Jim Irsay Breaks Silence on Chris Ballard's 'Disciplined' Free-Agency Maneuvers
The national perspective has wondered why Indianapolis Colts GM Chris Ballard has been relatively inactive during the initial wave of free agency. Some outlets, including Pro Football Focus, have graded the Colts' free-agent haul as 'average' while others have seriously scratched their heads over Ballard's inactivity relative to the team's rather fat salary-cap space.
With his team sitting on $39 million in cap space, owner Jim Irsay waded into the conversation during a recent radio appearance on 107.5 The FAN in Indianapolis, crediting his hand-picked GM for his frugal approach to free agency.
“I think the great thing that Chris does is he walks away from deals, and sometimes your best deals are the ones you don’t make,” Irsay says. “He has that sort of discipline. He’ll go to a certain point, but we’ll talk and we’ll talk in great detail on where we’re at and more often times than not I might be saying, ‘Hey, maybe we put a sweetener in there or something.’ And he says, ‘No, let’s stay where we are. That’s what this deal should be.’
“I really give him a lot of credit because believe me, for general managers it’s very hard to find a guy like that who is really disciplined when you’re right at that 11th hour and trying to pull off a big trade and you want to do it and your head coach wants you to do it and your owner wants you to even do it but you say, ‘No, let’s stay pat, we’ll be OK.’ I think that’s part of what makes him a great general manager.”
Temperance and discretion are key in any high-profile position, but so is knowing when to roll the dice and be assertive. Ballard prefers to pick through the leavings of NFL free agency, rather than swing away at the tier-one or even tier-two players and that has served the Colts modestly well thus far.
However, this team still has some rather serious roster holes. Irsay isn't losing any sleep over them right now, though.
“I think Chris Ballard does an incredible job of finding ways to fill those holes the right way,” Irsay says. “In other words, also protecting the cap so you don’t get in a precarious situation down the road.
“I feel also very confident that as the time goes along, better deals come along that you can get guys done and fill some holes.”
Colts Nation was relieved to see Ballard finally re-sign wideout T.Y. Hilton, who'd languished on the open market for more than a week before coming home. Ballard also ensured that No. 1 cornerback Xavier Rhodes returned to the Colts, as well as running back Marlon Mack.
The Colts still have plenty of salary-cap room to maneuver and Irsay bristles at the notion that the pandemic has forced Indianapolis into being miserly.
“I’ve looked at it as an opportunity to make sure we keep our standard of excellence right where it’s always been,” Irsay says. “As an owner sometimes if you go out of pocket on something to make sure you have that sort of level of commitment and greatness and everyone in your organization feels that, that’s really important to me. I really love to win, maybe I just hate to lose too much (laughing). I’m in it to win football games and I’m going to do everything I can in my power to make that happen. So it’s never going to be a question of, ‘Are the Colts committing enough dollars to winning football games?’ That’s never going to be the question. We’re always going to be out there trying to do everything we can for greatness on the field.
“At the same time, that’s still managing with the cap…one of the most important things is signing your great players that are going into their second contracts. That’s something that is critical, and we did that in the era before with Reggie (Wayne) and Marvin (Harrison) and Peyton (Manning) and Dallas (Clark) and the list goes on – Tarik Glenn, Jeff Saturday. We always have a focus on that and making sure we don’t get an imbalance and that takes us by surprise. That’s really important. But then it’s going out and being wise and using free agency, trades to the best of your ability to do that. Just look at the DeForest Buckner trade and him coming in here and us signing him compared to when we tried to make that move with Corey Simon and that just didn’t quite work out. Chris has done a really great job I think on limiting big mistakes that can come back and haunt us cap wise.
“We’re going to be out there trying to do everything we can to win and through this pandemic I think it’s an important opportunity to go out there and really help the community in any way you can and help your franchise shine. It’s a good opportunity to show what the Colts are about. That’s important to me.”
The GM/owner dynamic is an important one in the NFL. The Colts have won double-digit games in two of the four seasons Ballard has been at the helm and aside from the obvious impact of head coach Frank Reich, one of the reasons Indy has had some modest success is the GM's shrewd decision-making.
However, being conservative and constantly hedging as a GM only works if a team absolutely hits it out of the park in the NFL draft. Although, in fairness, Ballard did consummate one of the biggest blockbuster trades of the 2021 offseason, landing QB Carson Wentz in Indy, so it's not as if the GM has been sitting on his hands.
Only time will tell if Ballard's draft classes will go on to be the lynchpins to greater team success like that of his 2018 haul that netted the Colts Quenton Nelson, Darius Leonard, and Braden Smith. That one was a doozy.
Irsay trusts Ballard and that's as it should be. In order for Colts fans to continue trusting Ballard, however, the pudding will need to produce some proof by way of the standings.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen.
