Chris Ballard can feel the heat.
The Indianapolis Colts general manager is reportedly understanding of the pressure he and the team is under as it gets set to embark on the 2025 season.
The Colts have not won a playoff game since 2018 — when Andrew Luck was their starting quarterback. They have not played in a postseason game since 2020 and are on their third head coach in that span.
Why Are The Colts Feeling Pressure?
The Colts have been painfully mediocre over the past four seasons, with two 9-8 seasons, an 8-9 season and their 4-12 year in 2023. They have finished second in the aggressively average AFC South in three of the past four years but have missed the playoffs by stubbing their toe down the stretch.
“It sucks, man,” Ballard said, according to ESPN’s Stephen Holder, on Tuesday. “It’s a bothersome thing, especially with the expectations we have here in Indy.”
A season ago, Indianapolis was 4-3 after its first seven games with the chance to pull even with the eventual-division champion Houston Texans.
The Colts blew a 10-3 lead in their 23-20 loss and went 4-6 in their final 10 games — hallmarked by an inexplicable 45-33 loss to the offensively deprived New York Giants — and failing to capitalize on Houston’s season-closing 4-5 slump.
That has led to lost trust from fans, and in turn, more pressure.
“It’s something that I’ve felt, obviously, every year, but specifically this offseason,” linebacker Zaire Franklin told ESPN. “The interactions with the fans and stuff, they’re upset and they’re demanding.
“o be quite honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Is There Pressure On Quarterback Anthony Richardson?
Perhaps no decision has better personified Indy’s current stretch than 2023 No. 4 overall draft selection Anthony Richardson.
Despite nearly 500 yards on the ground in 2024, Richardson has hardly played like the Colts’ franchise quarterback, since he has just a 50.6 completion percentage and 11-13 touchdown-to-interception rate and is in danger of losing his job to journeyman Daniel Jones.
In perfect symmetry with Ballard’s angst, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell listed Richardson as one of nine players under the most pressure in 2025.
“The story hasn’t changed with Richardson,”Barnwell wrote. “He has the potential to be the league’s most exciting athlete at quarterback, combining elite size (6-foot-4, 244 pounds) to be part of the designed run game with speed and an elite arm.
“And while he can be a threat as a runner, the Colts haven’t been able to convince him to avoid defenders at the end of plays. If coach Shane Steichen can’t trust Richardson to stay healthy as part of the run game, it’s a different story.”
Barnwell noted Richardson’s horrible inaccuracy and inexperience as two strikes against him
“Richardson is not an experienced enough quarterback to rely on if the Colts want to win games,” Barnwell wrote. “Nobody in the league misses open receivers more often. His 48.8% completion rate is something out of the 1970s, even allowing for the fact that his average pass travels farther than any other quarterback’s.”
Though still extremely young, the Colts will have to make a decision on Richardson’s fifth-year option after this season — and are already determining whether he will be a part of their future with Jones challenging for the starting job.
“He’s still only 23, but Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard probably aren’t in position to give him another season to figure things out without being worried about competing for a playoff spot,” Barnwell wrote. “With a decision on his fifth-year option looming after the season, Richardson needs to look like a franchise passer to be the man in Indianapolis.”
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