Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard decided, in a make-or-break offseason, to take a somewhat safe approach in making his team better. Meanwhile, Houston Texans general manager Nick Caserio took the opposite approach in hoping his 2025 playoff team could improve in 2026.
The battle of who took the better angle will unfold as the season goes on, of course, and those moves will now include Houston trading for wide receiver Kayshon Boutte. In return for the wideout, Houston gave the New England Patriots a seventh-round draft pick. In other words, cheap.
Indy has added its own receiver lately, of course. The team needed a WR3 and was able to sign veteran Keenan Allen for that role. Allen is better than Boutte and a great fit in head coach Shane Steichen's system, having worked with him previously. But that isn't the point.
Houston Texans continue a more aggressive approach than the Indianapolis Colts
While Ballard was bent on bringing back the Colts' own free agents, such as quarterback Daniel Jones and wide receiver Alec Pierce, and hoping a mediocre team would be better with the pieces it already had, Houston, who has made the playoffs the last three seasons, was extremely aggressive in hoping to fix potential issues.
The Texans signed longtime Colts right tackle starter Braden Smith, even though Smith wasn't assured of starting in Houston. The team also traded for running back David Montgomery, signed edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney, and guard Wyatt Teller.
At this point, Houston, which finished second in the AFC South last season after finishing first in the previous two years, looks better and is ready to contend for a championship. They have approached their moves ahead of the 2026 season with that kind of thinking.
Besides the Allen signing and the 2026 NFL Draft, Chris Ballard has mostly approached this season like he has already won at a high level and simply needs to sustain that. Instead, his team hasn't made the playoffs since 2020 and hasn't won the division since before he became the general manager in 2017.
There is a description for doing the same things over and over and expecting different results, and that description likely has a picture of Chris Ballard tied to it. But maybe this season will be different. Maybe Daniel Jones stays healthy, and the defense is better under Lou Anarumo in his second year with the team.
Until the season gets underway, hope exists for the Indianapolis Colts. Maybe instead of trading for Kayshon Boutte, who hasn't had more than 43 receptions in a season in three years, nor more than 589 receiving yards, Keenan Allen will be a much better producer. Hope is right and good, for now at least.
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