After watching the way Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard operated during the first wave of NFL free agency, we can draw the following two conclusions about his strategy. On offense – the stronger part of the Colts team in 2025 - he wanted to consolidate. He made re-signing his two stars, Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce, his top priority. Mission accomplished.
As for the defense, Ballard seemed to use more of a Walt Disney approach. More of that “When you wish upon a star” kind of plan.
If his journeyman front seven signees (Arden Key, Michael Clemons, Jerry Tillery, and Derrick Nnadi) successfully join his aging and injured interior linemen...If his vital secondary players (Gardner and Ward, Wohlers and Walley) successfully return from injury...If his linebackers (at present, he has no linebackers) materialize out of the ether...
These players would have looked pretty good in the Indianapolis Colts’ jerseys in the coming season
If all those things happen, the Colts could have an average defense.
Might he have done a few things differently? The edge rusher market got expensive very quickly, and there weren’t many stud linebackers looking for new deals. Fiscal restraint is generally a good thing. (This is not a political statement – I’m just talking football here.) But maybe the Colts’ GM could have shelled out a little bit more for the following three players…
K’Lavon Chaisson, Edge
Commanders GM Adam Peters is getting high marks for aggressively addressing the same types of defensive problems that have confronted Ballard. At the top of the list is his team’s anemic pass rush. Washington inked Odawe Oweh to a high-priced deal. Then he doubled up by getting Chaisson on a one-year, eleven-million-dollar contract.
The knock on Chaisson is that he had just 10.5 sacks in his first five seasons after Jacksonville made him a first-round draft pick in 2020. But he had his best season by leaps and bounds in 2025, totaling seven-and-a-half sacks and another 18 quarterback hits for New England.
He turns 27 this summer, so the question is whether 2025 was a fluke, or was it the sign of a gifted talent finally putting it all together and turning into a plus-Edge in the NFL. Washington will find out firsthand. The Colts will simply be bystanders.
Nakobe Dean, Linebacker
Dean was a disappointment in his first couple of years in Philadelphia. A Lisfranc injury virtually wiped out his second season. But he returned with a vengeance in 2024, piling up 128 tackles.
Dean has dealt with injuries throughout his brief career, and it’s possible that the Raiders were reckless in signing him to a three-year, $36 million deal. But the Colts have no linebackers at present. Ok, that’s not literally true.
They just have no linebackers who have ever shown they can perform at even a modest level in the NFL. Signing Dean would have been a high-risk, high-reward move, but you know what they say about desperate times.
Dean is just one of a group of linebackers whom Ballard could have tried for. He could have afforded Tremaine Edwards or Leo Chenal. Quay Walker might have been a bit too expensive. But it appeared as if he needed to do something about this position, and he has – thus far – done nothing.
Logan Hall, Defensive lineman
Tampa chose Logan Hall in the second round of the 2022 draft. Through his first two seasons, he was a major disappointment. Hall began to show signs of life in 2024, improving his pass rush, and built on that in 2025, having his best season.
Whether he will ever live up to his second-round draft pedigree remains unknown, but the 6’6”, 283-pounder appears to be ascending. DeMeco Ryans thought so when the Texans signed the former University of Houston star to a two-year deal worth just under 14 million dollars.
The reason Hall would have been so appealing in Indy is his versatility. He has the length to play on the edge and might have been a formidable bookend with Laiatu Latu. But he also has the size to play inside. The Colts need to get younger and more athletic across the front seven. Hall could have given them that at a modest price.
We can never pass final judgment on roster moves until the season is about to begin. Chris Ballard may have other strategies in mind that will address his defensive woes. If not, he may regret failing to build his defense with relatively modest moves like these.