Colts planning to bring back Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen for next season despite collapse

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - New Indianapolis Colts co-owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon and her two sisters appear poised to bring back general manager Chris Ballard and coach Shane Steichen for next season despite a second-half collapse that extended the franchise's playoff drought to five years.

While no announcement was made Sunday after Indy lost 38-30 at Houston to finish the season on a seven-game skid, the team issued a media schedule that included Steichen and Irsay-Gordon speaking to reporters Monday, with Ballard expected to hold his season-ending news conference later this week.

Shortly after the schedule release, a reporter employed by the team posted on X that Ballard and Steichen will return in 2026, and the team reposted it.

Ballard and Steichen began this season on the hot seat after continually missing the playoffs.

Steichen is 25-26 in three seasons while Ballard has only two playoff appearances and one postseason win in his nine years as GM. Indy hasn't won the AFC South since 2014.

Steichen's record pales in comparison to that of the Texans' DeMeco Ryans, who also was hired ahead of the 2023 season. Ryans is 32-19 and has led Indy's division rival to three playoff appearances and two AFC South titles.

It looked like all that could change this season when new Colts quarterback Daniel Jones and 2021 NFL rushing champion Jonathan Taylor helped Indy's offense get off to a historic start. Both were MVP contenders when the Colts were 8-2.

But the season started to unravel when Jones was diagnosed with a lower left leg injury following Indy's Week 10 win over Atlanta in Berlin. Four weeks later, in a 36-19 loss at Jacksonville, Jones suffered a season-ending torn right Achilles tendon.

"Yeah. I do, because I believe that," Steichen said Sunday when asked if he thought the Colts were headed in the right direction. "That's how I feel about it. Obviously, we showed signs early in the season that were pretty darn good, and we had some unfortunate circumstances. But that's part of the league. You have to overcome those circumstances."

Jones' injuries also stalled Taylor's push for a second career rushing title, and Indy resorted to bringing 44-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers out of retirement to salvage their playoff hopes. That didn't work, either. Rivers lost each of his three starts before sitting out Sunday's game and watching rookie Riley Leonard deliver a solid performance at Houston - eight days after Houston had eliminated Indy (8-9) with a win over the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Colts became the first team since the 1995 Oakland Raiders and just the sixth since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to miss the playoffs after starting 8-2.

But that didn't persuade the Colts' owners to go in a different direction. It's the biggest decision for Irsay-Gordon and her sisters since the death of their father, longtime owner Jim Irsay, in May.

"You know, for me that's not to decide," Steichen said Sunday when asked about his job status. "What I will say is that I love this team, I love this organization, I love this city and I love the fans."

Ballard and Steichen will enter yet another season trying to figure out their quarterback situation.

Jones was expected to cash in on his early success with a lucrative new contract. Instead, he heads into a second straight offseason as a free agent trying to answer questions about his injury history.

Ballard and Steichen also must decide how to handle oft-injured quarterback Anthony Richardson, the No. 4 overall draft pick in 2023 who lost the starting job to Jones in training camp and only threw two passes this season. He was never active after injuring an orbital bone in a bizarre pregame locker room accident in mid-October when a stretching band broke.