Colts’ Jim Irsay pledges to retain both GM Chris Ballard, HC Shane Steichen in letter

The Colts appear to be ‘running it back’ completely at general manager, head coach, and quarterback for next season.

The Indianapolis Colts published a letter from team owner Jim Irsay on Sunday evening, which pledged that both general manager Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen will be retained for the 2025 season, despite the disappointing 2024 season and overall results:

Given recent national reports, the Colts ‘running it back’ with Shane Steichen at head coach along with soon-to-be third-year quarterback Anthony Richardson seemed like a foregone conclusion—given that the pair’s success likely rests with the young QB’s development and improvement.

Not only this, but out of all the external head coaching candidates, Steichen may be the best equipped to maximize Richardson’s elite dual-threat potential—having already done it successfully with the Philadelphia Eagles Jalen Hurts. Plus, having your work-in-progress passing quarterback learn an entirely new offensive system and playbook in a pivotal ‘Year 3’ isn’t exactly a recipe for new success.

2025 will likely be a ‘make-or-break’ season for the Colts’ quarterback-head coach pairing. The hope has to be that both men can learn from what was a challenging 2024 campaign.

However, team ownership electing to bring back embattled longtime general manager Chris Ballard is admittedly the pretty polarizing decision here among Colts fans.

He’s not exactly a young GM anymore, and the Colts just wrapped up ‘Year 8’ of his regime, with just two playoff appearances, one playoff win, and no division titles to show for it—when every other team has won the AFC South not once, but at least twice since 2014, which is the last year Indianapolis won it.

Ballard has compiled a 61-69-1 career record during his 8-year Colts’ span.

Irsay has preached patience and tries to avoid making rash management decisions like his father notoriously did for the Colts franchise—although there’s always the infamous Jeff Saturday hire. Perhaps Irsay’s continued patience with Ballard is an over-correction to his father meddling more in brash football personnel decisions.

That being said, it’s a fair question of when that patience reaches a final point. At a certain time (*and it’s arguably been overdue*), meaningful results have to matter for the Colts franchise. It shouldn’t take close to a decade to build a Super Bowl contender, regardless of whether you’re building internally long-term from the NFL Draft or not.

We know now that it won’t be the 2025 offseason when Irsay will hold his ‘lead football lieutenant,’ Ballard, to the fire, but the New Year is shaping up to be a ‘make-or-break’ year for all of Ballard, Steichen, and Richardson when the ‘hot seated’ trio will either reach newfound significant success or be shown the door collectively for their replacements.