The news many disgruntled Indianapolis Colts fans were waiting to hear for years was announced Monday. The team is moving on longtime GM Chris Ballard following Sunday’s ugly loss to the Tennessee Titans.
That drops the Colts to 2-4 on the season and at risk of missing the postseason for the sixth consecutive year. Ownership decided it was finally time.
A clip from July shows how even Ballard himself knew his seat was hot at the start of the season.
Chris Ballard Wanted to Prove Himself
Ballard got very honest back in July when asked if he deserved a contract extension. His response? “No, I wouldn’t do one,” he said. “I’m in the last year of my deal, we need to win.”
2026 marked his 10th year as general manager of the Colts, which is almost an unheard of tenure for an NFL GM. The most curious part of it all was how he retained his job with suboptimal results.
Does he expect a contract extension before the season?
“No. I wouldn’t do one… We need to win.”
The Colts last made the postseason during the 2020 season, falling to the Buffalo Bills in the first round. The team hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2018 season, and the duo of Ballard and Shane Steichen just posted back-to-back 8-9 finishes.
Ballard was both self-aware and honest when discussing his own contract. His prediction ended up coming true and the team is left in a weird position for the remainder of the season.
Colts Still Have Big Decisions to Make
The Colts are not out of postseason contention, even at 2-4 and after losing to the previously 0-5 Titans. But the new front office, and ownership, will have to decide if they will try to compete or if they want to trade away top talent in order to restock draft capital for the future.
The NFL trade deadline arrives on November 10, giving this Colts team three more games to prove the roster shouldn’t be dismantled. Yet even if the Colts are 5-4 at that point, it may not be enough to pass up on some intriguing trade offers.
Quenton Nelson is a free agent after the season, and so is DeForest Buckner. Trading both could bring back some solid draft capital for a team that saw Ballard send two first-round picks to the New York Jets last season for Sauce Gardner. That was just one of many gambles that set the team back before he was fired.
The two biggest remaining decisions have to do with Steichen and quarterback Daniel Jones. A playoff victory may be the only thing that can save the coach’s job, and even that may not be enough if the next GM wants their own pick at head coach.
As for Jones, he is at risk of being benched soon if the team doesn’t start winning. That is for two reasons.
The first is the fact the team can cut him after the season for a dead cap hit of roughly $35 million. There is also the fact former No. 4 overall pick Anthony Richardson is still on the roster. The Colts may as well see what he can do if a rebuild is on the horizon in 2027.
Plenty of Colts fans got what they wanted with this Ballard dismissal. However, waiting until now to do it may have set the organization back even further than it was six weeks ago.
Former Colts GM Chris Ballard Foreshadowed His Own Demise