Colts FIRE GM Chris Ballard After 2–4 Start & Lackluster Post-Andrew Luck Era

Well, Albert, how about this, um, uh, uh, a little breaking news, uh, and sometimes in the biz, you got to adjust, uh, and, uh, the Colts have fired.

Their general manager Chris Ballard after a loss to the Titans this weekend.

So we're gonna spend this last little block talking about Ballard and the Colts.

If we missed your team today, apologies, but I promise, uh, we will get to them on the Thursday do a quick one line on each, like a legit one line on each maybe at the end.

One more.

Let's see.

Let's see, let's see.

Let's see how much we have.

To say about Ballard right now.

Uh, I, I think this is an interesting trend, Albert, that last year we had the Dolphins fire Chris Greer in season because at the time, there was still some promise associated with Mike McDaniel as a play caller, and you set up the opportunity for the new GM to inherit McDaniel if he wanted to.

Uh, now, the Dolphins decided.

To go in a different direction ultimately and uh and totally clean house, new GM, uh, new head coach.

Stein is interesting because if you just look at the, the offense and the efficiency, these were some of the better teams in the NFL and I think that Stein would possibly get head coaching looks, um, in the cycle if he got let go.

Oh, I think he'd be Stefansky.

I think, I think this could be a Stefansky situation, yeah, because if you think about it, you're going from Anthony Richardson to Daniel Jones to Riley Leonard to Phillip.

I think there are a lot of people who feel like it's not what's happening in Indianapolis is not his fault, and today would certainly be indicative of that, right, because sometimes an in-season firing is ceremonial to some degree.

Because there's nothing that changing a GM can do right now except signal to the fans, right?

It's a signal to the fans, and obviously you want to freshen up your college scouting operation because that those conversations are happening right now.

And so if you're Carly Irsay, you're saying, OK, I don't like what's going on right now.

I don't like the players clearly that we've been drafting.

We got 3 months left.

2 months left of the college football season, let's try to, you know, let's try to shake things up a little bit and, uh, and, and get some different eyes on this thing.

So, interesting, you had to do something after the after the Titans game, you had to.

Uh, I, I think that was one of those fan outrage pinnacle moments.

Um, but, man, Ballard's been at the helm for a long time here, Albert.

Yeah, and it's kind of like, you know, what's crazy is like, They're, they got off to a great start, you know, and they, and if you remember, like, coming out of, you know, 17 going into 18, um, they have Andrew Luck as their quarterback.

That first year was kind of a mess because Luck was hurt.

And then they come back and they have that draft class that, I mean, Quentin Nelson, who might be a Hall of Famer, Shaq Leonard, who was a really good player in an all-pro as a, as a rookie, um, Braden Smith, who's still in the NFL a decade later, like a really, really good first draft class, you have the franchise quarterback.

I remember saying, like at that point, like this team has dynasty potential, and they tried to hire Josh McDaniels.

And that didn't work, but then the Frank Reich hire looked great, you know, like after the 1st year, and they win a playoff game after Frank Reich's 1st year, Chris Ballard's 2nd year.

That was Andrew Luck at the time, his 7th year in the league, so he's still relatively young.

And it looked like this is a rocket ship, and I, that was the last playoff game they'd win win with Chris Ballard as GM, which is nuts.

Um, they've only been to the playoffs one other time, 72, 82 and 12 playoff appearances, the one playoff win, they still don't have a long-term answer at quarterback.

Um.

I think, you know, you, part of what's gonna, part of the eulogy here has to be.

Like the Andrew Luck thing really screwed up, but you had a ton of time.

And the, the, the, the, the sand in the hourglass sometimes just runs out and that's what happened here.

He looks weirdly like Pat McAfee in some of these pictures that people are tweeting.

I know it's just like, um, you know, uh, so here's the other thing.

Does this become a bigger piece of like a complete reimagination of the organization by Carly Irsay Gordon?

Well, I'm glad you brought that up because listen, because I do have the opportunity to do that now like the Falcons last year, you know.

This is 2 weeks in a row, and I know that you and I are on different sides of the coin here, but this is 2 weeks in a row now, where I have seen inherent value in her wearing a headset, and taking notes, and being a presence on the sideline.

Last week, um, and I forget who brought this up, I want to credit them, um, for making a good point here, but I think it was Sheil Kapadia.

Um, but like, if the commander's thing happened, And Carly Irsay Gordon was wearing the headset.

And having a notebook in front of her, you know exactly who screwed up, and you can pinpoint the blame on that just like now you're in the headset and you're listening to everything, and I know you like the, the performative look of it.

I get it.

I, I, I, I don't, I, I don't know.

Do you think it's like the big, this is a different debate, but I think the problem most people have like.

Just do it.

But there's a, there's a news flash.

A lot of, I, I don't know how many people know this, a lot of owners have it, have the headset in their box, right?

So I think the question isn't like, should they be listening in.

Like I, I think it's more, should they be standing there on the sideline, right?

And, and I get it.

But a lot of stuff happens on the sideline too, right?

And how are you interacting with your players?

How are you?

Are you pumping guys up?

Are you not, you know, all that?

I, you know, I think that I would at least like the idea of them.

Of her having that information, um, and then not having that information.

And I don't know, we'll see where she goes with it.

But again, what you and I talked about this a lot going into the season, where you kept looking around at the roster and you kept saying, what are they gonna do here?

Like, they're thin here, they're thin here, they're thin here, they're thin here, and lo and behold, it's a mediocre football team that lost to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.

I, I've been surprised in the past at how quick rebuilds can happen, um, but this one is, is interesting.

I, I, I don't quite know a lot of it's gonna like be like, OK, like what do you think of the quarterback, you know, are you going forward with the quarterback?

Are you gonna pull the plug after a year, which will be really costly , um.

You know, I think you see it at receiver.

Alec Pierce goes down, they don't have answers , right?

Like, um, you see it, you know, on the, on the, on the, on the D-line, you know, like I think you see, uh, it's, The linebackers obviously like that was a question coming into the year.

It's, it's just like a team that it doesn't have a discernible superpower and it's thin, and like I think you've seen that show up now, and it's, it's shown up late in games, I mean, to blow the lead that they blew against the, they were up 13 to 0 at the half of that game.

Um, against playing against a second-year quarterback who has, who is going through it, you know what I mean, like, and, you know, so I, I, I get where this is a last straw thing, and again, like this to me opens the opportunity for them to look at do we reimagine the organization and you'll remember last year the Falcons brought in the consultants, right?

Like they brought in the box.

Here come the consultants.

So, but they did that, they did that while the season was still going on.

They did it in like November.

And it was, OK, like, what is this going, and I, I think maybe you got rid of a really good coach as a result of that.

Like I still think Raheem Morris had a chance to be a really good coach, but, you know, I do think that there were systemic things that the Falcons needed to fix that may be fixed now.

So, you know, with Matt Ryan and Ian Cunningham and Kevin Stefansky, Dolphins, same sort of thing.

The Dolphins fired Chris Greer.

Um, they went a step further than the Falcons did and actually fired the GM and then they go through the whole process of reimagining the organization and with the son-in-law there now, like, kind of like he, he took, I think, charge of a part of that process.

So, like there is some similarity there in that you have a family member who is in an elevated position, you know, obviously for different reasons, but, you know, like you have a, a family member who's got an increased voice and maybe has a chance.

To put their stamp on it, you know, so I think that's where the Colts are now.

And, um, that means like going forward, you know, the entire, The entire roster, no one has, no one, no one can feel great about their place in Indianapolis going forward.

And, um, you know, Stein is like now, I think, I mean, like, he could be a collateral damage here, you know, he could be collateral damage.

Um, it's one of those things where now you, you're probably auditioning again and, and every game is an audition for coaches to keep their jobs certainly, but You're auditioning for your job and you're also auditioning for whatever the Colts end up with at general manager and that stampeding sound you're hearing, uh, off in the distance is Jeff Saturday kicking down the doors of an ESPN building and running all the way back to Indianapolis so he can put his consultant's hat on and, uh, and start to be fair from there.

I mean, to be fair too, if they do wind up walking away from Shane, who I think, again, is a really good head coach, and it's gonna get a ton of lucks if he winds up fired, this would be 4 years without making the playoffs.

Not very many coaches survived that.

Uh, true.

Uh, but again, I think that there's some bounce back potential there.

And, you know, uh, uh, Albert, I'm just saying, you know, it would be kind of interesting.

I mean, they were best friends, but like, if everything in Philly goes south, is that a team that, uh, That entertains that Stein's been in the building, you know, I don't know.

It's a, it's an interesting, I don't know if that would actually happen, but, um, just something to think about, but, um.

Yeah, I mean, Chris Ballard.

is out as general manager of the Indianapolis Colts.

This was a long era.

Um, he, he got a little bit more time than I think a lot of GMs get, and, but I do think that the Greer and Ballard, uh, ones happening back to back, cause I've long heard from coaches, uh, a little bit of the, there's a little bit of that gripe, there's a little bit of that chip on their shoulder where because the GM is more politically aligned with the owner, just based on how the structure goes, they tend to survive.

More of these issues.

And I think the trend is starting to shift because everybody sees how quickly rebuilds can happen.

Everybody's starting to see it.

Part of that is, part of that is like the coach's job is to look at the small picture.

The GM's job is to look out for the big picture, and you're gonna be naturally a little less.

Um, apt to, to, to walk away from the, the big picture guy prematurely, um.

You know, I do wonder too, like you mentioned Jeff Saturday, right?

Do they call Peyton Manning?

This could be the one.

I mean, I, I, I, I just, you know, I, I think about like the trend now, Matt Ryan in Atlanta, Tony Boselli in Jacksonville, um, You know, we've seen this like where the guy, they have a guy come in and he's like the Tom Brady in Vegas, obviously, and he becomes the guy who is like, all right, like, I'm gonna make sure everything's aligned here.

I'm gonna help create the vision.

And, you know, I, I've heard forever that Peyton Manning has an interest and, and eventually he's gonna have an interest in running a team.

I, I wonder if that's the phone call you, that, that's the first phone call you make now.

I mean, at, at the very least to get his insight because, you know, like he, he knows everyone, you know, but like I, I do wonder if like that's something you at least explore.