Colts Will Run It Back For 2026 Season
- Ballard, Steichen return despite 11-year playoff drought and 7-game losing streak to end 2025
- Colts banking on QB Jones, DT Buckner's recovery from injuries to turn things around in 2025
- Colts traded high draft picks for Jets' Sauce Gardner, showing faith in Ballard-Steichen leadership
INDIANAPOLIS – About two hours after the Colts 2025 season ended in a 7th straight loss, the announcement came on what an uncertain offseason will hold.
It will, once again, be “run it back.”
Both Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen will return. Carlie Irsay-Gordon will meet the media on Monday afternoon at 2:30 PM.
It will be a 10th season as general manager for Ballard. It will be a 4th season for Steichen as head coach.
This news comes on the heels of the Colts finishing the ’25 campaign with 7 straight losses, the longest of any team in the AFC.
But the real questions on whether Ballard and/or Steichen deserved another year comes when you stretch out past another season without the playoffs.
The Colts have now gone 11 years without winning the AFC South (25 teams have won a division title since the Colts last have), 8 years without a playoff win (22 teams have won a playoff game since the Colts last have, with 4 more having a chance this January) and 5 years without a playoff appearance (29 teams have made the playoffs in that span).
Ballard has been leading the Colts for 9 of those years, amassing an overall record of 70-78-1.
It’s hard to find much that is positive on the Ballard resume, as every AFC South team has won the division at least twice during his 9 years building the Colts.
The team results speak for themselves with the franchise in a playoff drought longer than the franchise has experienced in more than 30 years. Position specifically, Ballard has always held the defensive line in high regard, with serious resources invested across the group. Annually though, that’s a position that hasn’t created enough pass rush pressure, despite waves of positional coaches and coordinators in and out.
If you are scraping the barrels for Ballard positives, you can find one in the early years as the 2018/2020 draft classes helping get the Colts their lone playoff appearances under him (’18 and ’20). Since that though, you can only point to a two-month span of above average football, over the last 5 years.
Steichen is now 25-26 in three seasons as head coach.
The ugly marks on the Steichen resume comes from 3 years without a postseason berth and a dreadful 2-10 record against the Jaguars and Texans. Against teams with records above .500, Steichen is just 7-22.
Positive marks point to a better than average quarterback play despite a revolving door there. Most of the pro-Steichen areas fall in the play calling/offensive side of the ball versus the head coaching duties.
It was trending towards Ballard and Steichen returning in 2025, particularly after the Sauce Gardner trade two months ago.
By sending 2026 and 2027 first-round picks, along with AD Mitchell, to the Jets, the Colts were sending quite the message to their fan base.
Yes, they think Gardner is an All-Pro talent, still in his prime, at a huge position of importance.
More than though, they were showing their faith in Jones being a franchise quarterback and the Ballard/Steichen duo to lead the Colts into this “Gardner trade era.”
That means needed early returns with two first-round picks gone and a core growing in age.
For 2025 though, as injuries started to hit, the Colts spiraled into one of the worst closes to a season in franchise history. The Colts last win was November 9th. You have to go back to October 26th to find their last win in regulation.
While the Colts won’t say it publicly, they believe this season is different if the injuries hadn’t piled up.
Pegging the Colts as a division champ and/or playoff team without inevitable injuries is hard to pin down. The Colts ended up losing the AFC South by 5 games and missed out on a Wild Card berth by 3 games. The Colts were already outside of the playoffs when Daniel Jones tore his Achilles in early December.
An option of running it back will put an immense of stock in needed, and early, returns to health for Jones (rehab from Achilles surgery) and Buckner (rehabbing from neck surgery). That’s the start of some questions that extend to a few other key components on each side of the ball.
Stuck in a playoff drought in which only two other NFL teams carry a longer one, the Colts have opted to reward, rather than change.
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