INDIANAPOLIS – Colts General Manager Chris Ballard could pretend, but there’s no time for that. The Indianapolis Colts’ building on 56th Street is full of players for offseason workouts and scouts for the 2026 NFL Draft, and two of the team’s most important players in recent years are seeking a trade, so who has time to fool around? Ballard didn’t try Monday to hide his hand for the upcoming draft. He made an announcement:
“See you Friday,” he told reporters, referring to Day 2 of the draft.
What happened to Thursday? Sauce Gardner happened. That November trade with the New York Jets happened. You remember: Ballard sent the Colts’ first-round picks in 2026 and ’27 to the Jets for Gardner, an elite cornerback when heathy. Is he always healthy? Well, no. But this is the Colts we’re talking about. Good fortune happens in the NFL, probably, but not here.
Thanks to the trade for Gardner, the Colts’ aren’t scheduled to make their initial selection until the No. 47 overall pick. That’s midway through the second round. That’s Friday night. Ballard always visits with the media after the team’s initial pick, which is why…
“See you Friday,” he’d said.
So, a reporter countered – dramatic pause – Friday, not Thursday?
Now Ballard realizes what he’s just done. He hesitates, and tries to be cagey.
“Maybe,” he says of trading Thursday for a first-round pick, “if they’re giving it away.”
He starts cackling. Nobody’s giving away a first-round pick. Not at a price the Colts can afford, anyway. They can’t offer a No. 1 pick in next year’s draft, remember. That first-rounder, like the one this year, is gone.
What else is on TV on Thursday night?
Indianapolis Colts offseason: Pass, fail
The Colts have had a great offseason, if the objective was keeping franchise quarterback Daniel Jones and star receiver Alec Pierce from leaving as free agents. They re-signed both, committing upwards of $200 million over the next two-to-four seasons.
Or.
The Colts have had a lousy offseason, if the objective was getting better.
Whether by trade or free agency the Colts have lost six starters from last season, and they’ll lose a seventh when Ballard grants cornerback Kenny Moore II his wish and trades him. They’ve yet to acquire more than one or two players who could start in 2026, unless free-agent acquisitions like defensive end Arden Key, safety Jonathan Owens, cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt and receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine all have to start, which would change the previously harsh sentence to this:
The Colts have had a lousy offseason.
Now, the Colts do have starters in mind to replace linebackers Zaire Franklin (traded to Green Bay) and Germaine Pratt (free agent to the Raiders), receiver Michael Pittman Jr. (traded to Pittsburgh), right tackle Braden Smith (free agent to the Texans), safety Nick Cross (free agent to the Commanders), defensive end Kwity Paye (free agent to the Raiders) and Moore (future team TBD).
Ideally, though, those starting slots would be filled by players drafted this week, or by players on the roster last season – a mixture of rookies coming off season-ending injuries (Hunter Wohler for Cross, Justin Walley for Moore) and depth pieces already in place (Jalen Travis for Smith, J.T. Tuimoloau for Paye, Jaylon Carlies at linebacker).
This offseason was trending toward greatness – for the Colts, I’m saying! – until something went off the rails. But then, when does something not go off the rails for the Colts?
This is a franchise derailed by one franchise quarterback’s shocking retirement (Andrew Luck in 2019), another franchise QB’s failure to develop (the No. 4 overall pick in 2023, Anthony Richardson, now seeking a trade), a third franchise QB’s season-ending injury (Daniel Jones in 2025) – and its overall tendency to be, shall we say, frugal on the player acquisition market.
But last season, under new ownership, Ballard felt the freedom to throw around money. He signed Jones and cornerback Charvarius Ward, but injuries ended their seasons and are jeopardizing their availability for the 2026 NFL season opener.
Ballard did something else he never does, trading two first-round picks for Gardner with the Colts sitting pretty at 7-2, a checkmate move in other circumstances. But this being the Colts, these were the ensuing circumstances: Jones gets injured, gutting the offense, and then Gardner gets injured, gutting the defense.
Then came that whole Trey Hendrickson thing.
Colts’ 2026 NFL Draft looks different with Trey Hendrickson
You’ve heard of “the butterfly effect,” no doubt: A butterfly flaps its wings in Peking, and five days later a tidal wave washes ashore in New York.
We saw something like that happen this offseason: A general manager flips his gourd in Baltimore, and five days later a tidal wave washes out the Colts’ offseason in Indianapolis.
It’s the Maxx Crosby story, where the Ravens traded for Las Vegas’ longtime defensive end March 7 – only for Ravens GM Eric DeCosta to back out of the deal after Crosby’s physical. Embarrassed and emboldened to spend whatever it takes to fix things, DeCosta overpaid for the second-best defensive end available, Bengals free agent Trey Hendrickson, who was probably (we think) heading to the Colts to play for his former defensive coordinator in Cincinnati, Lou Anarumo.
Could the Colts have matched or even topped the Ravens, and overpaid for Hendrickson? Not these Colts. Not this GM. Ballard makes every move with an eye two or three years down the road, never wanting to saddle the franchise with a terrible contract – even if he might not be here in two or three years, thanks to missing out on Hendrickson.
Noble, but it doesn’t do much for this team’s postseason hopes.
Imagine the Colts, entering the 2026 NFL Draft, with QB1 Daniel Jones, WR1 Alec Pierce and Pro Bowl pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson locked up for years.
This draft would look different, wouldn’t it? So would the rest of the Colts’ offseason, where a team determined to get younger and faster on defense has done neither. The Colts added one player who will turn 31 this season (safety Juanyeh Thomas), three who will turn 30 (Key and defensive tackles Derrick Nnadi and Jerry Tillery), and two who will be 29 (DE Micheal Clemons, linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither).
Those are nice depth pieces, in theory, for an improved defense with a shiny new toy (Hendrickson) at the most important position. Without Hendrickson? The concept of depth takes an ominous turn for a defense with this many holes.
That said, when Ballard was asked Monday where the Colts improved this offseason, he mentioned depth at defensive line, then said the team was banking on the development of several returning young players on offense.
It’s a humble place to be for a team that hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2020. The Colts need to find, conservatively, five or six first-time starters this summer. Fortunately for them, they drafted well enough last year that two players who didn’t play with injuries, Walley (third-rounder in 2025) and Wohler (seventh round), are looking good to return – and a third pick in 2025, Travis (fourth round), looks like a starter as well.
After that trio of first-time starters – assuming they’re ready – the Colts need to draft a defensive end, receiver and linebacker (or two) who are ready to play major roles as rookies. But don’t head to ESPN on Thursday night hoping to see the Colts trade into the first round to make a splash pick.
Earlier Monday, Ballard had said he “would anticipate us being pretty aggressive (this week) moving around the board.”
Asked later in the news conference if “aggressive” could mean moving into Round 1, Ballard clarified his terms.
“Don’t misconstrue ‘aggressive’ for moving up,” he said. “To me, being aggressive can also mean moving back and then moving around and acquiring more picks and then moving…”
He trailed off.
“I just think we’ll be active,” he said. “That’s probably a better word. That was a poor choice of words on my part.”
See you Friday.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Doyel: After Trey Hendrickson debacle, Colts have too many holes to fill in 2026 NFL Draft
Reporting by Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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