{"id":208587,"date":"2025-01-07T14:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T19:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=208587"},"modified":"2025-01-07T14:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T19:04:11","slug":"can-colts-gm-chris-ballard-redeem-himselfsort-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/07\/can-colts-gm-chris-ballard-redeem-himselfsort-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Colts GM Chris Ballard Redeem Himself\u2026Sort of?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unless you\u2019ve been living under a rock, you\u2019ve heard Chris Ballard is sticking around<\/a>. The Indianapolis Colts general manager was expected to be fired, but that wasn\u2019t the case. Head coach Shane Steichen is also coming back for another season. A lot of Colts fans aren\u2019t happy that owner Jim Irsay decided to retain Ballard. Can he find a way to redeem himself?<\/p>\n

This season certainly wasn\u2019t the worst in Colts history. But it sure wasn\u2019t fun to watch either. Indianapolis posted an 8-9 record and finished second place in the AFC South behind the Houston Texans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Colts missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season. Speaking of making playoffs, Indy has only done that twice during Ballard\u2019s eight-year tenure. They also haven\u2019t won the AFC South once since he came to town. In addition, the Colts have posted a 62-69-1 record with him calling the shots.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy enough to see why fans wanted Ballard to be shown the door. Now he\u2019ll look to make some of those fans a little happier if<\/em> that\u2019s even possible.<\/p>\n

Can Colts GM Chris Ballard Redeem Himself\u2026Sort of?<\/h2>\n

Ballard\u2019s Tenure in Indianapolis<\/h3>\n

Without a doubt, the Chris Ballard era just hasn\u2019t been good. You can\u2019t sugarcoat it. One positive thing about his tenure, though, is that he has made several solid draft decisions.<\/p>\n

Ballard selected Quenton Nelson back in 2018. He turned out to be one of the league\u2019s top guards and will probably make the Hall of Fame<\/a> one day.<\/p>\n

Ballard has also drafted key contributors like Jonathan Taylor<\/a>, Michael Pittman Jr., Grover Stewart, Josh Downs, and Alec Pierce. And he impressively took Pro Bowl linebacker Zaire Franklin<\/a> in the seventh round (2018 draft).<\/p>\n

However, Ballard has failed to find a star quarterback and replace Andrew Luck. That\u2019s one of the main reasons for the Colts\u2019 struggles. Life is hard if you don\u2019t have a franchise quarterback leading the way. Guys like Carson Wentz and Matt Ryan just weren\u2019t the answers. Anthony Richardson<\/a>, who Ballard drafted fourth overall in 2023, could eventually be that guy. But right now, he\u2019s not looking like a future superstar.<\/p>\n

What He Can Do To Redeem Himself\u2026a Little Bit<\/h3>\n

Redeeming himself would be a difficult (probably impossible) feat for Chris Ballard. He\u2019d have to completely change his philosophy. He has been known as \u201cBargain Bin Ballard\u201d for his reluctance to spend money on outside free agents and make blockbuster trades.<\/p>\n

If Richardson becomes the franchise quarterback he\u2019s supposed to be, it could help fans change their mind about Ballard. Richardson has had an up-and-down career so far, but he has the potential to be an elite quarterback. He has to stay healthy and improve his accuracy issues, though.<\/p>\n

Ballard must assemble a quality defense as well. Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley was recently fired<\/a>. Ballard must replace him with someone who can get the unit back to respectability. Perhaps a guy like Robert Saleh<\/a> is a good candidate. He was a great defensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers.<\/p>\n

Will Chris Ballard ever redeem himself? It\u2019s doubtful, but we\u2019ll see. He can if he puts together a Super Bowl-winning team. But we know that\u2019s not going to happen.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Maria Lysaker – USA Today Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fans aren\u2019t excited about Colts general manager Chris Ballard being retained, and it will be difficult for him to make them happy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":208895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[9564,1619,681,7800],"class_list":["post-208587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colts","tag-anthony-richardson","tag-chris-ballard","tag-gus-bradley","tag-indianapolis-colts-news"],"modified_by":"Isaac Zuniga","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208896,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208587\/revisions\/208896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}