Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Report: Shane Steichen Safe with Chris Ballard Potentially Out This Offseason?

Starting point is 00:00:00 A new report from insider Albert Breer has the Colts potentially moving on from Chris Ballard, but keeping Shane Steichen. Is that the smart move? Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. bet and you'll get started with $250 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. Visit FanDuel.com to get started. Hello everyone, my name is Zach Hicks, your favorite film nerd over at HorseshoeHuddle.com and today we're talking all about Albert Breer's report on Chris Ballard and the Indianapolis Colts. We're going to talk about how I'm not personally a huge fan of this report. I mean it's not the worst option but I'm not a a huge fan of this report. I mean, it's not the worst option,

Starting point is 00:01:05 but I'm not a huge fan because it feels like another half measure with this team. I'll also talk about how this type of move isn't too crazy for the Indianapolis Colts or terribly crazy in the history of the NFL. We'll talk through that a little bit so it makes more sense in that segment. But first, let's kick it off by actually breaking down this report that Albert Breer made. So Albert Breer, an insider for Sports Illustrated, had a report on the Rich Eisen show talking about general managers that might not be back with their teams, head coaches that might not be back with their teams, like basically what we can expect next Monday from NFL teams. And this is what he had to say about the Indianapolis Colts and Chris

Starting point is 00:01:45 Ballard. Now I'm going to be paraphrasing a little bit just so I can get all the information to you guys. But he said, it sounds like general manager might be a question there rather than coach when referring to the Indianapolis Colts. He, aka Ballard, has been there eight years and they've only been in the playoffs twice. They could look at it and say, okay, Shane Steichen, you go bring in your own guy. And then he mentioned Ian Cunningham, who is, I think, the assistant general manager for the Chicago Bears. Those two overlapped in Philadelphia for a year. So there is some familiarity there. He did call in later parts of the segment, he called the head coach relatively safe. So Shane Steichen relatively safe, but there might be a discussion about the future at general manager

Starting point is 00:02:25 for the Colts. So he's not definitively saying the Colts are certainly going to move on from Chris Ballard, but the way that Albert Breer is breaking down his report is more so that Ballard feels more on the hot seat than Steichen does, which again, in segment two, I'll talk about how that could kind of work for the Colts and why that's such a possibility when it comes to this franchise in particular. But yeah, like where am I coming? Where am I feeling like on this kind of news? Am I thinking that this is true? This is false. I know this is going to feel like me hedging my bets a little bit and I don't want to come off that way, but it's going to feel that way. But I'm kind of buying that there is smoke with this, but I'm not buying there being fire, if that makes sense.

Starting point is 00:03:09 So I do think that Chris Ballard is on the hottest seat he's ever been on with the Indianapolis Colts, especially when you factor in the fan response right now around Chris Ballard, when you factor in just the fact that his team has kind of quit and given up a lot of really embarrassing aspects of this season. I mean, one of the more embarrassing ones was one of the team leaders on this team, Zio Franklin, talking down about the New York Giants a couple weeks ago on his podcast and it turning into the Colts losing to that Giants team. I'm not saying that's directly on Chris Ballard, but again, it just speaks to what's going on with the team that he has built and the team he's had a 100% hand in building in these past eight years. So I do think it makes sense in a lot of ways, but Chris Ballard in a lot of ways is the invincible man. He's the guy

Starting point is 00:03:56 who survives it all. You know, he survived the 2022 season. He was able to use the Carson Wentz scapegoat, use the Frank Reich scapegoat, use the Jeff Saturday scapegoat to find himself in year eight without really any success. You know, again, two playoff appearances in eight seasons. The rest of the division has won the AFC South at least twice in his tenure. It's really hard to find the excuses for Chris Ballard at this point. So I do think his seat is hotter than it's ever been. I don't know if I completely buy that he will be fired on Monday. And again, that feels like me hedging my bets there. It's just when it comes to Chris Ballard, man, he has survived it

Starting point is 00:04:36 all. He has survived it all at this point. So it's hard to really definitively say like, oh, yeah, this is finally the time because again, they kept him after 2022 and not to digress from what this conversation is about, but this was the issue when the Colts kept him in 2022. It was these disjointed timelines that you created with your general manager and your head coach. Your head coach, we have two years of data on Shane Steichen. One year, very solid in 2023, was able to take the Colts on the cusp of making the playoffs with Gardner Minshew, turn Gardner Minshew into a Pro Bowl.

Starting point is 00:05:14 I know I say Pro Bowl, you know, kind of lightly there because with all the opt-outs and stuff, but Gardner Minshew was a Pro Bowl quarterback last season under him, and he was able to find success. They scored over 20 points in almost every game last year with Gardner Minshew at quarterback. They stole a couple games they shouldn't have stole. Shane Steichen did a really good job coaching this football team in 2023. We even saw people held accountable.

Starting point is 00:05:39 I mean, late in the season, they suspended players on the bottom of the roster for violating team rules. We saw the accountability we saw him do pretty well with with everything that revolved around being a head coach uh whereas this season it's been kind of a disaster in every every which way the quarterback he had a hand in drafting has quite frankly not had a good second season he seems to have regressed in his in-game play calling. His PR stuff with the media has been a direct mess. And all that to say, though, like, it's not that Shane Steichen, we don't know which Shane Steichen is real, you know, is the 2023 version where he did a really good job coaching

Starting point is 00:06:15 this team, but they came up short late in the year with a backup quarterback, or is the 2024 version of Shane Steichen real, where this is simply not good enough. We only have two years of data on him. So it's hard to completely move on. I know a lot of people want to move on and I understand it because our most recent data point is bad in 2024, but it's harder to move on from a guy where you only have two data points to compare and you don't know which one's the real one, especially considering his history before coming to the Colts it seemed to be all positive with Chris Ballard we we know what he is you know this is eight years of Chris Ballard we know what he's capable of doing we know what he's capable of putting together and we kind of have

Starting point is 00:06:56 all the data points we need to say this is probably not the guy that's going to take the Colts over the hump he's been able to get this roster up to a solid roster compared to where it was with Ryan Grigson, where going into 2017, it was just a train wreck of a roster around the quarterback that was Andrew Luck back then. So he's been able to build up this roster to a solid place, but I don't know if he can get this roster past that. And again, we have eight years of evidence when it comes to that. So again, this is the problem with the disjointed timelines. When you don't sync up your general manager and your head coach, you have people getting tired of the stale approach of the general manager, but it's kind of hard to move on from the head coach

Starting point is 00:07:35 after only two years with him. You know, you want to give the head coach a little bit of time to build his culture and kind of build his resume and show what he can really do. So this is where you get problems like this turning into reports like this from Albert Breer, where it's like the Colts could be out on Chris Ballard and they could keep Shane Steichen for the next general manager. But then again, you're creating another disjointed timeline where Shane Steichen, by 2026, we'd say, okay, we have four data points on Shane Steichen.

Starting point is 00:08:02 We kind of know what we have in Shane Steichen, but this new general manager, we only have two years on him. So we don't know what he can really build. And then it just keeps creating these disjointed timelines. I'm going to go more into this in the final segment, when I talk about why I'm not a huge fan of this type of move. But again, it's kind of the half measure approach when it comes to, you know, making these moves. Like if you're going to clean house, just clean house. And this is the this is what it creates when when you don't clean house back the first time in 2022.

Starting point is 00:08:34 You guys know Jake and I took over the podcast in 2022, and we were very adamant on it was the time to fire Chris Ballard back then. At that point, he had been the general manager for six years. It clearly was going down in the toilet. They built it back up in 2023. They're falling back down in 2024. I mean, it's certainly time now, but it was time back then too. So again, I don't want to rehash the whole conversation we had on the show yesterday

Starting point is 00:09:00 where we talked about the case for and against firing Chris Ballard. You guys can go check out that episode yesterday to really hear our full thoughts on it. But this is just, it feels like another disjointed timeline they want to create, and I'm just not a fan of that. But again, I'll talk about that more in the final segment. But that is Albert Breer's report. He didn't go into too much more detail on the Rich Eisen show.

Starting point is 00:09:22 It was kind of more of where he's thinking teams are at right now. And again, the report is that Chris Ballard might be out. Shane Steichen might be safe. And that could be the direction the Colts go this offseason. So coming up, we're going to talk about why this isn't super unprecedented in terms of the Colts and the NFL and why it kind of makes sense for how the Colts have operated in the past. But first, the NFL playoffs are almost here and it's not too late to get in on the regular season action with FanDuel, America's number one sports book, because right now,

Starting point is 00:09:58 new customers can finish season strong with $250 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. FanDuel also has so many ways for you to pick up a W. I love betting on which players will score a touchdown and how many points each team will score. It's simply thrilling. Not only can you bet on who will win each game, but FanDuel also has bets for which players will score a touchdown, how many points each team will score, and so much more.

Starting point is 00:10:22 Just visit FanDuel.com to join today. That's FanDuel.com for your chance at $250 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. All right, Locked on Colts every day as we are back talking about this new Albert Breer report, which mentioned that Chris Ballard could be the one out in Indianapolis where Shane Steichen feels relatively safe, at least in Albert Breer's eyes. I did want to stipulate that I did mention this in the first segment. Albert Breer is a good insider.

Starting point is 00:10:58 I generally respect his opinion. I don't think he's the most in the know with the Colts. But the reason why I'm kind of sold on this report is because it makes sense for how the Colts typically operate. Now, we all remember when Chris Ballard came in in 2017, he was saddled with a lame duck coach in Chuck Pagano. And Chuck Pagano lasted that one season before Chris Ballard was able to pick his head coach to align with him in 2018, which was the great Josh McDade.

Starting point is 00:11:28 I'm sorry, Frank Wright. That's who it was. No, he picked two head coaches essentially in 2018. But it's always been these disjointed timelines. I mean, again, 2022, Ballard is safe and he gets to pick a new head coach in Shane Steichen. So we've seen this happen a lot with the Colts. Now, something I will say that is kind of different about this one, at least, again, according to Albert Breer's report on the Rich Eisen show,

Starting point is 00:11:54 is that this feels a little bit different than Chuck Pagano's situation, where Chuck Pagano wasn't really involved in the hiring of Chris Ballard. It was more so Jim Irsay telling Chris Ballard, hey, here, get one year to evaluate what Chuck Pagano is going to do. And if you like him, keep him. If not, bring in your own guy. And clearly Ballard didn't like what Pagano was doing and brought in his own guy after the season. The way that Albert Breer kind of phrased it in his report was essentially that Shane Steichen would be a part of the process and would be involved with the next picking of the general manager to get someone who more

Starting point is 00:12:30 aligns with his view of building a roster. Now I will push back a little bit on that. It's kind of a weird way to think about it because when Ballard hires Shane Steichen, wouldn't you think they'd be aligned on the way that a roster is built? But I digress. That's not what the point of this episode is about. But I do think this would be separate from the Chuck Pagano type of situation we had in Indy, where it was a lame duck coach. This makes it sound like this would be the coach, a part of the process to, again, potentially pair those two together. I don't know if they'd actually be paired together because the Colts just love disjointed timelines, but that's what makes it feel a little bit

Starting point is 00:13:09 different, at least for me. There are some situations around the NFL in the past decade or so where this has happened, and it's not super uncommon. One of the more prominent ones is when Dorsey was fired from Kansas City early on in the Andy Reid tenure. Andy Reid survived that, was a part of the process of picking Brett Veach to be the next general manager, and they have gone on to win every Super Bowl since then, it feels like. I mean, they're winning Super Bowls left and right with Andy Reid and Brett Veach. Now, that was, again, a little bit of a weirder situation because that was an internal hire. That was more of a promotion. It was more so, you know, it was time

Starting point is 00:13:49 for Dorsey to, you know, get out of the way so a guy like Veach could step up and be the guy that took them to the next phase of Kansas City Chiefs football and ended up being a great thing for them. I don't think that's the direction the Colts would go. I don't think they would do an internal hire for the replacement of Chris Ballard if they went this direction. But again, it does show there is some precedent for a move like this where the head coach is part of the process. The head coach still remains for the next general manager and they're able to work together, maybe work even better together in the future. But, you know, I think the when it comes to other NFL owners. And it's much easier for a person in Jim Irsay's situation or headspace to only pay one extra contract per offseason rather than paying two extra big contracts. So you look at the contracts right now.

Starting point is 00:15:05 Chris Ballard is under contract until 2026. You don't have too much more to pay with that. So when you bring in a new general manager, as long as another team doesn't pick up the tab by hiring Chris Ballard and pay out the rest of his contract, you would only be paying the rest of Ballard's contract until 2026. You'd be paying the new general manager

Starting point is 00:15:23 and then Shane Steichen's contract until 2029. And see, that's the other big part of this. Shane Steichen's contract runs until 2029. So if he were to fire both Shane Steichen and Chris Ballard, he'd be on the hook for both of those contracts until the end of their duration, plus the new people that he brought in that would assumingly they would be expensive contracts too for multiple years as well. So again, that kind of is a factor here, more so with the Colts than it would be with other teams. I'm not saying it should be this massive factor because again, we're talking millions versus billions. It really shouldn't be as big a factor as what it is, but it is a factor with

Starting point is 00:16:03 the Indianapolis Colts. And I think the fact that Shane Steichen's contract runs until 2029, it is a big part of that. I have seen some people also say that he wouldn't want to pay three head coaches because some people do think he's still paying Frank Reich's contract. To my understanding, when the Carolina Panthers hired Frank Reich, they picked up the rest of that bill. So he's not currently paying Frank Reich's contract. I did want to add that stipulation in there because that is potentially part of it, but I do believe he's not paying Frank Reich's contract, but still he wouldn't want to be paying all four of those contracts at once. And that's why we haven't seen many clean houses, clean breaks under him as the Colts owner,

Starting point is 00:16:40 because it is a lot of money to pay out, you know, especially when the term lengths are not lined up. Chris Ballard expiring in 2026, Shane Steichen in 2029, not super aligned with where their contracts go. And again, that just kind of leads to this disjointed timelines a little bit. But my one pushback, I guess, on all this, and I know this segment is more so about

Starting point is 00:17:01 why this makes sense for how the Colts operate and how this, you know, obviously could, could, you know, there is precedent, I guess, in the history of the NFL, like with Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs. My biggest concern with all this, though, is what has Shane Steichen done to deserve this type of leniency and kind of power as well? I mean, we go back to the Andy Reid situation with John Dorsey and Brad Veach. Andy Reid was a multiple-time AFC, you know, AFC champion or NFC champion. He took teams to Super Bowls.

Starting point is 00:17:33 Now he hadn't won any Super Bowls at that point, but he was like a very sought-after head coach that they were able to lure to Kansas City. And he was able to make them contenders pretty early on, I think with Alex Smith as their quarterback. So when they made that switch to Brett Veach, obviously you were going to keep Andy Reid. That was your big fish and a guy that deserved the type of power and leniency that he ultimately got when you made that switch. Shane Steichen doesn't really have

Starting point is 00:18:02 that kind of power for me. I know Steichen, as an offensive coordinator, went to the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles, and that's great. But if we're going off of even just what he's done in the NFL or what he's done with the Colts, I don't think he has deserved that type of power with the team. In his two years with the Colts, it's been adequate at best. If you want to be really optimistic, 2024, I feel like is so much worse than the optimism that 2023 brought that I would probably lean a little bit below adequate in his two years, especially with his recent PR gaffes, which I'm sure I'll do an episode on that eventually too, because they're just very frustrating for me personally. So yeah, I just don't know what he's done

Starting point is 00:18:45 to deserve that type of power and leniency. I think the Pittsburgh Steelers recently had to change a general manager and Mike Tomlin survived. And it's like, yeah, duh. Mike Tomlin is a Super Bowl winning coach who gets into the playoffs every year. Like that's a different situation

Starting point is 00:18:59 than what Shane Steichen would. I just don't know what Shane Steichen has done for me to survive a clean house and be involved in the next general manager process. Because presumably you're like one or two bad seasons with Shane Steichen away from firing him. And then again, you get disjointed timelines with the new general manager that he helped pick in this scenario with this report. So that's kind of where my pushback is. Like, I do think logistically, it makes sense for how the Colts have operated in the past. And I could definitely see the Colts doing this. But I guess I'm going to use this last point to kind of lead into the final segment where,

Starting point is 00:19:36 yeah, it's not the worst scenario here, but it's certainly not a scenario that the Colts need. So coming up, I'm going to talk about my overall thoughts on this. I know I've kind of sprinkled in a lot of my thoughts on this report, but I'm going to just lay it all out in the final segment and talk about why I'm just not a fan of this report. And it's certainly something I would not do personally. But first it's playoff time. And if you're like like me you want to make the most out of these final weeks of football action that's where prize picks comes in if you love football and want a chance to win real money while watching the games prize picks is the place for you it's the best way to

Starting point is 00:20:15 turn your sports opinions into cash with daily fantasy player projections with prize picks you simply pick more or less on player stats like total passing yards or rushing touchdowns and for a shot to win up to one one thousand times your money you can make your picks in less than 60 seconds and whether you're looking for a flex play to boost your payout or want cash out quickly prize fix has got you covered and with over 10 million members and billions in winnings it's clear that people are loving this platform. I've been playing for a while now and I'm having a blast. It's so easy to use and I love how fast the payouts are.

Starting point is 00:20:51 Seriously, I've gotten paid in as little as 15 minutes when my picks hit. Plus, the weekly promos like Taco Tuesday discounts add even more value to my lineups. And here's a special offer for Locked On NFL listeners. Download the app today and use code LOCKED locked on NFL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. That's prize picks. Run your game. Download the app today and use code locked on NFL to get $50 instantly after you play

Starting point is 00:21:17 your first $5 lineup. Again, prize picks, baby. Run your game. All right. Locked On Colts everydayers. Again, we are back talking this Albert Breer report on the Rich Eisen show, where again, he says that Chris Ballard might be the odd man out where Shane Steichen could be safe this offseason, and then Steichen could have a hand in picking the next general manager. And again, my overall opinion on this is I don't think it's the worst case scenario. For me, the worst case scenario would be running it back

Starting point is 00:21:51 or, I mean, dare I say, firing Shane Steichen and keeping Chris Ballard because, gosh, I couldn't imagine doing that. I'm not saying that Steichen has deserved to keep his job here, but we can't have Chris Ballard picking another head coach. That would just be an absolute disaster at this point. But it's certainly not the best case scenario for the Colts.

Starting point is 00:22:10 Again, this just feels like another half measure. And for me to put my literary cap on at this point, like it feels like you have like an infected wound and the infection is starting to spread throughout the rest of the body because you failed to treat it in the past. But now you're starting to treat where the infection is starting to spread throughout the rest of the body because you failed to treat it in the past. But now you're starting to treat where the infection started. But it's already spread.

Starting point is 00:22:30 You know, it's already in the rest of the body at this point. So just getting rid of that initial infection spot that they neglected since 2022 to finally get rid of, it just feels like it's already in the rest of the body. At this point, you just need a clean house. You need a really hard reset. And I think they need closer to what they did in 2017 when Ballard first took over where it's like, again, aside from the Chuck Pagano lame duck head coach, but in 2017, Ballard came in here and he got rid of a lot of talent on the roster. If there was any talent there, he got rid of a lot of, you know, known faces on the roster if there was any talent there he got rid of a lot of you know known faces on the

Starting point is 00:23:06 team he kind of tore the the roster down to its studs and and just kind of started over with this team and you know it's going to be a bad year or a bad year or two to start uh but you kind of had to tear it all down because there was so much rotten about what was going on with that roster and i think they kind of need that again I do think this current roster is in a better place than where the Colts were heading into 2017 prior to Chris Ballard but I do think that you're at this point where you build such a culture of complacency and you have so many bad contracts that it's like we kind of need to tear this down and just get new voices in here new opinions in here I mean look at what the Washington Commanders did this past offseason.

Starting point is 00:23:47 Like, aside from the home run pick of Jaden Daniels, I know that's obviously something that really speeds up a rebuild. But when you look at what they did in the offseason, where they were aggressive in free agency and not in terms of, you know, getting these superstar players. I mean, their biggest signings were Frankie Lou Vu and Tyler Beadas like that's not superstar signings but they brought in culture guys that fit what they wanted to do and what they wanted to see from the future of their franchise now they still kept a lot of the guys on rookie contracts obviously and let them develop in their new system which I still think the Colts need to do but they did move on from a lot of

Starting point is 00:24:24 veterans they got rid of a lot of veterans. They got rid of a lot of the Ron Rivera misses and bad culture guys that were brought in. And they filled them with a veteran like Bobby Wagner, who's maybe not still the Bobby Wagner, but he's a guy who just sets the standard for what you want in your locker room and what you want with your team. You know, a lot of guys they brought in were just like that. And I think it really helped them turn their team around from a bottom feeder into an 11 win team. Now, again, Jane Daniels is a big part of that. Hitting on your draft picks is a big part of that.

Starting point is 00:24:54 But I do think that type of rebuild is what's needed here in Indianapolis or that type of teardown and just refocus is kind of what's needed here in Indianapolis. So yeah, I don't like the half measure. I don't like the keeping Shane Steigen and then just creating more disjointed timelines, which has been a big theme of this episode, is those disjointed timelines there. Because then you get yourself in a similar situation that we're in right now in maybe two years where say a new general manager comes in and tears it down to the studs and and it's not very good team and Saiken wins four games next year and five games a year after that you're not going to keep a head coach you would miss the

Starting point is 00:25:35 playoffs for four straight seasons so you'd move on from him but you would keep the general manager that he hired because or that he helped hire because it would only be two years into a general manager. You don't fire a general manager after two years. So I just don't like the half measures, man. I don't like just attaching lame ducks to non-lame ducks and attaching new people to older people when the data points are just off. And I just don't like it, man. I think it's poor construction of a franchise. And I just don't think it's man. I think it's poor construction of a franchise. And I just don't think it's something the Colts should do. So overall, yes, I think this is a better alternative than just keeping Ballard for another season,

Starting point is 00:26:13 hoping it somehow works in year nine. Because look, I know the saying goes, the ninth time is the try, but I don't know if it's going to work here for the Colts. So I do think it's time to move on from Chris Ballard and anything that gets that going, I'm in favor of, but not really in favor of this report overall.

Starting point is 00:26:31 But you guys let me know in the comment section what you think of this report. Would you be in favor of running it back with Shane Steichen, the rest of this roster, and maybe a new general manager that Shane Steichen can help pick to maybe refresh the roster with some free agents.

Starting point is 00:26:48 I don't know what the end goal would be of that. Maybe just getting a new face in general, maybe getting a more aggressive guy. I don't know exactly what they would be going for with that. But what would you guys think? Do you guys think that Shane Steichen should have a hand in picking the national manager? Or do you think kind of like me where he hasn't really done enough to deserve that? I do think it's tough to fire him after two years if you do fire Chris Ballard, but I think that's better than this alternative that is being offered to us. So again, let us know in the comment section. I think it's a really

Starting point is 00:27:17 fascinating report. So yeah, you guys let us know what you think on that. And obviously we'll have even more content like this coming in the future because we have the Colts game on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars. And after that, it's full offseason mode. It's pure firing, pure speculation, pure free agency, pure draft. We are finally in the offseason mode with this season officially over. So I do want to thank you guys for making Locked on Colts your first listen today. And every day next, go find Locked on NFL.

Starting point is 00:27:47 First, the Madman Tyler Rowland kicks off your morning with a double shot of NFL espresso. And then stop by the barbershop with Tony Wiggins for some real NFL talk. And if you guys want to become a Locked on Colts insider and chat with us directly and get the insider scoop, follow the link in our show notes. And if you don't already, make sure you're following at locked on Colts at Jake Arthur, NFL and at Zach Hicks to all on Twitter. We're also on Tik TOK and Instagram. Jake has been letting me know that our Tik TOKs have been going off the rails

Starting point is 00:28:13 lately. So definitely check us out there on Tik TOK and also subscribe to us on YouTube, where we list your podcasts. We'd love your guys ratings and views, and we'll catch you guys back here tomorrow afternoon for cross over Thursday.

Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts Report: Shane Steichen Safe with Chris Ballard Potentially Out This Offseason?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.