3. Rivers and Steichen have a close relationship.
Rivers and Steichen speak regularly, per Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr, and do so in a similar way to when they were a quarterback-coach pair with the Chargers.
“I’ll call him after an Eagles win and I’ll be like, Y’all ran this and this and this, and then he comes right back with, Well yeah, but then the defense did that and that,” Rivers told Orr last year. “We’re speaking the same language. It’s the offense we ran, and of course it grows with the personnel you have, but I can visualize it as he’s talking to me on the phone.”
Rivers and Steichen see the game the same way, with an emphasis on flexibility to take advantage of players and matchups instead of being stuck on specific plays.
“In a meeting with Shane, it was never just [what we saw],” Rivers told Orr. “It was a combination of the coverages and the dudes we’re watching. Like, yeah I know they’re playing Cover 3 but this corner likes to do that and we can get him if we call this.
“Some coaches are going to say, Well, these plays aren’t good against Cover 3. Well,” Rivers says, “it might be against that corner.”
That relationship produced some of the most productive years of the late stages of Rivers’ career. From 2016-2019, with Steichen as his quarterbacks coach and interim offensive coordinator, Rivers averaged 4,456 yards and 29 touchdowns per season with a passer rating of 94.1.
4. Steichen cut his teeth under Norv Turner.
Steichen was given his first opportunity in the NFL by Turner, who brought him on as a defensive assistant with the San Diego Chargers in 2011. Turner, the longtime Chargers head coach, took Steichen with him as an offensive quality control coach when he was hired as the Cleveland Browns’ offensive coordinator in 2013.
Something that stuck with Steichen from his formative coaching days with Turner was watching how the well-respected offensive mind rarely looked at his play call sheet during games. Turner once told John Madden (via The…
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