The people most at fault for Colts falling on their face this season
The Indianapolis Colts fell into the pits of despair after a widely hyped-up offseason, and plenty of people are at fault for the underwhelming year.
The Indianapolis Colts were supposed to make the playoffs and be a Super Bowl contender, at least that’s what people thought after their offseason moves to improve. Some media thought Matt Ryan would be the leadership that was needed to make a Super Bowl run similar to the Los Angeles Rams after acquiring Matthew Stafford.
After 13 weeks this season, Indianapolis is closer to getting the No. 1 pick than they are to winning the Super Bowl. What happened to a team that had some success last year, but fell flat to end the season, which led to a statement of “all chips in” from team owner Jim Irsay?
There is a lot to blame to go around for the Colts’ failures, and it started with former head coach Frank Reich, who Jim Irsay fired after nine weeks into the season. Was it all Reich’s fault, though? The Colts are 1-3 since the firing of Reich and the hiring of former All-Pro Center Jeff Saturday as the interim head coach. Indianapolis won Saturday’s first game against the Las Vegas Raiders but has lost three straight since.
It’s more than just players at this point, it starts from the top and trickles down to the bottom of the organization for the Colts’ failures this season. Let’s take a look at some specific areas of blame.
6. Jim Irsay has set up the front office to fail
There are not many reasons why you immediately blame ownership for the failures of a team since they primarily trust their front office staff to do what is best for the organization. However, Irsay has forced the hand a little too often this season. Starting back in March, the Colts owner forced the trade of Carson Wentz to the Washington Commanders after dragging his name through the mud. Then got the trade working for Matt Ryan.
It didn’t stop there though, because it was reported that Jim Irsay was the main reason for the benching of Matt Ryan heading into Week 8 against the Commanders. Two weeks later, he fired Frank Reich for poor performances on offense.
There hasn’t been a lot of decision-making for Chris Ballard in the biggest situations this year, which leads us to believe that Chris hasn’t had the opportunity to actually run the team in 2022.
Irsay seems to be taking a Jerry Jones type of role this year and it would not surprise me if Ballard is fired at the end of the season and Jim takes over as the Colts’ general manager again. Irsay was Indy’s general manager after the team relocated to Indianapolis from 1984 to 1997.
Jim would want you to think this article is all about the clicks, which he made clear in his press conference introducing Jeff Saturday as the interim head coach. He forgets that media members are here to keep the team honest by not settling for complacency.