Ten months ago, the Colts were a laughingstock. They had been spurned by Josh McDaniels. They had misjudged the seriousness of Andrew Luck’s shoulder injury. They were coming off a disastrous season and looked like they had far too many holes to fill on both sides of the ball to get back to the playoffs.
Chris Ballard turned the franchise around, and that’s why he’s PFT’s choice as the NFL’s executive of the year.
Ballard got all the big decisions right: He hired Frank Reich as head coach after the embarrassment of the failed McDaniels hiring. He trusted the slow but steady process for getting Luck back on track, and had Luck back on the field and ready to go for the start of the season. He traded down in the draft, picking up three extra second-round picks, and then drafted guard Quenton Nelson, who did outstanding work protecting Luck as a rookie. With his second-round pick, he drafted Darius Leonard, perhaps the best defensive rookie in the NFL this year. The Colts are in the playoffs when few thought they would be, and Ballard deserves enormous credit for that.
A close second for the executive of the year award would be Chargers General Manager Tom Telesco, who has done an excellent job putting together a team that has stayed together when it easily could have fallen apart, playing in a tiny soccer stadium while functioning as the “other” team in Los Angeles. Telesco’s first-round picks -- Derwin James in 2018, Mike Williams in 2017, Joey Bosa in 2016, Melvin Gordon in 2015 -- are all playing big roles on this year’s playoff team.
Some would argue for Bears General Manager Ryan Pace. He has certainly done good work, taking over a last-place team and building a first-place roster, but there are knocks against him as well. Mitchell Trubisky is developing into a fine quarterback, but Pace traded up to draft Trubisky when he could have stayed put or even moved down and drafted league MVP Patrick Mahomes. The Khalil Mack trade looks like a good move, but the bill hasn’t come due yet: Let’s see how Pace continues replenishing the roster while managing Mack’s big hit on the salary cap, and without the 2019 and 2020 first-round picks he traded away for Mack, before we declare that trade a slam-dunk success. And Pace has still failed to find a good kicker to replace Robbie Gould, whom Pace cut three years ago. None of those issues mean Pace isn’t a good G.M., but they are enough to rank him below Ballard and Telesco.
There were people who mocked Ballard last year when he said, “The rivalry is back on,” referring to the Colts losing McDaniels to the Patriots, just as they’ve lost so many big game to the Patriots. Some would say it wasn’t much of a rivalry, as the Patriots so often came out on top. But Ballard has made the Colts legitimate rivals to the Patriots, and legitimate contenders to be the Patriots’ successors as the best team in the AFC.
