After the Colts’ season came to an end in Week 18, defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said that he felt ego and complacency when it came to players not having to compete for jobs were issues that kept the team from being more successful.
The guy responsible for building the roster agreed. General Manager Chris Ballard said at a Friday press conference that he thought the team was “trending up” after finishing the 2023 season 9-8 and that led him to stick with the players. Ballard went on to say that there needs to be “real stress” inside the locker room when it comes to players earning their roles and that he was “wrong” by avoiding it.
“Instead of really creating competition throughout and throwing new blood into the locker room, new players into the locker room, I said ‘you know what, we’re gonna run it back,’” Ballard said. “That was a mistake.”
Ballard said the Colts are “not close” to being where they need to be and that they have to be better at identifying the kinds of players who can create the kind of fight for playing time and “move the needle” in a way that hasn’t happened in recent years. The failure to do that hasn’t cost Ballard his job to this point and four straight years out of the playoffs means that it’s far from a sure thing that he can actually accomplish it.
