This post was provided by News Now Warsaw

The winds of change are blowing again in Indianapolis.

The Colts are 2-5, the fanbase is way beyond restless, and the first rock in what promises to be a landslide has rolled down the hill.

Last week, the Colts announced the firing of general manager Chris Ballard.

Under Ballard’s leadership, the franchise never fully reached the point where the rest of the league took it too seriously. Since he took over in 2017, the Colts have labored to a record of 76-82 with one tie.

Despite having an excellent running back and solid offensive line play during a large share of those years—including the current one — the Colts were never a team that scared any other decent team in their division, conference or the NFL.

And there haven’t been many years where there was excitement about the Colts’ chances to win 12 games and be playing deep into January.

And the Colts have earned that by digging themselves an early hole almost every season.

Over the last 20 opening days, the Colts have lost 15 times and tied one other time. In a 16- or 17-game season, starting 0-1 is not an impossible deficit to overcome, but it sure makes the goal of getting to 12 wins a lot more difficult.

Ballard isn’t responsible for all 20 of those season openers, but he did call the shots for the last 10, and the Colts won just once during his reign.

But the changing started even before that.

When owner Jim Irsay died in May of 2025, his three daughters came forward and announced that they were ready to collectively follow in their dad’s footsteps and run the team. Each, they said, would have their own role to play, with Carlie Irsay-Gordon being the most visible and the most involved in the day-to-day operation of the club.

Immediately, she began to prove that she was serious about that.

She was not going to be couped up in the owner’s box between the 200 and 300 levels at Lucas Oil Stadium.

No, this is an owner who was seen down on the sideline for every play of every game. She was wearing an earpiece to hear not only the conversations between coaches, but also between the sidelines and the players on the field.

She was listening, and she was literally taking notes.

We still don’t know exactly what she’s been writing down on her notepad, but clearly two Sundays ago after the embarrassing loss to a winless Titans team at home, she wrote “fire Chris Ballard tomorrow morning.”

And she did.

In pulling the trigger on that move, Carlie reminded us of what she had told Ballard, the front office and the coaching staff during the summer. She said (and I am paraphrasing), “If we aren’t competing for a championship, I’m going to start handing out pink slips.”

Six games into the season, it was clear that no championship was coming this year.

Ballard got fired with the echoes of the boos still ringing through the rafters of LOS, and the 2026 season unofficially came to a close for the Indianapolis Colts.

To win 12 games, Indy would have to win out.

It’s not happening.

Instead, the vultures of the National Football League are circling overhead. The Colts will become sellers before the league’s trade deadline two weeks from now, and Indy will begin charting the course for their future … again.

It’s expected that star running back Jonathon Taylor will be the most coveted of the Colts players. Even though running backs are not valued the way they used to be in pro football, Taylor is likely to bring at least a second-round pick back to Indy.

Defensive tackle Deforest Buckner has loudly, but respectfully, vented his frustration through the media to all of us about how things have been going. Bucker is of an age where he isn’t at the end, but he can see the end from where he is. He wants a shot at being on a winner and playing meaningful games in December and January, and if the girls have the hearts that I think they do, they will see to it that DB gets his wish fulfilled.

Frankly, he’d fit in very nicely with the Bears.

They wouldn’t have to have a fire sale like we see in baseball every summer, but for players with expiring contracts and those who promise to bring back the most draft capital, the front office doesn’t really have a choice.

So, before we even get to Halloween, the Colts season has been pronounced dead.

My prediction: the new GM will bring in a new coach, who will be looking for a long-term solution to the quarterback issue, which has never recovered from Andrew Luck’s slipping out the tunnel and into the Indianapolis night in the preseason of 2019.

It’s hard to imagine the Colts being good again for at least three years … or 10.