The Colts moved quickly to land their man, hiring Chris Ballard as their new general manager, the team announced. Previously the Chiefs’ director of football operations, Ballard was the only candidate to interview with the Colts twice out of the six-man search.
Ballard met with the Colts a second time on Sunday and will succeed Ryan Grigson, beating out Packers executive Eliot Wolf, Vikings assistant GM George Paton, Seahawks co-player personnel directors Trent Kirchner and Scott Fitterer and internal candidate Jimmy Raye III, who served as the Colts’ interim GM during this process.
The newly hired executive is planning a 2017 season with Chuck Pagano, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets, so there will be no late coaching change after Jim Irsay orchestrated a belated GM switch.
Viewed as Irsay’s top choice from the start of this process, Ballard opted to go through with the interview. He did not interview for the 49ers’ GM job, which remains unfilled, since the Chiefs blocked him from doing so. Teams can utilize this tactic during the season, but with Kansas City having been eliminated in the divisional round, Ballard was free to interview with Indianapolis. However, Ballard was viewed as the “first choice, second choice and third choice” in San Francisco.
The Chiefs’ decision may be a seminal move depending on what happens with the Colts and 49ers in the next several years. Although, the Colts’ job was viewed an attraction, more so than the 49ers’ position, with Andrew Luck‘s presence playing a key role.
Prior to becoming John Dorsey‘s right-hand man in Kansas City, Ballard spent 12 seasons with the Bears, working in either a scouting or scouting directorial capacity. The Chiefs’ 43 regular-season wins since 2013 came on the heels of a 2-14 2012 season under the franchise’s previous regime and represent the fourth-most in the league during that span.
His potential top choice for head coach could be Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub, although Irsay committed to Pagano coaching the team in 2017. Pagano sat in on the candidate interviews, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com reported, so a Ballard/Pagano partnership looks like the Colts’ arrangement this coming season. Ballard will be tasked with elevating the franchise back to the playoffs after it finished 2016 with the same 8-8 record 2015 brought, with ’16 featuring nearly a full season’s worth of Luck’s services.
Big middle finger to the Niners and Jed Dork
This is a good hire. I hope Isray can stay out of the way and let this guy run the team. They need to fix their O Line and their defense and get Luck another WR. Not a Colts fan but I really feel for Luck, they are doing the same thing to him that they did to Manning where they give him minimal talent and expect him to do everything.
Absolutely hilarious that he had no interest in SF despite the fact they wanted him so badly. Man that franchise went from Model Franchise Level to Browns/Bengals Level.
Heard that Ray Lewis is thinking about getting in to coaching. I’m sure he would murder it…