If you were to ask an Indianapolis Colts fan what they thought of General Manager Chris Ballard when the team was entering the bye week of their 2025 season, the man's praises would be sung about as much as they possibly could be.
After the disastrous collapse of the latter half of the season, along with having mortgaged the team's future, sentiments about Ballard have now reached an all-time low, and he can feel the heat. The team's long-term plan seems confusing and bleak to those not in the team's building.
Maybe Ballard and company have a secret master plan that will make believers of Colts fans again, but the confusing amalgamation of moves the team has made since the regular season ended certainly seems to point to the opposite. Chris Ballard is a man without a plan, and that's a very dangerous person to be calling the shots for an NFL franchise.
Chris Ballard's vision for the Indianapolis Colts is confusing and contradictory
The infamous Sauce Gardner midseason trade is looking worse by the day. Yes, the Colts brought a great player into their organization.
It can also be true at the same time that it was the wrong move. Giving up a first-round pick in not only this year's draft, but also a 2027 first (in a draft class that's garnering huge amounts of hype) is simply too high a price to pay for a cornerback that's not definitively the best in the sport, especially for a team that wasn't a cornerback away from a Super Bowl.
That's not even to mention the massive cap hit that bringing in Gardner added. By making the trade for Gardner, Chris Ballard forced the team to operate with a mindset that they are all in for the foreseeable future. It's a risky decision to pay Daniel Jones 38 million dollars to come quarterback the team for another year, coming off a torn Achilles.
Still, it would be a hard pill to swallow to not bring Jones back and potentially start a green quarterback like Riley Leonard right after giving up two first-round picks. Through the first few weeks of the offseason, Ballard was still operating like the Colts were a team that would truly be competitive for a Super Bowl in 2026.
It's the Colts' most recent trade that makes deciphering Ballard's long-term plan for the team even harder. The Colts offloaded team captain Zaire Franklin to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for DT Colby Wooden. Yes, it made sense to offload Franklin, considering the cap hit he would bring to the team.
Even so, however, trading away Franklin actively makes the Colts roster worse. It wasn't realistic to keep him, but by trading him in exchange for a player that's never going to be a real difference maker, Ballard is prioritizing the long term cap health of the organization over the short term goal of winning games.
And that issue is exactly where the problem with Ballard lies. He's making choices like he's all in to be competitive, but at the same time, he's hedging his bets for long-term goals. Trying to pursue both of those contradictory goals at the same time leaves the Indianapolis Colts stuck in no-man 's-land, and it definitely raises questions about Ballard's ability to lead the Colts franchise going forward.
The key to a winning organization is having everyone on the same page, with the same clear-cut plan. Organization alignment is crucial, and when a General Manager can't even decide to stick to a plan himself, how are the people around him meant to be on the same page?
Hopefully, Ballard pulls a rabbit out of his hat come next season, and the Colts truly are a competitive and tough football team with a realistic shot at a Super Bowl. However, if that doesn't end up happening, it may be time to think about finding a new man to lead the Indianapolis Colts front office.