they released a letter to the public.<\/a>\n<\/p>\nBallard responded Thursday by citing some of the changes that must made if the Colts intend to overcome injuries and have a stronger finishing kick.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe’ve got to handle adversity better, we’ve got to finish better,” he said. “We were 2-7 in one-possession games. We’ve got to flip that trend. There are things in two-minute that we have to look at because we were giving up too many scores at the end of halves. That’s something that’s got to be corrected. I’m not necessarily saying I have the answers right now, but we’re working toward that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones & Pierce<\/p>\n
Ballard made it clear re-signing Jones and receiver Alec Pierce are both high on the priority list.<\/p>\n
Jones was in the MVP conversation until November when he suffered a fractured lower left leg and then a season-ending torn right Achilles tendon. Pierce, meanwhile, is expected to cash in on his deep-threat ability after leading all NFL qualifiers in yards per reception each of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe’s a pretty freaky talent in terms of athletic ability. Will he be the version you saw right away? Maybe not, but he still could be pretty good right away. I think Daniel has a very bright future in Indianapolis,” Ballard said, referring to Jones before addressing Pierce. “From the day we worked him out at the University of Cincinnati. we had a great belief in Alec Pierce. I think he’s been a good player every year.”<\/p>\n
Richardson\u2019s future<\/p>\n
The biggest offseason question might be what Indy does with quarterback Anthony Richardson.<\/p>\n
In addition to dealing with an array of injuries since being selected with the No. 4 overall draft pick in 2023, Richardson has struggled with his accuracy and threw only two passes in 2025 after Jones won the starting job in training camp.<\/p>\n
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\u201cGoing into training camp, I thought Anthony had made great strides,\u201d Ballard said. \u201cHe\u2019s a great teammate. I think time will tell, but it was great to get him back out to practice for that last three weeks or at least getting him involved with the team and moving again.”<\/p>\n
Defensive changes<\/p>\n
The defense could be in line for a major overhaul with big money tied up in older veterans, some key players hitting free agency and as Ward contemplates retirement following three concussions this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our age showed a little bit, and we’ve got to get younger,” Ballard said. We’ve got to get faster on the defensive side.”<\/p>\n
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Two veterans who do fit into the Colts’ long-term plans are three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle DeForest Buckner and Gardner, a two-time All-Pro. Both battled injuries over the last two months of the season but are expected to be key long-term building blocks for Ballard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Look, would we get this guy in the draft?\u2019 Well, OK, maybe with a little luck,” Ballard said when asked about trading two first-round picks for Gardner. \u201cBut you talk about a premier guy who’s 24 years old and the contract, we thought, was advantageous. He’s got a bright future and he’s going to be a core piece for us here for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
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AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen talks to the media following an NFL football game against the Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[4994,1504,21476,4991,5422,2005,2772,12158,7,2004,392,2381,6,27878,27876,96501,7536,4975],"class_list":["post-665231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indianapolis-colts","tag-alec-pierce","tag-anthony-richardson","tag-carlie-irsay-gordon","tag-charvarius-ward","tag-chris-ballard","tag-colts","tag-daniel-jones","tag-deforest-buckner","tag-football","tag-indianapolis","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-indianapoliscolts","tag-nfl","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40785-ap-indiana-sports-only","tag-sauce-gardner","tag-shane-steichen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115862628972298825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}