The Colts will go through a difficult transition this year, as Carlie Irsay-Gordon will take over as principal owner after her father’s death. Jim Irsay‘s oldest daughter had been groomed for this role, and she takes center stage at a rather unstable point with regards to Indianapolis’ roster.
Anthony Richardson has not shown much to indicate he can be what the Colts had hoped, and the former No. 4 overall pick is now out until at least training camp due to another shoulder injury. Daniel Jones is in place as a stopgap, and the former Eli Manning Giants successor could be the Colts’ eighth Week 1 starting QB since 2017. The Colts have been unable to overcome Andrew Luck‘s August 2019 retirement, and Irsay-Gordon made it known Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen must improve the operation — perhaps quickly.
“Chris and Shane know that they have things they need to fix,” Irsay-Gordon said, via the Indianapolis Star’s Joel Erickson. “We have a standard here, and it hasn’t been good enough. Winning is great, but I would even take it a step further and say we’re really committed to being the best. If we’re the best, we will win games. I think Chris and Shane are totally capable of doing that.”
Ownership transfers regularly lead to coaching and GM changes. The Commanders fired Ron Rivera and reassigned Martin Mayhew last year, while the Broncos canned George Paton hire Nathaniel Hackett months after new ownership took over. David Tepper booted Rivera and GM Marty Hurney barely a year after taking over in Carolina. Though, Indy’s change is obviously different from those power shifts, as Irsay-Gordon will attempt to carry on her father’s work. Jim Irsay backed Richardson in 2023 but signed off on a Jones stopgap effort as protection, as the Florida alum’s issues with injuries, accuracy and maturity have plagued him as a Colt.
The Colts have made one playoff appearance since Luck’s retirement, venturing to the wild-card round during Philip Rivers‘ one-and-done stay. They lost as two-touchdown favorites in Week 18 of the following season, having failed to win 10 games since that Rivers one-off. Indy is 17-17 under Steichen, Ballard’s second official HC hire (after Josh McDaniels backed out in 2018). Ballard being 2-for-8 in postseason trips as GM certainly has raised his seat temperature, and the duo will now need to convince Irsay-Gordon to stay with this mission. Richardson’s status remains paramount to this.
A key change has already come on that end, as Morocco Brown — who brought Richardson onto the Colts’ radar during the pre-draft process — is out as a senior personnel exec, Erickson adds. The Colts had employed Brown since Ballard’s first year on the job (2017). They promoted him from college scouting director to chief personnel exec during the 2022 offseason. He interviewed for the Bears and Steelers’ GM jobs that spring, also being in consideration for an Eagles position that year, and met about the Falcons’ GM gig in 2021.
Brown had made weekly trips to Gainesville during the 2022 season, championing Richardson, who was a one-year college starter. Richardson’s size-speed package intrigued many in 2023, but he completed less than 54% of his passes during his starter season at Florida. Those issues have followed him to the pros. Richardson’s became the seventh QB this century to throw at least 200 passes in a season and complete fewer than 50% of them, finishing at 47.7%. Jones is now taking first-string reps at minicamp.
Irsay-Gordon did not mandate a 2025 playoff appearance in order for Ballard and Steichen to retain their jobs, though she also did not indicate the HC-GM combo is a package deal. Splitting up the pair will be a storyline to monitor.
“I can’t answer that question right now,” Irsay-Gordon said when asked about Ballard and Steichen being tied together. “That relationship is really important, and I think that’s why, in a lot of ways, as I’ve been more involved in the football side over the last 8-10 years, it’s like in a marital argument, right? It takes two to tango, and they have a great relationship.”
Irsay regularly meddled in personnel during Ballard’s tenure, and Kalen Jackson — Irsay-Gordon’s younger sister, who is now a part-owner — insists the new ownership trio will let the GM and Steichen do their jobs without interference. If the Colts do not show progress after a step back last season, it may be difficult to envision this tandem having the chance to keep those jobs for much longer.
Colts need an overhaul. Hope she does it. She should let Peyton buy in and handle a role similar to what Tom is doing in LV.
To send the message that she is in control, Carlie has no choice but to clean house. Maintaining the status quo makes her look weak and indecisive in the eyes of the other owners. It’s hard enough for a woman owner to gain respect in the male dominated NFL. The past belongs in the past…forget Peyton…he’ll be of no more help to the Colts than Elway was to the Broncos after he retired.
She is smart enough to know that no house cleaning will be done before the end of the’25 season. It would serve no purpose other than showing instability in the organization.
Morocco Brown got canned so the first domino has already fallen. She has effectively put everyone on notice that their future employment with the organization could be in jeopardy.
If she’s smart, she’ll let football people manage the football players. Let them do their jobs and stay out of the way. If they don’t work out, hire someone better.
“Winning is great, but I would even take it a step further and say we’re really committed to being the best. If we’re the best, we will win games.”
This comment doesn’t sound very smart. I don’t think this is going to work out very well. People loved Jim Irsay, but he was a big part of the problem the last ten years. He was too hands on and made too many desperate, emotional decisions. If his daughters choose to try to live up to his legacy by also being super involved in the daily operations, things aren’t likely to get better. To make matters worse, I’m afraid that if anyone suggests that they should take a step back and allow the football people to run the football side, it will be perceived as sexism. That will only make the entire situation more complicated.
@ Plus / I don’t think she will meddle like her dad did. The staff in place have had their chance and failed. I think once the house cleaning is complete she will let the new hires do their jobs as you’re suggesting. Perhaps the new regime will have better luck.
If Brown was pushing for Richardson at #4, he should be fired. Jones is the superior QB to him, not sure how anyone envisions Richardson as QB1 and Jones as QB2, especially if the HC and GM want to keep their jobs.
Certain owners have a way of completely wrecking a team for years on end. Let’s see how this one does over a couple years. Let’s hope she doesn’t take advice from the panthers, jets or browns just to name a few
Bears, Raiders, and the former Redskins owner come to mind
Jets, Jags, Fins, Cards, Chargers come to mind as well.
With Jimbo there now, gotta cross Chargers off that list!
Why does she have a headset on lmao
She explained it in the press conference, and it was actually a good answer.
probably to hear things
anyone who played any role whatsoever in a day 3 prospect like Anthony Richardson being selected 4th overall on draft day needs to be shown the door
Yeah whoever it was that pushed the colts to draft Richardson was obviously drunk and/or high
Eh….the pick was OK. With Bryce Young and CJ Stroud off the board, the choice was either Richardson or Levis. The Colts wouldn’t be any better off if they went with Levis at QB. Obviously there were question marks / concerns about Richardson…but he had more potential upside than Levis. I guess the other option would have been to trade a king’s ransom to Chicago to move up to the first overall pick…but remember that none of the top QB’s that year were “perfect” prospects…they all had some question marks / weaknesses to overcome in order to excel in the NFL.
This is like saying the Browns should have taken Jaxon Dart at 2 because Cam Ward was off the board
Look – all I am saying is that the draft pick was understandable. So what you are saying is that you would rather the pick at 4 be strictly BPA – probably an OT or CB – and then try a free agent QB stop gap. Maybe the Colts should have coaxed Tom Brady to play another year – maybe he could have played until age 50!! Or Derek Carr! You are probably a member of the Derek Carr fan club and think he could win a Super Bowl.
No, he’s saying Anthony Richardson wasn’t a first round pick based on his inability to play QB to that point before the draft.
The point is he wasn’t a good QB prospect if you watched him in college. I got the vision, Steichen worked with Hurts, that he could duplicate that with a better HWS prospect, but Hurts played QB well in college, especially his last year at Oklahoma. Richardson simply did not. All of the things that have plagued him in the league, the inability to hit the broad side of a barn, the injury problems, etc. all happened in college too. He’s a guy you take a flyer on in round four or five. Put it like this. Cardale Jones had a three game run better than anything Richardson did in his sparse starts in college, and he was rightfully picked later on. Ballard also wouldn’t have been so desperate had he not kept kicking the can down the road after Luck retired. I get it. You’re caught off guard year one. But that was five or six years ago. From the misguided Wentz trade to no move to go get better prospects before the bottom fell out on Reich where they had to reach for Richardson, it’s unacceptable. Not to mention, even in that draft, the Bears traded the pick, and the Panthers were further down the board. They’ve run out of excuses.
Richardson wasn’t going to be available in Round 4 or 5. Again, I understand the philosophy to always draft BPA. But apparently you need to understand that QBs get over-drafted ALL THE TIME.
So you let somebody else reach for him that high. You don’t take him at four yourself. Not with that tape he had. He was a bad college QB with 13 starts. Taking him at four was insanity.
I agree with you that Richardson just clear cut was not a first round pick. Even with the athletic potential, a single year as a starter is not near enough time to develop the foundation of experience that a quarterback needs to be adaptive as a player.
The thing that I’ll say, though, is that this absolutely did not feel like a Ballard pick to me. I would bet that, though Brown is being shown as the face here, Irsay had a major hand in the selection. Ballard obviously prefers high percentage passers who are adept in working the pocket, as evidenced by his Rivers and Ryan pursuits. Ryan didn’t work out, largely also due to the crappy pass protection, but Rivers actually played well in Indy. Ballard has also done a good job specifically in the area of talent evaluation at other positions.
I could be wrong, but I think that he’d recognize the questions with Richardson as the number four pick. The QB options were pretty sparse that year in the draft, but I doubt that Ballard picked Richardson as his first choice. I don’t think that I’d say that he and Steichen have failed just yet, because they’ve done a good job in other areas, but they obviously need a quarterback. If they don’t, well, Irsay-Gordon seems ready to eject them. Would Indy be willing to bet on yet another veteran in Cousins midyear to try to save their jobs? It’s interesting to consider.
Off to a good start getting rid of the person in the front office who pushed Richardson. Do Ballard next. It’s a very large sample size at this point, and it’s below average.
What is wrong with that family