The Indianapolis Colts are banking on a quarterback competition between former top-10 picks Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones to ignite their passing offense during the 2025 season. If they fall short once again, though, the entire house could start to come down — from quarterback up to general manager.
On Tuesday, ESPN’s Ben Solak touched upon the Colts’ forthcoming do-or-die season on offense in his comprehensive list of “100 things to know for the 2025 NFL season,” featuring Indianapolis twice in his write-up about “11 jobs with question marks.”
The two jobs in question? The Colts’ starting quarterback position and Chris Ballard’s standing as the team’s general manager, a position he has held since January 2017.
While the Colts’ quarterback uncertainty is evident, Ballard is also on the hot seat after eight seasons at the helm with mixed results. He won the PFWA Executive of the Year award in 2018 after helping the Colts rebound from a four-win season in 2017, but he has also guided the Colts to just one playoff win and zero division titles in eight years.
“The Colts have not made the playoffs in the past four seasons and have not won a playoff game in the past six seasons, all under Ballard’s direction,” Solak wrote. “They have poured plenty of resources into the passing attack over the past few offseasons.
“If the Colts cannot figure out a passing offense this season, this time next year is ripe for a hard reset at all key positions: quarterback, head coach and even general manager.”
Chris Ballard Has Run Out of Time to Fix Colts’ Issues
Evaluating Ballard’s eight-year run as the Colts’ general manager is somewhat tricky.
As a talent evaluator, Ballard has succeeded in many ways. He is the man who drafted running back Jonathan Taylor, left guard Quenton Nelson and linebacker Shaquille Leonard, but he has also struck gold in the later rounds, landing starters in defensive tackle Grover Stewart (2017 fourth round), linebackers E.J. Speed (2019 fifth round) and Zaire Franklin (2018 seventh round) and guard Will Fries (2021 seventh round).
In terms of finding a consistent starting quarterback, though, Ballard has struggled.
The Colts spent multiple seasons with a revolving door at quarterback under Ballard’s watch before Richardson broke the trend as the Week 1 starter in 2023 and 2024. Before him, the Colts had a different starter in six consecutive seasons, including Jacoby Brissett (2019), Philip Rivers (2020), Carson Wentz (2021) and Matt Ryan (2022).
To be fair to Ballard, Andrew Luck’s sudden retirement in 2019 threw a franchise-shaking wrench into his roster construction that left him scrambling. Many of his course-correcting moves to fix the quarterback position failed miserably, though, including trading high-value picks for one season each with Wentz and Ryan.
Fortunately, Ballard can still turn things around if his bet on the quarterback position works out in 2025 with Richardson and Jones. If the Colts are looking for a new starter once again in 2026, though, Ballard may not have enough trust to lead the next search.
Will Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones Start in Week 1?
The biggest storyline about the Colts heading into their 2025 training camp is: who will open the season as their starting quarterback — Richardson or the newcomer Jones?
During February’s NFL combine, Ballard said he wanted to “create a real competition” at quarterback heading into 2025 to push Richardson and help improve “everybody’s game.” Less than one month later, the Colts signed a one-year, $14 million contract with Jones, a former top-10 pick who started 69 games for the New York Giants.
Now, the Colts are preparing to pit the two of them together in hopes that they will feel much stronger about their starting quarterback when they roll into Week 1’s opener.
At this stage, it is difficult to predict which quarterback will emerge as the starter. While Jones has more experience that could give him an edge in training camp, Richardson is Ballard’s hand-picked first-round selection and still has plenty of untapped potential despite the inconsistencies he showed during his first two seasons in Indianapolis.
Richardson won’t be handed the job without showing significant growth. But if he can, he has an opportunity to lock himself into place as the Colts’ franchise starter in 2025.
Jordan J. Wilson is a sports reporter who covers the NFL and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. He has previously covered all levels of sports — high school, college and pro — for a variety of publications including The Indianapolis Star, The News-Gazette, Springfield State-Journal Register and Peoria Journal Star. More about Jordan J. Wilson
