The Indianapolis Colts chose not to do what nearly a third of the NFL did this offseason and fired their head coach. Shane Steichen still has his job, as does general manager Chris Ballard. Many Indy fans likely feel as if one of the two needed to go; it was Ballard.
After all, Steichen has only been able to work with the players Ballard gives him. The GM has had his job for nine seasons, and only twice the team has made the playoffs. It has never won the AFC South. Steichen is 7-22 against teams with winning records, but he gave fans a glimpse of what his offense could do early in 2025.
Should Ballard and Steichen have been fired? Colts legend Edgerrin James doesn't think so. In a recent talk with Hard Rock Bet, James, who left Indy a year before the team won the Super Bowl in 2006 but was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020, said Ballard and Steichen just had to deal with a bunch of bad luck this season.
Indianapolis Colts legend Edgerrin James speaks about the current state of the team
That's true, the team did suffer many injuries to key players. The competition also got a lot tougher just when the injuries were getting worse.
"When you look at this season, I think it’s hard to point the finger at Chris Ballard or even the head coach, Shane Steichen," James said. "The team was 8-2. Then, they lost a big piece in Daniel Jones and suffered more injuries. It doesn’t matter if you’re the general manager or the head coach; you can’t control injuries. When injuries happen at really important positions, it’s going to affect the team, and that’s all it was, because if Daniel Jones stays healthy, the Colts would be in the playoffs."
The last part is somewhat debatable. Before Jones tore his Achilles tendon in Week 14, the Colts were sitting on the outside of the playoff picture. Even if Jones had stayed healthy, beating the Jackson Jaguars, Seattle Seahawks, and Houston Texans would have been difficult.
Jones was limited in the games before that with a broken fibula, but the team kept putting him on the field, so the expectations were that he was healthy enough to lead the Colts to victories. He couldn't.
Still, James' point is a good one. Besides Jones, Indianapolis was also having to play mostly without defensive lineman DeForest Buckner and cornerbacks Charvarius Ward and Sauce Gardner. The San Francisco 49ers were able to succeed even while suffering as many key injuries (if not more), but the Colts still don't quite have the quality on the depth chart that San Francisco has.
If the Indianapolis Colts had remained mostly healthy, the team could have made the playoffs and been dangerous once in the postseason. The hope is that Daniel Jones will be re-signed, and the team will have better luck with injuries moving forward. If that happens, Indy could make the playoffs as soon as 2026.