The Indianapolis Colts ended the season with an 8-9 record and failed to win the AFC South. The team was in contention at points, but General Manager Chris Ballard has no delusions about where it currently stands after missing the playoffs.
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"Right now, we're not close," Ballard said during the season-ending press conference. "I'm gonna make this really clear — close is losing on the last play of the Super Bowl. That's close. Going 8-9, that's not close.
"I'm not saying we won't be closer when we get to the start of the season, but right now, sitting here today, we're an 8-9 football team. We got to own that, and we are not good enough."
The last several years have been difficult for Colts fans. The team has finished no better than second in the division every season since winning the AFC South title in 2014. One franchise quarterback — Peyton Manning — delivered a Super Bowl title to Denver while another — Andrew Luck — suddenly retired.
The Colts hired Ballard in 2017 and gave him the task of replacing Ryan Grigson. The early results were mostly promising as the AFC South team made the playoffs in 2018 and beat the rival Texans in the wild-card round. The Colts then lost to the Chiefs in the divisional round.
Luck retired ahead of the 2019 season due to injury concerns, but the Colts returned to the playoffs in 2020 with Philip River as quarterback. They lost to the Bills in the opening round.
The 2020 season marked the last time the Colts were truly a playoff contender. The team went 9-8 in 2021, 4-12-1 in 2022, 9-8 in 2023, and 8-9 last season. The team fired head coach Frank Reich midway through 2021, turned to interim coach Jeff Saturday to close out the year, and then hired Shane Steichen ahead of the 2023 season.
What has been the biggest hurdle preventing the Colts from returning to a time when it was consistently winning the division? The exact answer is difficult to identify, but Ballard knows where he fell short heading into the 2024 season.
The Colts didn't do enough work on the roster.
"The hardest thing to do is evaluate your own team — I think this is across the board in the NFL — and look, I'm emotional, and I care about our players, and sometimes I've let that bleed into how I built the team," Ballard said. "And coming off a year last year when we were 9-8, I thought we were playing really good football at the end of the season.
"Lost a tough game at the end to Houston — could have gone either way — and I'm thinking, 'Okay, we're trending up.' And instead of really creating competition throughout and throwing new blood into the locker room, new players into the locker room, I said, 'You know what? We're going to run it back.' That was a mistake."
To Ballard's point, the team did not make much noise during the offseason. They kept six players in the building with extensions, a group headlined by wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. They drafted nine players, six of which are still on the roster.
The only big additions during free agency were quarterback Joe Flacco and defensive tackle Raekwon Davis. Flacco appeared in eight games, starting six, while throwing for 1,761 yards, 12 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. Davis appeared in 17 games and tallied 15 combined tackles.
This lack of work on the roster was a detriment to the team last season and over the past four seasons, which Ballard acknowledges. As he told media members on Jan. 10, the team has to do a better job identifying the free agents who can "move the needle" and help the Colts contend.
This will be an objective as the team prepares for the 2025 season. For now, Ballard will continue reflecting on the last season and the issues that extended the playoff drought.
"I'm disappointed," he said. "I think you all know me well enough to know that I'm extremely hard on myself. I care deeply about this organization, this city. (I) want to do well for (the fans), want to make them proud, and there's definitely a sense of guilt for not getting it done at this time."
