Unfinished business: Reggie Wayne back as Colts WRs coach because he felt he underachieved

INDIANAPOLIS — The lone offensive holdover on Shane Steichen’s Indianapolis coaching staff is a Colts legend.

Reggie Wayne decided to stay the course this offseason.

It's a development that indicates how much effort Wayne put into the job last year. Wayne was famously reluctant to become a full-time coach, fending off annual overtures from former head coach Frank Reich for four years before finally agreeing to become the team’s wide receivers coach last season.

When he took the job, Wayne made it clear he doing it on a trial basis, unsure if he wanted to make coaching a full-time career.

Wayne’s rookie season was wild. By the time the dust had settled, the man who recruited him, Reich, was gone, replaced by Wayne’s former teammate Jeff Saturday. The Colts legend was under contract for another season in 2023, but in reality, the franchise’s coaching change gave Wayne an out if he wanted to take it.

“It was a long conversation with myself, looking in the mirror, just figuring out what I wanted to do,” Wayne said. “Ultimately, it didn’t take long at all.”

Wayne decided he wanted to keep coaching.

“I had some unfinished business,” Wayne said. “I really felt like I underachieved as a coach. I just felt like I could do better.”

Wayne’s evaluation of his efforts is a little surprising.

Plagued by ugly quarterback play and poor pass protection, the Colts had one of the NFL’s worst passing games, but at least two of the team’s young receivers displayed clear signs of development under Wayne’s tutelage.

Alec Pierce, the team’s second-round pick, finished with a respectable 41 catches, 593 yards and two touchdowns despite playing in an offense that all but abandoned the vertical passing game that suited his talents best. Fourth-year slot receiver Parris Campbell, finally healthy, proved he can be an NFL slot receiver, making 63 catches for 623 yards and earning a one-year deal with the New York Giants.

Wayne looked beyond the numbers, and he felt like he had something more to prove, at least to himself.

But first, he had to prove himself to Steichen, who knew Wayne’s reputation as a player but had little prior reference for his work as a wide receivers coach.

“Obviously, I was just like all of these guys in the draft, I had to submit my résumé,” Wayne said. “I had to do my interview, show that I was worth coming back for another year. I feel like I still had ways to improve as a coach.”

Steichen immediately saw the same qualities that kept Reich coming back to repeatedly try and convince Wayne to get into coaching.

“I’m excited about Reggie,” Steichen said. “Had some really good conversations with Reggie. Very detailed, brings a great wealth of knowledge to that receivers room.”

The Colts receivers had to be happy to hear the news that Wayne was coming back for another season.

One of Wayne’s strengths as a coach is his ability to think like a player, to understand what it’s like to be in their shoes, a trait that isn’t automatically easy for every former great who gets into coaching.

“As a player, you just feel like coaches don’t necessarily always listen,” Wayne said. “It’s about me being on the other side at some time in my life, I can kind of translate. I get it. When a player’s talking to me, I understand.”

For example, the team’s No. 1 wide receiver, Michael Pittman Jr., said last season that coaches who didn’t play a long time in the NFL often don’t understand that a route can’t always be run exactly the way it’s drawn on the board.

In fact, depending on the cornerback across the line of scrimmage, that might be the wrong way to get to the spot the quarterback needs him to be.

Wayne, one of the game’s consummate technicians when he was a player, was great in Indianapolis for a long time partly because he knows how to read cornerbacks and make those adjustments easily.

But that part of the game, teaching the secrets of reading defensive backs, was always going to come naturally. Wayne’s biggest adjustment is learning his role on the coaching staff and within the scheme, and he’s now working with an entirely new offensive staff under Steichen.

A staff heavy on 30-somethings who’ve already spent a decade in coaching. The only offensive assistant older than the 44-year-old Wayne is 54-year-old running backs coach DeAndre Smith.

“If I’m not mistaken, I’m the second-oldest offensive coach,” Wayne said. “I’m the old head again.”

A valuable resource who already knows this Colts roster, knows what it’s been through and has his eyes set on living up to his own exacting standard.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Reggie Wayne back as WRs coach because he felt he underachieved