Report: Colts are among teams with ‘murmurs of front office shuffling’ at GM

There have been at least whispers that the Colts could be contemplating a significant change within their front office.

According to SI.com’s Albert Breer, the Indianapolis Colts, along with the Miami Dolphins, have been linked to ‘murmurs of front office shuffling’ at general manager:

“On the GM side, there have been at least murmurs of front-office shuffling in Indianapolis and Miami,” Breer writes.

Of course, the Colts top front office spot is longtime general manager Chris Ballard, who after a stellar 2018 NFL Draft class and having won PFWA Executive of the Year (2018) because of it—and the Horseshoe advancing to the Divisional Round of the playoffs that year, has fallen on a lot harder times, as has the Indianapolis franchise collectively.

Not to beat a dead horse, but the Colts have failed to make the playoffs since 2020 and won’t again this season after another embarrassing end to a once promising campaign (or at the very least, Indianapolis was in the driver’s seat for a playoff spot near midseason).

Per FOX59/CBS4’s Mike Chappell, it’s the Colts franchise’s longest playoff drought under team owner Jim Irsay since the 1988-94 seasons.

Indianapolis has also failed to win the AFC South since 2014, whereas every other member of the division has won it multiple times since then.

Per Colts Reddit, Ballard is the longest tenured non-multi role general manager in NFL history to have a losing record and not have multiple playoff wins or a conference championship appearance, taking the title from former Houston Oilers GM Ladd Herzeg, who set the record in 1988.

At face value, it’s important for any franchise to build through the NFL Draft internally and a bit of initial patience is required. A general manager should be given enough time to reasonably build a culture, establish an identity, implement their roster building philosophy, and get enough of ‘their guys’ to properly execute their purported championship vision.

However, that patience ultimately reaches a point.

The Colts just wrapped up ‘Year 8’ of Ballard’s regime, and the franchise has two playoff appearances and a mere one playoff win to show up for it.

The average NFL general manager gets 3-4 years to build a contender, not double that. Yes, Ballard deserved the benefit of the doubt for former franchise quarterback Andrew Luck shockingly retiring, but that should’ve given him an extra two years on the job—not four.

In retrospect, the Colts arguably should’ve cleared house on the current front office entirely, when they had already done it at head coach and at starting quarterback back in the 2023 offseason, for a clean sweep from a top organizational leadership perspective.

Instead, Ballard has lasted two more years, yet with similar middling results.

There’s reoccurring issues regarding the lack of leadership and accountability too—which we won’t even get into here.

This isn’t a targeted witch hunt by any means, but with these latest rumors and given the Colts already appear to be going forward with the pairing of head coach Shane Steichen and quarterback Anthony Richardson for at least one more season (and reading the fine print, where Ballard wasn’t specifically mentioned), if a significant change is going to be made, where else can it come than at general manager for the Indianapolis franchise?

You can’t fire the owner.

At a certain point, results have to matter for every evaluated leader within the Colts building—including the head man calling the football shots, Chris Ballard.

It’s just a matter of if/when team owner Jim Irsay finally decides to hold his lead football lieutenant’s feet to the fire for good regarding a rather lengthy and repeated lack of winning—or if he elects to ‘run it back’ with Ballard for one more potential final ride.