How Reggie Wayne is settling into third year as Colts wide receivers coach

INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time in his coaching career, Reggie Wayne feels like he’s on solid ground.

When former Colts head coach Frank Reich finally convinced Wayne to become the team’s wide receivers coach, the official hire happened far enough into the offseason that the Indianapolis legend had to hit the ground running.

Then disaster struck Indianapolis.

Wayne forged a relationship with new head coach Shane Steichen and remained on the staff, then spent last offseason getting a feel for the way Steichen wanted things done. Wayne barely had time to catch his breath.

He has it down now.

The Colts are back on promising ground, Wayne is comfortable with the staff around him and the offense Indianapolis is building for Anthony Richardson.

Colts news: How Reggie Wayne sees Colts receiver corps fitting together with Adonai Mitchell

“This is the first time when I had an offseason where it was the same offense, it was the same nucleus,” Wayne said. “I was able to find a rhythm here and there, and now I can kind of get a style, get a feel on how I want to do things.”

Wayne is playing a critical role on this coaching staff.

The Colts wide receivers are still remarkably young. Michael Pittman Jr., the group’s star, is still only 26, and the trio of players expected to play the roles around Pittman — Josh Downs, Alec Pierce and Adonai Mitchell — were all second-day draft picks the last three years.

“We’ve got a young group that’s been playing together for a few years now,” Wayne said. “Super young, and still learning.”

Why Reggie Wayne went into coaching

Convincing Wayne to coach took time.

Reich spent most of his tenure in Indianapolis trying to convince Wayne to join the coaching staff, only to meet resistance from a legend who had already put in a career’s worth of the grind as a player and wanted to enjoy the rewards of retirement.

Wayne knew how much work was waiting for him if he committed to coaching again.

The game kept calling to him.

“I’ve been around football since I was 7,” Wayne said. “My dad was a coach. I used to see him throw notebooks and stuff. I don’t want to get to that point, but it means something to me. It does.”

Wayne tried his hand at the television route, working for NFL Network as a commentator.

But Reich kept calling, the Colts kept calling, and no matter how much Wayne liked to joke that he wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment, his reluctance was rooted in the realization that once he put on a coach’s hat, he might not be able to take it off again.

“It was a rabbit hole,” Wayne said. “I already knew that. I knew that once you jump in it, you’re not going to be satisfied.”

Doctorate in the details of the wide receiver position

What Wayne brings to the Colts coaching staff is an off-the-charts understanding of how the game is played on the outside.

How defensive backs attack wide receivers, how to spot a cornerback’s tells, how to adjust a route to fit what the offense needs.

While a lot of wide receivers coaches in the NFL are either former quarterbacks coaches or guys who are headed to the role of passing-game coordinator, Wayne has a doctorate in the details of the wide receiver position, a level of expertise matched only by people who played the position at a high level.

Wayne sees the game in ways that most coaches do not.

“I always tell Reggie, ‘Reggie, they can’t do what you did,’” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said. “They’re not you, but what do they do well? And how do you reach them?”

Wayne does not need a player to be exactly like him.

When the rest of the NFL looked at slot receiver Josh Downs last season, the league saw his lack of size; Wayne believed Downs was the best route runner in the draft.

“Obviously, he knows what a good receiver looks like,” Steichen said.

The rookie backed up his coach’s belief by hitting the ground running with a team rookie-record 68 catches, including 40 in the first eight games.

“He sees what I can do and basically, he fills me in on what he thinks I can do best,” Downs said. “If I run a route a certain way, (he will tell me) ‘You’re better running it this way.’ I’ll take that advice from him.”

A lot of wide receivers coaches can only see the way the play is drawn on the board.

Wayne played.

In Pittman’s words, Wayne knows that “on Sundays, those X’s and O’s are running around full-speed,” and that changes the equation.

“It’s not easy to do what he did,” Ballard said. “To come in and coach and never really have any experience. … He’s turning out to be a freaking good football coach, man.”

'I’m not going to buy new clothes'

Wayne was right about the coaching life.

The commitment can be all-consuming.

But two years of turmoil have taught Wayne how to structure his time, how to grab the moments he needs.

“I know when I’ve got time to do this and do that, whether it’s breaking down extra tape to give to the guys or finding a way to get a workout in,” Wayne said. “I’m going to stay in some kind of way fit and lean, because I’m not going to buy new clothes.”

He was right about the rabbit hole.

When Wayne was a player, his ferocious desire helped him become one of the best players in NFL history, and now that he’s back in the world of competition, that desire is starting to burn as hot as it ever has.

“I haven’t been to a playoff game,” Wayne said. “There’s so much stuff I want to get done. I haven’t had a guy that had 10 touchdowns in a season. I haven’t had a guy that made a Pro Bowl. The list never stops.”

The coach the Colts kept chasing is now in his third year.

Trying to take the Indianapolis wide receivers to a new level.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Reggie Wayne is settling into third year as Colts WRs coach