According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, Indianapolis Colts general manager Ryan Grigson has been relieved of his duties with the team and there will be a press conference by team owner Jim Irsay to announce his firing on Saturday:
Colts have relieved GM Ryan Grigson of his duties, league source tells ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 21, 2017
#Colts owner Jim Irsay will have a press conference at 5:30 pm to announce the firing of GM Ryan Grigson, source said.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 21, 2017
The 44 year old general manager was set to enter his 6th season with the Colts, having compiled a 49-31 career record in Indianapolis while making the playoffs in 3 of his 5 seasons–highlighted by an AFC Championship Game appearance in 2014.
However, Grigson’s Colts teams failed to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history since 1997-98–having finished 8-8 for two straight years.
Instead, the Colts finished 3rd in the AFC South and were swept by the Houston Texans on a team that featured Brock Osweiler and Tom Savage as its starting quarterbacks and were without defensive All-Pro J.J. Watt.
Grigson performed some positive moves as Colts general manager including the drafting of the likes of Andrew Luck, T.Y. Hilton, Dwayne Allen, Jack Mewhort, Donte Moncrief, Henry Anderson, Clayton Geathers, and Ryan Kelly among others.
Not to mention, the 2012 trade for Vontae Davis, which he doesn’t enough credit for.
Nevertheless, Grigson failed on two of the Colts five first round picks including the 2013 drafting of Bjoern Werner, as well as the 2014 first round pick trade for Trent Richardson–while 2015 1st round pick Phillip Dorsett could potentially soon be joining them.
Additionally, the Colts defense and offensive line continue to be major deficiencies for the team and simply haven’t shown enough improvement.
It’s worth noting that in general manager Ryan Grigson‘s last 5 draft classes, only 4 of the team’s 14 players (28.6%) selected in the first three rounds of each respective year total have actually been on defensive players.
Two of those four defensive players were former 2013 first round pass rusher Bjoern Werner and 2015 3rd round cornerback D’Joun Smith–neither of whom are even still on the team.
Also, starting quarterback Andrew Luck remains one of the most hit quarterbacks in all of football, which has been a common theme since 2012.
Specifically, the Colts allowed the 5th most sacks with 44 total sacks and the 2nd most QB hits at 128 total QB Hits this past season, while Luck remained one of the most pressured passers in the NFL.
Whether this a precursor to franchise icon Peyton Manning eventually becoming the team’s general manager remains to be seen–as it certainly can’t be ruled out at this time. However, it appears as though Grigson will no longer be calling the shots in the Colts front office anymore.
It also looks as though embattled head coach Chuck Pagano’s future is still uncertain as well:
As far as I can tell, the #Colts are only moving on from Ryan Grigson. No word on Chuck Pagano. (@AdamSchefter 1st reported Grigson news)
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 21, 2017
We’ll be sure to keep you updated as more details from this story continue to evolve.