The Indianapolis Colts started the 2025 NFL season as the hottest team in the entire NFL, bar none. Through eight weeks, they were 7-1 and the number one seed in the AFC. Unfortunately, after that, the first chink in the armor started to show when they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They regained their footing the next week against the Atlanta Falcons in Germany behind Jonathan Taylor's most dominant performance of the season, and headed into the bye week strong. Then, that bye week hit, and disaster struck.
The Colts would go on to lose every game remaining in their season, completing one of the starkest midseason collapses of all time. They would start the year 7-1, and end it 8-9. It was a terrible mess of playing against better opponents in the second half of the season and a litany of injuries at the most important positions. Still, whatever the causes were, it doesn't change the final results.
Winners and losers of the 2025 Indianapolis Colts season
Winner No. 1: Tyler Warren
General manager Chris Ballard has had one of the most up-and-down seasons of NFL football in recent memory. When the team was 7-1 and atop the NFL, he was lauded as a genius. When the team finished 8-9 without a first-round pick in either of the next two years, he was called a fool.
Regardless of where fans land on Ballard after this season, one thing that can't be taken away from him is that the selection of Tyler Warren in the first round of the 2025 draft was a home run. Warren started the season as the best statistical tight end in the entire league.
He did cool down after the team started underperforming and Daniel Jones got hurt, but even with a 44-year-old Philip Rivers at quarterback, his talent was more than apparent.
Warren is sure to be a franchise cornerstone for many seasons to come, and he proved this year that he not only has the best potential to be one of the best tight ends in the league, but he could also eventually take the crown as the very best in the world.
Winner No. 2: Jonathan Taylor
The arc of Jonathan Taylor's 2025 campaign is one that's very similar to Tyler Warren's. When the team was performing among the best in the league, Taylor was simply transcendent. Early in the year, he topped the total rushing yards leaderboard by hundreds of yards and topped the touchdowns leaderboard by the same margin.
Since Daniel Jones went down, the passing attack of the Colts suffered dramatically. Thus, teams were able to stack the box against Taylor, and that's not to mention the significant injuries to the offensive line. All of a sudden, Taylor went from running behind the best blocking in the league to a below-average one, and his stats suffered.
Taylor finished the year on a quiet note as the losing streak went on. However, the heights he attained while this team was at the peak of their powers were far too great for him to be anything but a winner this year. If he had been able to finish the second half of the season at the same pace he started at, he might legitimately have stayed a top MVP candidate like he was at the beginning of the year.
Loser No. 1: Daniel Jones
Had Colts fans been told Daniel Jones would be a loser for the Colts 2025 season when the team was the number one seed in the AFC and Jones was in MVP talks, that statement would have been blasphemed. Unfortunately, one torn Achilles of catastrophic proportions later, and it's impossible to label Jones as anything else.
Early in the year, the biggest concern that the Colts had about Jones was how they were going to manage their cap after they signed him to a multi-year mega contract. Now, it's unclear whether Jones will ever be the same player again. That's not even to mention that his play was slipping before the injury happened.
It's easy to rewrite history and say that Jones was performing at an MVP level right up until the Achilles injury, but that would be untrue. We don't know the full extent to which the fractured fibula he was playing on before that hindered his play, but the first cracks started showing back in the game against Pittsburgh before the bye week.
Jones was amazing to start the year, middling for a bit before the major injury, and then out for the season altogether after it. He's truly one of the most enigmatic questions facing Indy's front office this offseason, and his health could be the key to how the entirety of the Colts' free agency and draft strategy goes.
Loser No. 2: DeForest Buckner
DeForest Buckner's 2025 campaign was eerily similar to how Jones' season played out. The big defensive lineman was his usual All-Pro self to start the year, but injuries hampered him as more and more games wore on.
That in and of itself wouldn't be too worrying for the future, but it's the nature of the injuries that should give Indianapolis cause for concern. Buckner was dealing with neck injuries, both a herniated disc and a compressed nerve. Especially in a football player, and even more in a football player who thrives in the trenches, those injuries could be career-ending.
Nnamdi Madubuike of the Ravens was an amazing player for Baltimore just last year. Now, one mysterious neck injury later, he may never play football again. That's not to say Buckner will necessarily be the same way, but it would be foolish not to be concerned about the big man's long-term career outlook.
Winner No. 3: Alec Pierce
In a year that truly seemed to be cursed for the Indianapolis Colts, Alec Pierce was the one consistently shining beacon of stellar play. Even offensive juggernauts like Jonathan Taylor saw their stats suffer when Daniel Jones went down, but Alec Pierce stayed steadily producing even when a 44-year-old Philip Rivers with no zip on his deep ball was throwing him the football.
It may be true that no player in the NFL raised his stock more this season than Alec Pierce has. He will be paid like a true WR1 come free agency, and all that fans can do is hope it's Indy that signs him back to the team. Regardless of how his future plays out, Alec Pierce's 2025 season for Indy can't be called anything but a smashing success.
The team may have underperformed heartbreakingly throughout the latter half of the season, but the highs that they reached in those early magical weeks can't be taken away from them. Still, the goal is always to make the playoffs and compete for a Super Bowl, and the team ultimately didn't do that.
It does have to be taken into account, however, that injuries and sheer bad luck really hamstringed this team. The window that seemed to be open for possible Super Bowl contention closed just as soon as Daniel Jones went down for the year (and probably before even that). Here's hoping that 2026 brings the postseason success that 2025 should have brought.