INDIANAPOLIS — From the sounds of it, Colts coach Shane Steichen is not planning to make any major changes to his coaching staff, including the defensive coordinator position.

Wrapping up his first season in Indianapolis on Monday, Steichen was asked about potential changes to his coaching staff, and about defensive coordinator Gus Bradley in particular.

“I believe in continuity, I’ll say that,” Steichen said.

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Bradley was not hired by Steichen, who decided to keep the defensive coordinator and the entire defensive staff after his hiring.

But the two have plenty of history.

Steichen and Bradley spent four seasons together with the Chargers and know each other well.

“I’ve got a background with Gus, and again, I believe in continuity,” Steichen said. “I’ve got a ton of respect for Gus.”

Indianapolis finished 28th in the NFL in scoring defense (24.4 points per game), 24th in yards (349.8 yards per game) and 20th in defensive DVOA, an advanced metric that measures a team's efficiency based on opponent, situation and a number of other factors.

The Colts also finished fifth in the NFL with 51 sacks — a record for the franchise in the Indianapolis era — and forced 24 turnovers, ranking Indianapolis in the middle of the pack.

“He’s done a good job,” Steichen said on New Year’s Day. “Shoot, there’s been moving parts on the defense. The d-line has done a heck of a job, obviously, getting all the sacks that we’ve had — credit to him with the pass rush stuff.”

Under general manager Chris Ballard, the Colts have long been trying to build a defensive front deep enough to produce pressure, and Bradley's decision to install an attack front, a system that asks defensive linemen to focus on penetration, rather than trying to read offenses, has played a role in Indianapolis producing 95 sacks over the past two seasons.

Bradley also frequently aligns his defensive ends in a wide-9 technique, far outside the tackle, in an effort to make it easier to rush the passer.

"Bringing his scheme here, especially for the defense, really the front, having the wide-9 and things like that, we’ve been able to get sacks by the committee,” defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said.

Bradley's philosophy is also heavily predicated toward zone coverages and away from the blitz, leading to a lot of easy completions.

But the Indianapolis front office also handed Bradley a young secondary this season

Indianapolis traded veteran Stephon Gilmore to Dallas, allowed Brandon Facyson to leave in free agency and lost Isaiah Rodgers to a gambling suspension, and the Colts decided to replace them with two draft picks, JuJu Brents and Jaylon Jones, along with two second-year players who hadn’t seen much defensive time before this season, Dallis Flowers and Darrell Baker Jr.

Flowers tore his Achilles tendon in the fourth game of the season, further limiting Bradley's options at the cornerback position. The Colts also relied on two second-year players, Nick Cross and Rodney Thomas II, to play free safety next to veteran Julian Blackmon, and both players were inconsistent in coverage.

From the start, everyone from Ballard to Bradley to defensive backs coach Ron Milus predicted there would be growing pains with such a young group in the back end.

"Highs and lows, trying to grow with a young secondary, trying to build with us and take the next step," middle linebacker Zaire Franklin said. "You want to take that next step, you want to be that type of defense that’s stingy, that don’t give up anything, that challenges everybody, that tone-setting, that energy.”

But Steichen believes deeply in limiting explosive plays, and it can be difficult to limit explosive passing plays when a coordinator does not believe he can consistently leave his secondary in man-to-man coverage.

The Colts acknowledged Monday that the inconsistency in the secondary affected some of Bradley's decisions this season.

“Being able to have the guys on the back end to hold up, we had a young group this year. There were times that we had some soft coverage," Buckner said. "There’s always places for growth. A lot of the young guys need to do some growing up over this offseason and stepping up coming into next year. I feel like Gus is going to be able to be more confident in certain calls that he calls, having confidence in the guys in the back end."

From what Steichen has said in the past, the Colts head coach was encouraged by the development of players like Brents and Jones, a seventh-round pick who ended up playing more than 800 snaps as a rookie.

“We’ve got young corners out there stepping up,” Steichen said. “Him, (Ron Milus), Mike Mitchell … getting those guys ready to play. They’ve done a real nice job.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts Shane Steichen on future of defensive coordinator Gus Bradley