Because of critical injuries down the season’s stretch run, the Indianapolis Colts, once sitting at 8-2 atop the AFC, ended up losing 7 straight games—sliding out of the playoffs for the fifth straight season.
In some regards, the franchise’s latest collapse was shocking.
However, when you consider that the team lost its starting quarterback, its primary backup quarterback, it’s former Pro Bowl veteran defensive tackle, and two former All-Pros at outside cornerback, as well as their starting right tackle and even left tackle for a time, and it may not be at all.
As far as Colts fans confidence that the franchise is headed in the right direction, it’s been a roller coaster ride of a season. In Week 1, that number was a mere 42%, but as the Colts became one of the hottest teams in football—particularly on offense, that number ballooned all the way up to 95% by Week 12.
However, after the Colts season snowballed, that number now sits at a lowly 18% fan confidence percentage.
However, it may not be that the Colts simply had another lost season.
Rather, it may also be that team ownership announced earlier this week that embattled longtime general manager Chris Ballard would be returning for at least the 2026 campaign.
Under Ballard’s prior 9 years, the Colts have one playoff win and 0 division titles—the latter is pretty surprising, given that every other member of the AFC South has won it at least twice during that same drought.
From that sense, 60% of Colts indicated that they are “disappointed” that the team is deciding to run it back—which isn’t just with Ballard, but also with soon-to-be 4th-year head coach Shane Steichen also returning as well:
For what it’s worth, Steichen’s seat doesn’t appear to be quite as hot as Ballard, and despite the disappointing ending, he did himself a lot of favors this season, having exceptional success with new starting quarterback Daniel Jones during his debut campaign, before he was limited and eventually lost for the season with injuries.
He also had pretty good, yet surprising success with 44-year-old unretired quarterback Philip Rivers (who hadn’t played professional football in five years) and rookie quarterback Riley Leonard in the regular season finale—given the unique circumstances surrounding each replacement starting quarterback.
Speaking of Jones, the veteran quarterback is a pending free agent and is in the midst of recovering from a season-ending Achilles injury, but is hopeful to be ready by this summer’s training camp. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the Colts starting quarterback this past year, 44% of Colts fans believe he’s the 2026 Week 1 starter:
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