Three trades the Colts can make in the 2024 offseason to improve the roster

Whether it's 2019 or 2023, the Indianapolis Colts always seem to be in desperate land come December. With many missed opportunities, including a blown lead against Jacksonville early in the season and a Browns game they should have won, the Colts team had many downs this season.

In a previous article, I expressed my frustration with how Chris Ballard has managed this football team throughout the last few seasons. Those points were lack of free agent upgrades at key positions such as safety, left tackle, and quarterback among others. This offseason, the Colts need to be aggressive in free agency and in the trade market.

As this team goes into the second year of the Anthony Richardson and Shane Steichen combo, Indy must get the tools around the young quarterback and head coach to succeed. Frank Reich was a good head coach up until they placed band-aids on a bad quarterback situation that just progressively got worse. However, the Reich era saw us drafting Johnathan Taylor and Michael Pittman Jr., two young players who have been key to the Colts success. Ballard also orchestrated a trade for one of the best interior defensive linemen, DeForest Buckner, while in the prime of his career. Outside of that, the many drafted players have either been average or below average as far as development.

While I've defended Chris Ballard at every turn, this year he needs to show why he was given the job in the first place. With big-name free agents hitting the market, most notably Mike Evans still in the prime of his career, Ballard needs to not only bring in some free agents but also think about making some trades for positions of need.

Here are a few trades that could make the Colts a better team this offseason.