The Indianapolis Colts suffered through another losing season in 2025. The season certainly didn't start that way, of course. The team was once 7-1 and trending toward the top seed in the AFC. That was before injuries hit and before the schedule got tougher.
This offseason, Indy will have a different ownership group running the team after Jim Irsay's death last year. His daughters now run the team, though the person truly in charge is Carlie Irsay-Gordon. She could have made her mark on the franchise immediately following the Colts' Week 18 loss to the Houston Texans. She didn't.
Irsay-Gordon would have been right to remove general manager Chris Ballard from his job, for one. He might be a solid human being, but he isn't a good GM. No proof exists of that. His team has made the playoffs in just two of the nine years he has been in his position, and he has never won a division title.
Indianapolis Colts had a clear chance to do a restart and passed
But an even clearer move might have been to terminate head coach Shane Steichen. Irsay-Gordon has nine years of trust built with Ballard. Steichen has three seasons of mixed reviews. While his coaching record is 25-26, he is an atrocious 7-22 against teams with a winning record when the Colts played them.
The head coach clearly knows how to scheme a good offense, but everything has to be working perfectly on the field for the scheme to work. If a player gets hurt, as quarterback Daniel Jones did in Week 14, Steichen can't adjust well. His offense with Philip Rivers was putrid and extremely hamstrung.
While it was far too late, Riley Leonard's play in place of Rivers (and Jones) in Week 18 against a very good Texans defense was just as damning toward Steichen. Instead of giving Leonard a chance to start after Jones was hurt, Steichen's friendship with Rivers got in the way.
Leonard proved that he was capable of creating explosive plays and getting the ball deep down the field to players such as Alec Pierce, while also using his legs to gain yards and score, and Rivers was physically incapable at 44 years old to do so. A good head coach would have seen that in practice and made the correct decision to put the right player in charge of his offense.
Steichen would likely be an elite offensive coordinator, but how good a head coach he is is still very much in question. He will get the chance to prove himself again in 2026, but that might also be his final season with the Indianapolis Colts.