PHOENIX — Carlie Irsay-Gordon hasn’t changed the stakes.
When Irsay-Gordon explained her decision to bring back general manager Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen for the 2026 season after 2025 ended in a collapse, the Indianapolis principal owner added some weight by saying the sense of urgency for both men has never been higher.
She still feels that way.
Irsay-Gordon also remains confident that the best way to satisfy that sense of urgency is by trying to recapture the magic of the 2025 season before the bye, before injuries to the team’s best players sent the Colts tumbling to a seven-game losing streak to end the season.
“We’re not in the business of just making a change just to make a change,” Irsay-Gordon said. “If a change needs to be made, there will be a reason behind it. We built a foundation last year, and like I said, it felt like a movie where we pressed pause, then turned on and watched something else that was really horrible, and now I want to go back, I want to press play and watch the end of this movie. Because the ending, I think, is going to be really amazing.”
To give Irsay-Gordon the ending she wants, the Colts still need to introduce a few new characters.
Indianapolis doubled down on its 8-2 start by paying big money to bring back starting quarterback Daniel Jones and big-play wide receiver Alec Pierce, but the Colts have also lost a handful of key players along the way.
The Colts traded away wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. and middle linebacker Zaire Franklin, then watched right tackle Braden Smith, defensive end Kwity Paye and strong safety Nick Cross walk away in free agency.
Individually, all five decisions were understandable. Collectively, the Colts have lost five starters with only one clear replacement waiting in the wings, buttressing their depth by signing nine low-cost veterans, rather than the kind of big-name difference-makers who clearly raise the team’s ceiling.
Indianapolis tried to get one, pursuing former Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson hard in the first few days of free agency, only to see Baltimore reverse course by backing out of a Maxx Crosby trade with Las Vegas to throw an enormous amount of money at Hendrickson, more than the Colts were willing to pay.
What remains are more questions than answers, although Indianapolis owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon pointed out the offseason is far from over.
“I think we’re off to a great start,” Irsay-Gordon said.
Missing out on Hendrickson leaves the biggest hole.
Bringing back Jones, Pierce and replacing Smith with young right tackle Jalen Travis leaves a clear path for the Colts to recapture their magic offensively — provided Jones recovers well from a torn Achilles tendon — but Indianapolis needs reinforcements defensively, particularly at defensive end and linebacker.
Ballard has already set his own goal for the offseason. The Colts want to get younger and faster on defense, a goal that is doable at linebacker in the draft but elusive at defensive end without the benefit of a first-round pick, sent to the Jets at the deadline last year in order to get cornerback Sauce Gardner.
“The path that we need is, obviously, d-line,” Irsay-Gordon said. “I think it’s a clear path as far as, what are the pieces that we need, and I feel like there’s a lot of great opportunities in the draft.”
Draft analysts believe the 2026 class is deep at defensive end.
But Ballard’s tenure has proven how difficult it is to draft a difference-making defensive end outside of the top 10 picks, and it gets even more difficult after the first round.
It’s a difficult place to be when the stakes have already been set. Ballard is headed into his 10th season as the Colts general manager; Steichen is in his fourth season as head coach. Both men’s job security has been questioned after the end of the last two years.
“I think Chris and Shane know that, too,” Irsay-Gordon said. “It’s a tough league, and it’s a results-oriented league.”
Indianapolis hasn’t gotten any results in half a decade.
The pressure keeps building.
“Part of it, I would say, is that when you miss the playoffs for five years, I mean, you feel it,” Irsay-Gordon said. “It’s palpable. Not even just for Chris and Shane, but there’s a lot of guys.”
The core of this Colts team has been here a long time with little to show for it in terms of postseason production. Up until this point, Indianapolis has always had a reason to believe it has enough of a core to stay the course, but with players like DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart, Jonathan Taylor and Kenny Moore II headed into the final year of their contracts, time is running short to prove this core can get over the hump.
Beginning with the guys at the top of the food chain.
“Every year we fall short of that, it breaks my heart, because they only have so long to do this,” Irsay-Gordon said. “Because of the road we’ve sort of been on, we’re going to empty the tank. We’re going to go balls to the wall, and I think sometimes feeling that helps everyone raise that water line.”
Indianapolis has made that argument before and come up empty.
The Colts need to upgrade the roster to make it count this time.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon on urgency: ‘We’re going to go balls to the wall’
Reporting by Joel A. Erickson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
