I did not anticipate the chickens coming home to roost immediately after my previous article, nor did I expect a doomsday scenario to play out so quickly on the rain-saturated EverBank Stadium field. Yet here we are.
And it’s cutthroat.
I wrote that the Indianapolis Colts were at a Rubicon coming into Jacksonville, and unfortunately, just as their trek began, the horse was shot out from beneath them. Another collapse, rinse, repeat. This particular Indianapolis folly will be remembered for dragging Daniel Jones down with it.
The Colts quarterback was much maligned by the city from the moment he signed with the Colts in the spring. Despite this, Jones won over Indianapolis and the Colts locker room. He surprised much of the league by having a career resurgence while commanding a historic offense that had pundits briefly questioning if the 28-year-old should be in MVP conversations. It was a feel-good story for the first eight weeks, but all good things must come to an end, especially for fans of Indianapolis sports teams.
Candidly, I feel awful for Jones. He did everything by the book and looked to have found a franchise that would support him in righting the wrongs heaped on him by the city of New York. Now his future remains murky at best, and certainly less lucrative.
Now the Colts are in a familiar spot, shrouded in an uncertain future. They will almost certainly miss the playoffs after starting the season 7-1, and wide sweeping changes could follow. Indianapolis hasn’t hit the big red reset button since they decided to “Suck for Luck” in the 2011 season. Annual trips to the quarterback scrap heap since Luck’s surprising retirement have proven hapless. The rest of the roster hasn’t waited. It’s grown, matured, and come into its own. In other words, it’s peaked.
Last week, I wrote that the Colts should trade their veterans in the off-season if they continued to spiral out of the playoffs. In hindsight, that may have been a bit shortsighted. The Colts don’t stand to gain from a half-measure retool that mires them in familiar mediocrity. This current build that Chris Ballard & Co. have created was always set to expire after the 2026 season, with many key veteran players’ contracts rolling off. Indianapolis will need to try and win with an admittedly impressive roster outside of the quarterback and edge rush positions. Anthony Richardson provides the last, albeit tiny, chance at respite from the multi-year quarterback carousel ride the Colts have been on. Even still, unless players like DeForest Buckner and Jonathan Taylor request a trade, receiving a third or fourth round pick in the wake of their absence would be paltry compared to the value they’d still provide.
This week, some members of the football media have quipped that the Colts are right back to where they started at the beginning of the offseason, and they’re largely spot on. Chris Ballard, or whoever is the general manager, will have every incentive to win at all costs. Even if Ballard is fired, the Colts’ situation isn’t exactly attractive for prospective general managers. Indianapolis may be best off allowing the front office and the roster to sunset naturally, with one more year of trying to compete. It’s not idyllic, but neither is gift wrapping the New York Jets a top 10 draft pick in what looks to be a historically talented 2027 draft class.
If Richardson plays like the version of himself we’ve seen since he’s come into the league, then the Colts can sell off their valuable assets at the trade deadline. Indianapolis will have to bank on some development from the 23-year-old, even if it comes from a place of desperation, as he fights to show the NFL he is a capable starting quarterback. Other quarterback alternatives would just prolong the flux state the Colts have been embroiled in for the better part of a decade.
The narrative has always been that this Colts regime would go as far as Anthony Richardson’s development could take them. How the Colts got to this point, however, could never have been foreseen when the Florida product was taken fourth overall in the 2023 draft. An argument could be made that the best of Anthony Richardson hasn’t yet been fully realized. You may counter by pointing out that there is no scenario where a fully formed Richardson blossoms in Indy. The latter is probably closer to reality after the genesis of his career was tarnished by injury and controversy. But the Colts are devoid of other options, aside from signing another retread quarterback who is far beyond his prime. Akin to the signing of Philip Rivers, it’s better to fail spectacularly than fail unimaginatively, which is what a signing of a Russell Wilson type would project.
The way forward after a disaster is never immediately clear; the smoke needs to lift. Daniel Jones’ unfortunate Achilles injury grounded the Colts’ chances to compete in 2025 and put them right back to where they were before signing him. Even if the odds of a successful 2026 campaign with Richardson at the helm are slim, exhausting your options with his development is better than throwing in the towel too early and watching him succeed elsewhere. This is especially true in the Colts’ case, where alternatives do nothing for their long-term goal.
The allure of Richardson’s ceiling alongside a well-constructed offensive roster gives Indy a snowball’s chance at success, but the potential is nevertheless enticing. And if it all comes crashing down? No harm, no foul. This regime, this roster, and Anthony Richardson will all move on, and the Colts can begin their first total rebuild in over a decade. There is little incentive to blow it up now when the roster will naturally reveal long-term answers via next year’s results, while contract expirations will forcefully funnel the team in a direction post-2026.
Thus, I ask with sincerity a question Colts fans have historically scorned.
Why not run it back?
More from The Blue Stable:
The Indianapolis Colts Drop Another Game In Jacksonville As The Season Begins To Slip Away
