the chest, sharing just enough but never too much.

On December 22, although putting up a good 62 offensive snaps against the Tennessee Titans, Anthony Richardson had a bad day when he came out with back and foot injuries. When he remained absent for the entire week, the media swamped the coach with questions. And guess what he said? Shane Steichen mentioned that the quarterback is dealing with soreness and that back injury is more of an issue at present than the foot. But now he changed the statements.

Whether it’s injuries, strategies, or decisions about players, Shane Steichen prefers to keep the focus tight and avoid giving too much away. It’s his way of protecting his team and staying ahead of the game. And that’s the reason he quipped, “I like to keep a lot of things in-house, you know what I mean? That’s part of it.”

So, it means, probably, Shane Steichen probably liked to keep this approach while tackling his firing rumor questions.

Does Shane Steichen know the upcoming truth?

This season, many popular head coaches have already been fired. Probably, it’s now the time for Shane Steichen next. It has been just two seasons since Steichen took the role of the head coach for the Colts. However, during his tenure, he failed to lead the team into the playoffs. This resulted in some chaos in the locker room.

Consequently, players like Kenny Moore took a subtle dig at the coach, by saying, “I don’t think everyone is working as hard as possible, and obviously, it’s showing. I’m not the type to sugarcoat it. I don’t think the urgency is there. And I don’t think the details are there. I don’t think the effort is there. I don’t see everything correlating from meetings to practice to the games. And it shows.”

No doubt, the repetitive mistakes without any growth on the field, plus the team’s elimination from playoff selection, have caused a buzz on social media with many demanding Shane Steichen’s firing. And the HC knows it very well. Therefore, when reporter James Boyd asked him about his “job security,” Shane Steichen replied, “I control what I can control.”

That’s indeed a tough question to address. But one thing is clear, Steichen knows his potential future with the team.