The Indianapolis Colts had it all going for them during the 2025 NFL Season. Racing out to a 7-1 start, the Colts were a top-3 team in football and were doing everything right. Suddenly, though, the season collapsed, and despite winning seven of eight, the Colts won just one more game the rest of the way.
With that 8-9 finish, General Manager Chris Ballard clinched his fifth losing season in nine years as the Colts GM, having just four winning seasons and one playoff win to his credit. Now entering his 10th year on the job, we're again wondering what the direction of this franchise is.
If nothing else, Indy can look back at that 2025 season across the first half and try to restart that 7-1 record when 2026 rolls around. It's not like this team was totally incompetent last year. To do that, though, it might require a major risk, and given what could be at stake, it could be a risk worth taking.
The Indianapolis Colts may have nothing to lose by trading for Brandon Aiyuk
You may laugh and roll your eyes, but that would be much less aggressive a move than the team trading two first-round picks for Sauce Gardner last year.
Obviously, the Brandon Aiyuk saga has taken an interesting turn, as Aiyuk clearly isn't going to play for the San Francisco 49ers anymore. At the same time, the 49ers likely want to trade him, but no team appears to be in a rush to make that move.
With Indianapolis sending Michael Pittman Jr. to the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this offseason, you could argue that there is an opening for another receiver next to Alec Pierce and Josh Downs, a solid, complementary duo.
Here's how some of the financials would shake out with his contract: "San Francisco would have taken on $29.6 million in dead money for the upcoming season by trading Aiyuk before June 1. In a post-June 1 trade, the 49ers would only take on $8.3 million of dead money. Cutting Aiyuk, per Over the Cap, would save the team $6.3 million on the salary cap and bring about a $7.36 million dead money hit."
We are getting to a point where the 49ers simply might want to move on and release him outright, which could then give the Colts a chance to sign him for what could be the minimum.
Given that there is reason to believe that multiple jobs are on the line in 2026, and the Colts did trade one of their key wide receivers this offseason, bringing in Aiyuk, especially if he's cut, could be a low-risk, high-reward move for the franchise.
We have seen Ballard, for much of his tenure with Indy, not display the proper aggression needed to build contending rosters. The Gardner trade was a great step in the right direction, and his recent free agency moves represented a higher level of aggression than we're used to seeing.
Now that Ballard is hitting a decade on the job and has, virtually, nothing to show for it, getting Aiyuk on the Colts might end up being a risk worth taking.
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