After 10 years of mediocrity, it's time for the Colts to clean house and ace this 2026 Draft

They started with a Georgia linebacker and an LSU safety. Faster, younger, less expensive alternatives to Zaire Franklin and Nick Cross. Now Day 3 beckons.

It had gone stale by now, 10 years of bumps and bruises and ownership issues, five years without a playoff berth, 14 years since the Colts won the AFC South. There may be gnashing of teeth about the loss of six and potentially seven starters from this Indianapolis Colts team, a major loss of leadership, a significant change of face, and I’m asking myself the following question:

What have they won?

Yeah, Kenny Moore II and Michael Pittman Jr. and Zaire Franklin were all-time good guys, community pillars, unofficial spokesmen for the team when reporters came around.

But it’s like the guy who averages 26 ppg for a 17-win NBA team. I mean, it doesn’t matter how mediocre you are – and the Colts have been the very picture of mediocrity – somebody has got to settle in as a leader. And how much does the captaincy really mean? The Colts named Anthony Richardson a captain his rookie season.

This is a very needed housecleaning.

The draft? As this is being written, it’s the morning after Rounds 2 and 3 and, as expected Chris Ballard traded back and grabbed an additional fourth-round pick.

Then he addressed a massive hole on the defense – before Saturday, could you name a starting Colts linebacker on this team? – by grabbing Georgia inside linebacker CJ Allen. Guess who’s mentioned prominently as a comp for Allen?

Why, it’s Zaire Franklin.

The circle of life.

Essentially, Ballard is getting a younger, faster, less expensive version of Franklin. I don’t know if Allen has a podcast – just a matter of time, is my guess – but like Franklin, he has an enormous presence in every community he touches.

He wore the green dot at Georgia and will wear it starting on day one in Indy. And while he’s said to lack in some coverage areas – just what I read -- he is an instinctive player who makes up for some slight physical limitations with an insistent motor and an intuitive sense for the game.

He led Georgia in tackles (47), tackles for loss (8) and two forced fumbles. Another thing worth noting: Allen didn’t commit a single penalty in 41 college games.

“He stands for all the right stuff,” Ballard said late Friday night. “He’s an athletic, fast MIKE (middle linebacker). He’ll be a green-dot guy for us from the get-go. I mean, he’s a face of the program type of guy. He’s a really special dude now. Loves to play, serious about football. It’s evident when you watch Georgia tape. I mean, he shows up and look, I mean Kirby (Smart) and Will Muschamp…they were effusive in what kind of player this kid is. It’s a good fit for us.”

With Allen, Ballard very directly addressed one of the team’s greatest needs, if not its greatest need. With Franklin and Germaine Pratt gone, the Colts were in desperate straits.

(Yeah, I know the Colts traded back and gave up the opportunity to draft IU’s DeAngelo Ponds, leaving fans apoplectic. I say: Calm down. Ponds will be a game-changer, but slot corner, while a need, is not a high priority right now.)

With their second pick, in the third round, the Colts didn’t think specifically in terms of need, selecting LSU safety AJ Haulcy. He will bring a big game and, if his post-draft interview with Indy writers was any indication, he’ll bring a big personality, too.

The move replaced Nick Cross with a younger, faster, less expensive version than the Colts’ one-time safety.

At this point, I’m guessing you were thinking what I was thinking: Why not an edge rusher? Then I dug into some of the draft guides and saw what Ballard would be talking about later that evening: There weren’t any edge rushers in the late-second and third rounds who caught the Colts’ eye. They’d rather address a position of slightly lesser positional need than stretch for another edge rusher who can’t play dead. Expect a defensive end or two to come off the board to the Colts this afternoon. Although unless you’re talking about Robert Mathis, you don’t find uncommon edge rushers in the latter stages all the draft.

What it all comes down to is Ballard, who is fighting for his job in the final year of his contract, has no choice but to ace this year’s draft, which continues this afternoon with picks in rounds 4-7. His most important draft, which he duffed, was selecting Anthony Richardson. This is his second most important draft, and maybe his most important given his fraught employment situation. He’s in the final year of his deal. The writing is on the wall. It’s playoffs or bust.

And he’s got to do it without his first-round draft choices the next two years, having dealt them last year for elite cornerback Sauce Gardner (I know it blew up in their faces last year, but I still think this deal benefits the Colts). It needs to be 2018, when Ballard added Quenton Nelson and Shaq Leonard. It needs to be 2020, when he grabbed Jonathan Taylor and Pittman Jr., both in the second round. Or the 2022 draft, when they grabbed Alec Pierce in the second round and Bernhard Raimann in the third round.

They need an edge rusher (this is a recording), an area where Ballard has invested considerable draft capital with very little in the way of a return. They need linebackers; still, even after the Allen acquisition. They need young interior defensive linemen to eventually step in for DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart. They could use another wide receiver to replace Pittman, although they’re bullish on the idea that Josh Downs can line up outside opposite Alec Pierce.

It was a quiet free agent period, the Colts adding some depth like defensive linemen Arden Key and Michael Clemons, but after they struck out on Trey Hendrickson, the Colts concentrated on re-signing Jones and Pierce. In other words, Ballard needs to hit some homeruns in this draft.

Here’s what scares me: I don’t yet see how the Colts are significantly better today than they were yesterday. A little faster and younger on defense, but game-changers? Hard to say. And it puts the onus on Ballard to produce with very little in the way of a safety net. There is no margin for error. The Colts are counting on a lot of things to go exceedingly well, like safety Hunter Wohler and cornerback Justin Walley returning after suffering serious injuries last year. Like Jones – that’s Daniel Jones -- recovering from Achilles surgery, like Buckner coming back from neck surgery, like Pierce undergoing the knife, forcing him out the next three months.

Earlier this week, Ballard was asked straight away whether his team has improved over last year.

“Well, I think our depth up front is better,” he said before he ever got his hands on Friday’s second and third rounds and Day 3 Saturday.

“ I do believe that. I think the additions of (defensive tackle) Colby (Wooden) – like Colby kind of gets washed over a little bit, but like he started. He’s not really a nose, but because of who he is as a kid, he ended up starting for Green Bay at the nose and playing a lot of snaps. But we think he gives us some real versatility, as we do with (Jerry) Tillery. We think he gives us some versatility. So, I do think – and then with the additions of (Micheal) Clemons and (Arden) Key. I think we got better real depth and they’re healthy. As of right now, they’re healthy. So, I think that’s a really positive thing.

“I think on offense, we’re going to bet on some development of players. I mean, that’s kind of what we’ve done. I mean you got to be able to do that. And it’ll – I think offensively with Jalen Travis, we saw enough good stuff at the end of the year that we think he’s got real upside...And then I think the ability on offense to get – I think we’re going to be able to get (Alec) Pierce and (Josh) Downs, I’ve said this numerous times about Josh Downs, I think Josh Downs is good. I’ve always thought he was good. We’ll see how it plays out, but I think getting him and Pierce the ball more is going to be a good thing.”

Yeah, this is going to be a different year, a very different year, more different than any of Ballard’s previous years.

By the end of this afternoon, we’ll have a pretty solid idea what the 2027 Indianapolis Colts will look like, with the requisite roster tinkering in the coming months. I know this for sure: Indy just got faster, younger and less expensive. The problem is, they don’t yet have any game-changers, especially on defense. That worries me. It does. And has for several years.