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Indianapolis Colts General Manager Chris Ballard blames himself for another playoff miss.
So, he’s promising to implement a different approach this offseason.
After hearing some team leaders complain publicly about the changes they want, Ballard responded Friday at his end-of-season news conference, telling reporters he’ll re-evaluate his strategy in free agency as he tries to build a more competitive roster.
“I thought we were playing really good football at the end of last season, lost a tough game at the end to Houston, could have gone either way,” Ballard said. “So I said, ‘OK, we’re trending up’ and instead of really creating competition throughout the roster and throwing new blood into the locker room, I said ‘We’re going to run it back.’ That was a mistake.”
It’s an admission the critics have longed to hear for weeks, maybe even years.
Ballard repeatedly acknowledged Friday that the critiques are warranted. In his first eight seasons with the team, Indy has made the postseason twice, won one playoff game and no division titles.
Yet team owner Jim Irsay still opted to bring back Ballard and coach Shane Steichen while expressing his disappointment with Indy’s four-year playoff absence in a letter posted Sunday night.
Five days later, Ballard sounded relieved to be getting another chance — perhaps his final opportunity to fix the mistakes of recent years.
“We’ve got to be better about making sure we identify the right free agents that can help this team to where it needs to go,” Ballard said. “Right now, we’re not close. I’m going to make this really clear. Close is losing on the last play of the Super Bowl. That’s close. Going 8-9, that’s not close. We’ve got to own that. We are not good enough.”
Ballard’s comments stand in stark contrast to what Steichen said Monday when he said he believed the Colts were close.
But if Ballard pursues free agents with more vigor than he has previously, he will have the full support of Pro Bowl defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, a team captain, who has promised to personally recruit free agents to Indy.
Buckner also spent Monday calling out what he described as the worst defense he’s played on with Indy. He accused some teammates of putting egos ahead of winning and said there were times the Colts’ defense played more as individuals rather than as a unit.
Ballard agreed with Buckner’s assessments, and the changes have already begun.
Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley was let go Monday night. On Friday, the Colts announced defensive backs coach Ron Milus and linebackers coach Richard Smith also would not return.
Also unclear is whether Indy has any interest in retaining five key defensive players who could become free agents in March — linebackers E.J. Speed and Grant Stuard, defensive linemen Dayo Odeyingbo and Taven Bryan and starting safety Julian Blackmon.
There were other complaints, too, over players being late to team meetings or injury rehabilitation sessions and whether those players were being held accountable as some former players such as punter Pat McAfee suggested. Ballard defended Steichen, saying he handled those issues internally.
“I don’t agree with everything that Pat said. I don’t,” Ballard said. “But there’s some truth to it. Look, you can’t fool players. You can’t do it. So I tell our team all the time you can BS the media, you can BS your family, but you can’t BS each other. Pat was a great player, he knows what it looks like (to be successful), so he saw the cracks. I tell our guys ‘It’s easy to voice the problem in public, but how about being part of the solution? That’s what we need.”
And, presumably, that’s what Ballard intends to find before players report to training camp in late July.
“There’s got to be some stress, some real stress in that locker room and an uncomfortability that if I don’t play well, that if I don’t play well enough, my (butt) is not going to be on that field,” Ballard said. “That falls directly on my shoulders. It’s a lesson. It’s a crappy lesson that I’ve learned.”
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I’ve been harping on this for a bit, but I went to look at the numbers on a snowy morning.
Since the Irsay family acquired the Colts, the franchise record is 410-420-2.
That includes the Peyton Manning and Bill Polian era, the first season in which Manning was learning on the job (3-13) and the last in which Manning was hurt and didn’t play (2-14). During that time, and including those two bad years in the comparison, the franchise went 143-81.
No Bill Polian and no Peyton Manning, the record is 267-339-2. 44% winning percentage. On average, in a 17 game season, that comes out to an 8-9 team … their record this season.
So they can promise things will be better but, 50 years of experience sure doesn’t make it seem promising.
Ouch! Good comment. Those stats you pulled out are pretty telling of an ownership that is clueless … and with that glorious decade with Manning, even a broken clock, as they say, gets the time right twice a day.
They simply do not have a winning culture. They are content being average.
If I were in charge, I would create the most formidable defensive unit in the NFL. Give it a name that guys would want to be a part of it, defend it, and be proud of it, because it operates as a unit at the highest level.
Same people, doing the same thing = the same losing results. Change will only come when it hits the pocket book$. Right now they are using the same game plan as the old Cubs; “Wait ’til next year” and they got by with it for almost a century.
A new approach? The heck you say! Why would Ballard want to try a new approach? Because the one he’s been pursuing for eight years has produced nothing but mediocrity? Why didn’t he try a new approach after 2021 or 2022 or 2023? It took embarrassing thumpings by the lowly Giants and the Broncos in December of 2024 to convince him it was time for a new approach? What makes Irsay think Ballard will get his second approach right? Will we have to wait eight more years until we find out?
Two playoff appearances in eight years coming out of the weak-kneed AFC South indicate more than a new approach is needed. The Colts are at least two or three years overdue for new leadership atop the front office.
Bob Irsay was known for being impetuous and making terrible decisions.
Jim Irsay does everything he can to avoid repeating that. The one time you could argue he did make a rash decision (Jeff Saturday as HC), it went about as well for him as it did for his dad.
So Jim isn’t making the same mistakes as his dad, but he is still making mistakes. He’s been around football for so long, and he wants to show the world he can put together a winning team. Simply put, though, that’s not in his skill set. He’s about as good as a GM as Jerry Jones. (Don’t get me wrong, Jones has been brilliant on the business end of things. But without Jimmy Johnson, he’s accomplished not much.)
And Ballard’s solution is “create competition at QB”.
As if a(nother) QB controversy will settle things into a championship groove.
The Colts drafted a raw piece of clay seem mystified that it’s not ready to be a piece of pottery yet.
Richardson will turn out pretty good after he goes elsewhere and gets better coaching and development. If the Colts wanted a ready-made QB, they should have moved up in the draft. If they thought they were getting a ready-made QB, they should all fire themselves.