Stampede Blue
Having officially been knocked out of playoff contention again, the Indianapolis Colts (8-7), and specifically team owner and CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon and her two sisters, will face some tough decisions this upcoming offseason.
Chief among them is expected to be the job security of longtime general manager Chris Ballard, along with other key leadership positions such as head coach Shane Steichen and the status at starting quarterback, where incumbent Daniel Jones is recovering from torn Achilles surgery and is a pending league free agent.
Among the leadership trio, Ballard’s seat is expected to be among the hottest, after what was already expected to be a critical season for the Colts top brass, but saw yet another late season collapse, after such a promising hot start—featuring what once was the league’s most prolific offense before critical injuries struck.
Coming back 8-2 from Berlin in Week 10, and having recently acquired former All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner ahead of the league’s trade deadline and playoff hopes clearly riding high, the Colts would go on to lose their next five games and be eliminated from postseason contention.
Certainly, starting quarterback Daniel Jones’s diminished production playing through a fractured fibula, only to suffer a season-ending torn Achilles in Week 14 contributed, but the Colts’ routine inability to find a long-term starting quarterback since franchise cornerstone Andrew Luck shockingly retired ahead of the 2019 season required them to hitch their 2025 hopes to Jones, who wasn’t exactly an ironman for the New York Giants, can’t be glossed over either. This has been a persistent organizational failure, and it’s continuously plagued the Colts ever since.
In 2017, Ballard initially proclaimed it would never be about one guy, then franchise quarterback Andrew Luck, but rather about trying to build a strong enough supporting cast to consistently win regardless. However, so far, it has been, and specifically rather, the Colts’ routine inability to replace him.
At starting quarterback, the Colts have since shuffled through the likes of Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger, Nick Foles, Anthony Richardson, Gardner Minshew, Joe Flacco, and Daniel Jones, but so far, none of them have stuck long-term. (The Colts probably shouldn’t have moved on from Rivers after 2020 in retrospect, as it would’ve saved a lot of headaches and potential draft capital).
It’s also worth noting that despite investing two first round picks (Laiatu Latu, Kwity Paye) and four second round picks (Kemoko Turay, Tyquan Lewis, Ben Banogu, and JT Tuimoloau) into the edge group during Ballard’s lengthy tenure, the Colts have still struggled finding consistent impact outside pass rushing.
The fiscally prudent Ballard actually made an about face and was aggressive during this past offseason’s free agency, landing the likes of Cam Bynum, Charvarius Ward, and Jones among others, but in the end, it didn’t really matter.
The Colts haven’t made the playoffs since 2020 (which is the franchise’s second longest drought since 1988-94) during the COVID-19 campaign, the last time longtime veteran Philip Rivers started for them. Now five...
