Sense of Urgency Has Never Been Higher After Retaining HC, GM, Colts Co-Owner Says

The Colts held on to both head coach Shane Steichen and GM Chris Ballard, but co-owner and CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon said its time for them to put up results.

Co-owner of the Indianapolis Colts Carlie Irsay-Gordon looks on during the first quarter against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field in Seattle on Dec.14, 2025. Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Indianapolis Colts co-owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon chose to keep both general manager Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen after the season ended. During her end-of-year news conference on Jan. 5, she said expectations are only higher because of that.

The Colts started the season hot, going 7-1 through the first half of the year, but injuries took their toll. The team won just one more game the rest of the way and finished 8-9.

“To our fans ... you’re right to be frustrated with how the latter part of our season went,” Irsay-Gordon said in a prepared statement expressing gratitude to the Colts faithful.

She also expressed confidence in the foundation laid by the team in the first half of the year and emphasized the expectations going into next season.

“We have been very clear with Chris and Shane that giving them another opportunity means that the sense of urgency for them to deliver and perform has never been higher,” she said. “Chris and Shane are both capable of facing this challenge head-on and finding a way to achieve the results our fans deserve, which is winning games, getting to the postseason, and ultimately winning championships.”

Irsay-Gordon described 2025 as “a tale of two seasons in one.”

In the first half of the season, the Colts looked the part, with wins over the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers (both current playoff teams) and dominant outings against the Miami Dolphins, Tennessee Titans twice, and Las Vegas Raiders. Quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Jonathan Taylor were lighting up the field on offense, and the defense was punishing the opposing offense.

The team was humbled in a Week 9 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but it was after the Week 11 bye that the wheels began to fall off.

Jones was dealing with a fractured leg that hindered his mobility, and Taylor’s production fell off as teams figured out how to stop him. Jones eventually went down for the season with a torn Achilles. On defense, the team lost cornerback Xavien Howard to retirement, defensive tackle DeForest Buckner to a neck injury, and CB Charvarius Ward to multiple concussions.

The injury to Jones, coupled with injuries to backup Anthony Richardson and rookie Riley Leonard, forced the Colts to ask 44-year-old Philip Rivers to come out of retirement for the final four games of the season. Rivers made a valiant effort despite being 5 years removed from his last NFL snap, but the defense suddenly showed an inability to close out tight games, losing 5 of their final 7 games—3 of their last 4—by one possession in the fourth quarter.

Irsay-Gordon praised both Ballard and Steichen’s adaptability: for Ballard, it was taking a more aggressive approach to free agency and making a huge mid-season trade for cornerback Sauce Gardner to fill many of the holes on the roster from past seasons; for Steichen, it was his ability to assemble a roster with the players given to him by Ballard and establish a culture for them. The challenge then was finding ways to win when injuries derail the team’s momentum.

“I think we just have to be able to face adversity better,” she said. “I believe in the team.”

Steichen has only been the head coach for three seasons, but Ballard is in his ninth season as general manager.

Irsay-Gordon said she looked at the whole body of work across his tenure and said that Ballard’s improvements this season merited giving him another shot. She also said it was important not to have recency bias when it came to the back half of the season, but to consider the dominant early season in the whole body of work.

A reporter asked if she considered her father, the late Jim Irsay, during her deliberations, which she did.

“He wasn’t fortunate to have siblings that you can trust and confide in, and discuss, and really make sure you’re making the right decision, because I think you’ve got to look at all these different perspectives and take those into account too, because it’s a big decision to make,” she said.