The Strengths That Colts' Next GM Needs to Have

The Indianapolis Colts made a major change in leadership this week, firing general manager Chris Ballard after 10 years with the team. This type of change could lead the organization in many different directions, and the key will be how well Owner & CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon navigates the next few months. 

While Ballard wasn’t the worst GM in the world (even if his overall record suggests otherwise), the Colts clearly need some changes to stay competitive in the ever-changing NFL. So, here are a few areas I’d like to see the front office adjust going forward. 

Analytics are taking the league by storm, and the best teams are taking advantage. The Baltimore Ravens, along with the Philadelphia Eagles, have the largest analytics department in the NFL and have consistently been among the league’s best at finding talent, maximizing value, and staying competitive. There are so many avenues to find quality data scientists these days, like the Big Data Bowl; the Colts must continue investing in and growing that side of their organization.

The Colts have made good strides in recent seasons under Irsay-Gordon, with Greg Starek and Ashleigh Prugh doing phenomenal work, but they need to invest more resources in this area of team building. Given Irsay-Gordon’s relationship with Andrew Berry and how massive the Cleveland Browns’ analytics department is, I expect the Colts' next general manager to have a heavy hand in building this over the next few seasons. 

The compensatory draft picks formula lets teams regain value on players lost through free agency. The best organizations know how to use this tool to their advantage in multiple ways, but the Colts have always seemed to neglect it. In Ballard’s 10 years with the Colts, the team acquired just seven compensatory picks. The Eagles, for example, brought in 16 over that same time span. The Green Bay Packers brought in a whopping 19 in that 10-year span as well. 

At its core, the NFL Draft is a lottery, and the best way to maximize value is to have more chances to maneuver around the board and add value. Another underrated aspect of using the compensatory formula to full advantage is how it influences trade aggression. The Eagles acquired Jaelan Phillips last season for a third-round pick. The risk of that move was mitigated because the Eagles knew they could regain value if they lost him in free agency. Since he signed a massive deal with the Carolina Panthers in free agency, the net total of that move gave the Eagles Phillips for the rest of the 2026 season, while all they had to do was swap their 2026 third-round pick for a comp pick in 2027.

Plenty of other trades like this have returned value to the acquiring team. The San Francisco 49ers sent a third-round compensatory pick to the Washington Commanders for Chase Young in 2024. They later recouped a fourth-round pick when losing him in free agency. The Los Angeles Chargers sent Alohi Gilman and a fifth-round pick in 2026 for Odafe Oweh last season, and they recouped a fourth-round compensatory pick in 2027 as a result. Using the comp pick formula not only gives a general manager more draft picks, but also provides an avenue to be more aggressive with in-season trades.

Ballard was far from a tyrant running the Colts’ football decisions in his time with the team, but a more collaborative approach going forward could make a lot of sense. Jourdan Rodrigue wrote a fantastic piece on this for The Athletic, explaining how Irsay-Gordon could be intrigued by a more non-traditional leadership approach. 

In the article, Rodrigue mentions a few teams that have successfully integrated a central general manager figure but with a group to help make more informed decisions:

The Los Angeles Rams have a three-to-four-person leadership group, for example (Sean McVay, Kevin Demoff, Les Snead, Tony Pastoors), as do the Panthers (Dan Morgan, Brandt Tilis, Dave Canales) and the Jacksonville Jaguars (James Gladstone, Liam Coen, Tony Boselli) — and the latter two teams have recently undergone successful rebuilds.

I’m also very much in favor of this type of move. While it could slow the process in some ways, it could help the team make more sound decisions going forward and avoid some of the disastrous moves made during the Ballard era (like the Carson Wentz or Sauce Gardner trades). 

Ballard is a well-liked person, which is evident by the number of national beat reporters singing his praises in the hours following his termination. The hardest part of managing a football team is viewing players not only as people, but as assets to build a winning foundation. Ballard was phenomenal at cultivating relationships, but some of those tougher decisions were lost on him. 

Countless examples include taking less in a deal to trade Michael Pittman Jr. to a spot he wanted to play rather than maximizing the return, or returning 18 of 22 starters from a 2022 roster that won just four games. Loyalty is a great foundation, but it can’t come at the expense of value. The NFL is a ruthless business, and sometimes tough decisions have to be made even before they seem absolutely necessary. The future front office of the Colts needs to have a better understanding of this.