It took some time, but the Indianapolis Colts finally selected their new head coach, Shane Steichen, and wasted little time in naming his offensive coordinator. Steichen is working on filling out the rest of his staff. Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley is expected to be retained. But nothing has yet been confirmed.
Even though Jim Bob Cooter will be the team’s offensive coordinator, he won’t be calling the plays. Steichen said in his introductory press conference that he will be calling the plays instead. Something to keep an eye on is if he’ll follow in the same footsteps as his Colts predecessor or as his former boss Nick Sirianni. Regardless of Cooter not calling the plays, he will still be able to help the offense.
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A glance at Jim Bob Cooter’s NFL career
Cooter has been in the NFL dating back to 2009 when he was an offensive assistant with the Indianapolis Colts until 2011. From there, he moved to a quality control coordinator with Kansas City in 2012, where his path undoubtedly crossed with now Colts general manager Chris Ballard. Then in 2013, Cooter joined Denver as an offensive assistant.
After that, he left to become the quarterbacks coach with Detroit in 2014. The following year he started in the same role, for the first time dating back to his time in Indianapolis, then moved into the interim offensive coordinator position after Joe Lombardi was fired. He stayed in this role from 2015-18.
Following his firing from Detroit in 2018, he became the running backs coach for the New York Jets for two years. Then in 2021, he was a consultant with Philadelphia, where his path crossed with Steichen. Just last year, he was the passing game coordinator for the reigning AFC South champion Jacksonville Jaguars.
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Experience with a variety of quarterbacks and players
Cooter has been around a bunch of different styles of head coaches and quarterbacks. Ranging from Jim Caldwell and Peyton Manning to Caldwell and Matthew Stafford to Sirianni and Jalen Hurts to Doug Pederson and Trevor Lawrence. This experience has helped Cooter become a better coach and offensive mind.
Most fans might recognize the Colts’ new offensive coordinator’s name from his time in Detroit. While both Stafford and Cooter were in Detroit, Stafford experienced some of his best seasons. During Stafford’s time in Detroit, he led only four winning seasons, and half of them came with Cooter as his offensive coordinator.
Also during this stretch, Detroit had a receiver clear 1,000 yards receiving all four years. Two other times they had two receivers clear at least 800 receiving yards, and one time they had two receivers surpass 1,000 receiving yards. While this was happening, the rushing offense never had a rusher rush for more than 641 yards. Now, to add some context to all of this the list the top running backs were Theo Riddick, Ameer Abdullah, and Kerryon Johnson.
The top receiver was Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson, Golden Tate, Marvin Jones, and Kenny Golladay. This offense has shown to be pass-heavy, but that may have more to do with the lack of talent at running back. This shouldn’t be an issue with either Jonathan Taylor, Zack Moss, or Deon Jackson. Regardless, this offense is passer friendly and can succeed with or without a Hall-of-Fame wide receiver.
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What a Cooter offense will look like
One of the best things he did with Stafford was protect his quarterback. This isn’t just about having a good offensive line that can keep the quarterback’s jersey clean but about destressing him, so he feels more in control. With this properly implemented, Stafford was able to experience four of the best years of his career in Detroit. As a result, Detroit’s offense ranked as follows.
| Year | Offense rank | Passing rank | Rushing rank | Scoring % |
| 2015 | 18th | 9th | 32nd | 16th |
| 2016 | 20th | 11th | 30th | 7th |
| 2017 | 7th | 6th | 32nd | 11th |
| 2018 | 25th | 20th | 23rd | 21st |
Wherever Cooter has gone in his coaching career since Detroit, that new team’s offense has shown an increase in productivity from the quarterback. This includes his time as a consultant with Philadelphia, where both Jalen Hurts and Gardner Minshew showed some growth.
Both Sirianni and Steichen get a lot of the credit for changing the offensive philosophy in 2021 to better suit the team. However, some of that credit could also be extended to Cooter, whose bedrock philosophy is to destress the quarterback. This carried over into Hurts’ phenomenal 2022 season and clearly made an impact with Steichen.
“When you’re not trusting that you’re protected, it’s hard to play quarterback in this league. You’re sort of guessing sometimes. When you’re guessing, it’s hard to really play well and play efficiently. When you feel secured, when you feel sound, whether it be schematically or with fewer guys protecting their guys up front, it allows for a lot more efficient, good, solid quarterback play.”
Jim Bob Cooter
Even this past season in Jacksonville as the team’s passing game coordinator, Trevor Lawrence saw a noticeable increase in productivity. The passing offense went from being ranked 22nd in 2021 to 10th this season. And that is with no addition of any Pro Bowl-level receiving talent. Again, a lot of it has to do with the removal of Urban Meyer’s awful NFL coaching experience and the addition of Doug Pederson as the head coach.
Regardless, the steady presence or at least the ability to calm the quarterback down has allowed that player to thrive in the NFL. With Steichen calling the plays and most likely helping design plays with Cooter, this duo should allow the Colts quarterback to thrive. It won’t matter if the player is veteran Matt Ryan or Nick Foles, a rookie, or possibly a free agent acquisition. The Colts’ offense and quarterback play should look much different this year. Which hopefully makes for a more exciting product on the field.
