How long is too long? That is the question that Carlie Irsay-Gordon and the Indianapolis Colts have to be asking themselves about general manager Chris Ballard. Indy doesn't like making massive changes, but Ballard's time might have come.
In fact, the Ballard decision is the biggest one the team has in the 2026 offseason, even bigger than whether to bring back quarterback Daniel Jones. Jones proved he can provide quality play, but Ballard makes the decisions for the entire on-field product of the Colts.
The GM answers reporters' questions many times as if he had won something, too. The Super Bowl? Nope. Heck, in his tenure, Indianapolis hasn't even won the division, and he's been on the job for nine years. Many credit Ballard with roster building, but why? Does Indy have a decent roster now? Sure, but again, he's been in charge of the roster for almost a decade.
Indianapolis Colts need to find a general manager to replace Chris Ballard
Why haven't been pundits been glowing about Ballard's ability to build a roster when the team hasn't won a division title in his tenure? Though maybe some have and have also pointed out the most glaring problem Ballard has: He has no understanding of how to choose a quarterback.
He inherited Andrew Luck, and then a mess occurred that Ballard had no real answer to. Maybe he didn't expect Luck to retire when he did, and fair. But a great general manager doesn't then fix the problem for five seasons. Between 2020 and 2025, Indy cycled through Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, Anthony Richardson, and Gardner Minshew.
A general manager worth keeping around for a decade can build a solid roster, but also has an idea of how to fix the most important position of all: Quarterback. Might that have happened in 2025 with the signing of Daniel Jones? Maybe, but let's not pretend that Ballard knew Jones was going to be good because he had not been good anywhere before.
His choice of Richardson with the fourth overall pick in the 2023 was a gamble based on Richardson's enormous physical skill. The quarterback didn't even prove in college that he was likely to work out well in the NFL. He could throw the ball 80 yards and run well, but a good GM also knows to trust a quarterback's decision-making. Richardson is, at best, iffy in that aspect.
The 2023 NFL draft had two quarterbacks most pundits assumed were going to be solid (Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud), but every other quarterback was a risk. Ballard could have been brave enough not to take a quarterback and waited until 2024. He might have had to settle for a veteran quarterback, but he had already done so in the previous three years.
The fact is that Indianapolis has a lot of good players, but that doesn't mean the good players they have are good enough to win a division. The current issues with the team started before Daniel Jones tore his Achilles tendon. Jones was also only signed for one season, so even Ballard's belief in the quarterback wasn't long-term.
Jones will be a free agent in 2026, and the team basically has to bring him back and hope that he can return for Week 1 of next season. Chris Ballard boxed himself into a corner by trading two first-round draft picks for cornerback Sauce Gardner. One might have been fine, but two were always going to be too much.
Ballard must have thought adding Gardner was going to push his team over the proverbial edge into a Super Bowl contender. He could have tried to acquire edge rusher Trey Hendrickson instead. But now that Chris Ballard has bankrolled the Indianapolis Colts' future, another GM should be hired to replace him and clean up Ballard's mess.