Last week to kickoff team training camp, Indianapolis Colts longtime general manager Chris Ballard indicated that if offered a contract extension, he won’t accept it because his built roster needs to win—entering ‘Year 10.’
Now chivalry may not in fact be dead, but on the other hand, there doesn’t appear to be any contract extension forthcoming from Colts team owner and CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon. If there had been, despite the public posturing, Ballard would’ve already accepted a lucrative NFL general
manager’s salary for the next few years.
Ballard’s lengthy tenure as Colts general manager from 2017-2025 speaks for itself, overall win-loss record of 70-78-1, no division titles, and two playoff appearances with 1 win—and never advancing past the AFC Divisional Round approaching a decade on the job for Indianapolis.
Despite proclaiming upon his arrival that it would never be about one guy, the Colts have struggled replacing and finding any sort of stability since former franchise quarterback Andrew Luck shockingly retired just ahead of the 2019 season—with the starting quarterback position continuing to be a turnstile. While a re-signed Daniel Jones may solidify the QB1 position, if he can regain his first half 2025 form, he still has to stay healthy for an entire season coming off a late year season-ending torn Achilles and even a lack of prior durability with the Giants.
It figures to be ‘playoffs or pack your papers’ in Indianapolis, as the Colts have to obtain meaningful success in 2026—and that’s at least a playoff appearance one would reasonably think.
The problem for Ballard and the Colts right now though is that it’s a fair question of whether Indianapolis is anymore than the 3rd best team in the AFC South, especially since current head coach Shane Steichen has gone a combined 2-10 against both the Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars over his first three seasons in Indy.
The Colts’ top divisional rivals are only continuing to improve too, as the Texans just re-signed their former #1 overall pick, veteran edge Jadeveon Clowney, who had 8.5 sacks last year as a rotational defensive end to what’s already a loaded positional group and stacked Houston defense collectively. It’s a fair question of whether Clowney would be an upgrade to anyone the Colts could start opposite Laiatu Latu along their d-line right now.
It’s not just at defensive end where the Colts surprisingly didn’t reinforce the position with more higher-end talent, as the wide receiver spot on the outside opposite currently hobbled Alec Pierce continues to be a major question mark:
It seems like every offseason, Colts fans have this same typical frustration with Ballard, where there’s at least a starting position or two that looks visibly weak on paper, but Indy had some flexibility to do more.
It’s been at wide receiver, left tackle, cornerback, tight end, linebacker, and safety before in years past, and with the exception of safety (where Nick Cross did emerge two years ago to be fair), it seems to have worked out less often than it’s ultimately gone right on Ballard’s intuition and seemingly ‘liking his guys.’
Perhaps Arden Key will be a solidifying veteran edge or 2nd-year pro Jaylahn Tuimoloau will take a major leap forward, and Ashton Dulin will continue to work his tail off and ascend as a suitable WR2, but it seems like Ballard and Co. are taking a major gamble, with their margin of error being small at premium NFL positions.
I’m not rooting for the Colts to lose by any means. I hope they win and win consistently at that—and snap their playoff drought of five seasons dating back to 2020—and finally win at Jacksonville, snapping another woeful franchise streak in the process.
By winning games, the Colts are more fun to discuss and analyze, our viewership is better across the board, and it’s more fun to write exciting articles filled with hope and serious title aspirations than somber summaries.
The hope has to be that with Jones fully healthy, the Colts can replicate their first half of 2025 form, especially with former All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner anchoring their secondary for a full season.
That being said, looking at the Colts roster as a whole, particularly with the arguable remaining key deficiencies at both Edge2 and WR2, and I’m not sure how anyone can feel super confident that it stacks up better than either the Texans or Jaguars right now—and finishing 3rd place in the AFC South simply won’t cut it again.
More than likely, that means the Colts winning 7-9 games, falling just short of the playoff sticks again, and without even a 2027 first round pick to make the Horseshoe faithful even feel slightly better about it with more favorable early draft positioning. That’s what we call staying in NFL purgatory.
However, I’d love to be proven wrong, and in order to do so, Ballard must firmly silence his critics and meaningfully win again, because his continued job security (*and perhaps Steichen’s too) seemingly depends on it.
