According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Indianapolis Colts team owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon has already made a decision on the futures of general manager Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen—both of whom
will reportedly return for the 2026 campaign:
As Schefter notes, Irsay-Gordon will hold a press conference with the media on Monday.
While there’s a large contingent of Colts fans who adamantly will disagree with this latest ownership decision, particularly on retaining Ballard for another season, it does show that Irsay-Gordon still has conviction that both Ballard and Steichen remain the leadership answer for the franchise and should be given the benefit of the doubt for at least one more season. There was clearly no wishy-washiness or cold feet with this controversial decision.
However, 2025 already felt like a ‘make-or-break’ season, especially for Ballard, as the longtime embattled Colts general manager just completed Year 9, yet has 1 playoff win and 0 divisional titles to show for it.
The Colts have not made the playoffs since 2020 and won the AFC South going back even further to 2014, whereas every other member of their division has won the divisional crown at least twice during their same lengthy crown drought.
With yet another last season collapse, losing seven straight games, the Colts fell short of the playoff sticks again and finished with a losing record at 8-9—after a surprisingly hot 8-2 start.
Yes, critical injuries, particularly a fractured fibula and then season-ending Achilles injury to starting quarterback Daniel Jones played a key part in the Colts’ latest stretch run demise. However, Ballard also has 8 other seasons to evaluate his complete body of work—and Steichen to a lesser degree, two prior years of head coaching in Indy.
To me, Steichen’s job always felt fairly safe. He was calling plays for one of the league’s top offenses until injuries struck Jones, and he showed some degree of positive success with both a 44-year-old Philip Rivers (who hadn’t played in 5 years) in 3 starts and rookie 6th rounder Riley Leonard in the regular season finale even afterwards.
In a depleted offseason QB market and with no 2026 first round pick, the Colts’ best readily available starting quarterback option appears to be re-signing the currently rehabbing Jones, who’s recovering from a season-ending torn Achilles and will attempt to be ready for next offseason’s training camp.
Given the prolific success that both Steichen and Jones shared to begin 2025 together, it made a great deal of sense to bring back Steichen for one last ‘prove it’ year—with both him and Jones as part of a package deal.
On the other hand, Ballard appeared to be on a much hotter seat, given how many opportunities he’s already had in Indianapolis and the consistent lack of meaningful results.
That being said, it doesn’t appear as though any top leadership changes will be made in Indy this offseason by new ownership, as the status quo will only continue—for at least the 2026 campaign.
