Having endured a five-season playoff drought, the Indianapolis Colts equally failed in the 2023 NFL draft to secure their next franchise quarterback.

It was on Monday that Chris Ballard, the general manager, was made to bear the cost of both.

Team co-owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon announced that she had dismissed Ballard, the architect of the franchise's personnel decisions since 2017.

The move came a mere day after the hometown faithful, having booed resoundingly throughout the second half of Sunday's game and chanted "Fire Ballard," departed early as the Colts squandered a 13-point halftime advantage and fell 26-20 to a previously winless Tennessee side.

Irsay-Gordon issued a statement asserting that the decision could brook no deferral until the offseason.

“Our benchmark is to contend for championships, and I believe a change in leadership is requisite if that benchmark is to be met,” she said.

“Making this change mid-season was a deliberate decision.

Waiting would only defer the important work that must commence now.”

She stated that a “thorough search” for Ballard’s successor had already been set in motion.

Irsay-Gordon left no ambiguity as to where she stood in January, when she declined to dismiss Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen amid fans' clamouring for their ousters.

Instead, she said she understood the fans’ desire to field a championship-caliber team but brought both back, conceding that the urgency to make the playoffs could not be greater.

Indy (2-4) has not won the AFC South since 2014 — the longest title drought in the division.

Indeed, each of the other three teams has claimed at least two division crowns since the Colts last won one.

Yet the preliminary findings yielded scant evidence of any discernible divergence.

Ballard devoted the offseason to overhauling the defense, only to watch it open the season by surrendering 1,029 yards—the second-highest two-game total in league history.

Indy lost both contests.

Victories over a then-winless Houston Texans side and a Washington Commanders squad fielding a backup quarterback briefly stifled the external clamor for changes.

Another lamentable defensive showing at Pittsburgh, compounded by Sunday’s debacle — squandering a 13-0 halftime advantage as the Titans’ special teams unit registered one touchdown and paved the way for another, while Indy mustered but a single score after the interval — served only to intensify the scrutiny engulfing the organization.

And it was conspicuously different in the aftermath of the game.

“We must give them something to cheer about,” a more irascible than usual Steichen said.

“I don’t blame them for booing one freaking bit.”

DeForest Buckner, the Pro Bowl defensive tackle customarily known for his equanimity, likewise betrayed his exasperation.

“I’m utterly inured to this perennial rigmarole, year after year,” the team captain remarked.

Evidently, that sufficed to impel Irsay-Gordon to pull the plug on Ballard.

What lies ahead remains ambiguous.

On Sunday, Steichen was queried as to whether Daniel Jones—a quarterback suddenly susceptible to turnovers—would retain his position, and whether he would implement any alterations to his staff.

Although Steichen conceded that the Colts must rectify their turnover issues, he made no commitment to any personnel changes.

Steichen is slated to engage with reporters later on Monday.

Indy (2-4) will visit unbeaten Minnesota (5-0) the following weekend before traveling to AFC South-leading Jacksonville (4-2) the week thereafter; their next home fixture falls on Nov. 8 against Dallas.

Ballard found himself at the helm of a series of peculiar twists and turns not necessarily of his own volition — the abrupt retirement of Andrew Luck in August 2019, seven consecutive season-openers commenced with a different quarterback, the midseason dismissal of coach Frank Reich and the ensuing appointment of Jeff Saturday in 2022, and a bitter contract dispute pitting Irsay against Jonathan Taylor in 2023.

Then, the following year, with a veteran quarterback urgently required to rescue a season rapidly spiralling into disarray, Ballard lured Philip Rivers out of retirement mere moments after the latter had been named a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Ballard also presided over a team that perpetually appeared to be teetering on the verge of genuine contention.

Indy’s three-year playoff drought came to an end in 2018, when Luck guided them to a wild-card round victory at Houston before they fell in the divisional round at Kansas City, where Ballard had worked prior to being hired by Irsay-Gordon’s late father, Jim.

Rivers led the Colts to their most recent postseason appearance in 2020, a 27-24 loss at Buffalo.

Since that juncture, Indy has likewise, on two further occasions, been eliminated on the final weekend.

Yet it was arguably the decision to select quarterback Anthony Richardson with the No. 4 overall pick in 2023 that may ultimately have cost Ballard his job; Richardson's inaccuracy, inconsistency and injury history were what prompted the Colts to bring in Jones last season.

Jones ultimately prevailed in the battle for the starting role, and as he steered the Colts offense to a historic start in 2025, Richardson remained sidelined as an observer while the Colts compiled an 8-2 record.

A broken bone in Jones’ left leg, however, derailed the season, and in December he sustained a season-ending torn right Achilles tendon.

Indy closed out the season by dropping its final seven games.

This season's inauspicious start, ostensibly, proved the decisive final straw for Irsay-Gordon.

"Let me be equally unequivocal: this decision in no wise alters our objectives for the season," Irsay-Gordon said.

"A considerable amount of football lies before us, and I fully anticipate that we shall compete, that we shall improve, and that we shall win football games."

Ballard, a Texan who played college football at Wisconsin, additionally served within the Chicago Bears front office from 2001 to 2011 and coached at Texas A&M-Kingsville from 1994 to 1999.

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