The Indianapolis Colts are trending toward another lost season. The team hasn't made the playoffs since 2020, is 2-4, and is facing two difficult upcoming games. 2-6 is likely.
Because of the lack of success, Indy fired general manager Chris Ballard this week. Head coach Shane Steichen remains, but for how long is anyone's guess.
The shame is that all that lack of success has ruined the careers of some excellent long-term Colts players. They have gotten paid good money to play football, but that would have happened anywhere. What they have lacked is the ability to win playoff games.
3 Indianapolis Colts who might be regretting having had Chris Ballard as a general manager
Running back Jonathan Taylor
Taylor was drafted in the second round of 2020, and he might have thought his team would be pretty successful at the start of his career. After all, the team made the playoffs in his rookie season, but that was also the last time the team made the postseason.
In his seven seasons, the running back has rushed for 1,431 yards or more three times and has scored double-digit touchdowns four times. He will likely get that number up to five during the 2026 season, as he already has seven TDs in six games.
The shame is that all that excellence has been wasted by the team. He deserves better, but after signing an extension before this season, he is probably stuck on a bad-to-mediocre team for the foreseeable future.
Left guard Quenton Nelson
The future Pro Football Hall of Fame left guard has one advantage over Taylor. He has been to the playoffs twice in Indy and was part of a playoff game-winning team as a rookie in 2018. That game was the last time, of course, that the Colts won a playoff game.
Chosen sixth overall in the 2018 NFL Draft, Nelson has shown he was worthy of that selection by being named First-Team All-Pro three times and Second-Team All-Pro just as many times. He has never missed being named to the Pro Bowl.
Nelson is graded as the ninth-best guard in the league by Pro Football Focus (subscription required) through six games, so he is likely on his way to at least another Pro Bowl selection, if not another All-Pro honor.
Defensive lineman DeForest Buckner
The excellent defensive lineman has tasted playoff success before, but not with the Indianapolis Colts. He was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round of the 2016 draft, and in 2019, San Fran reached the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.
In Indy, Buckner hasn't won a playoff game and has only made the postseason once. He has had personal success, though. He was First-Team All-Pro in 2020 and was a Pro Bowler in 2021 and 2023. He is playing at that level again in 2026, as he has four sacks and four tackles for loss in the first six games.
He could be a trade candidate, as he (and Quenton Nelson, too) isn't signed after 2027. If the team chooses to tear down and start rebuilding by the trade deadline on November 10, Buckner could be playing for another team in the second half of the season.
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