Colts’ problems go deeper than losing out on L’Jarius Sneed

Missing out on one player won’t seemingly make a difference. Missing out on player after player over the years does.

The Indianapolis Colts lost to a division foe yet again. Instead of it being to the Houston Texans with the season on the line, this time, it was to the Tennessee Titans in the L’Jarius Sneed sweepstakes. According to some, the Colts were the frontrunner. According to others, they weren’t even playing the game. Either way, they missed out on an opportunity to bring in a player who could make a major difference to improve a less than stellar defensive unit. Tell me if you have heard something similar over the last seven years under Chris Ballard.

The Ballard defenders will say the following:

Sneed has a bum knee. He would barely play.

Look at all that guaranteed money. Who would make that kind of deal?

Let the Titans have him. They will suck anyway.

There are tons of big names out there. Let Ballard cook.

I can’t say any of those are totally incorrect. The problem is we have been making these same excuses year after year as the Colts have failed to obtain true difference makers in free agency. Ballard made a splash by obtaining DeForest Buckner but that was via trade. Free agency has simply been an arena in which Ballard refuses to participate.

The Ballard defenders pipe up again:

Most free agents don’t work out.

They get overblown contracts and are usually gone from their new teams in two years.

If we pay someone all “that money” how can we afford to fill out the roster?

Other teams participate in free agency. Other teams have won their divisions in the last eight years. Other teams have gone to their conference championships and the Super Bowl. Look, I don’t have the numbers to state the exact connection between free agency and those events (I am mainly just a rambling, frustrated fan.) It goes beyond free agency, however. It goes to a place in which teams need to be willing to take chances. They need to go out and grab someone whether it be in free agency, via trade, or the draft. Ballard is simply too passive and unwilling to risk anything to move the Colts forward as a franchise.

That, right there, isn’t just the rambling of a frustrated fan. That is a fact. We have watched his strategy for the better part of a decade and with what results? One playoff win and zero division titles. ZERO. The Colts aren’t going up against prime Brady, Manning, or Mahomes. It is a division that has had some “crap-tastic” quarterbacks and teams. We have even seen the last two years in which all four teams work to do everything in their power to seemingly not claim the division. It has been dreadful. Ballard has proven he is unable and unwilling to win this division. Now, with an emerging C.J. Stroud, the job could be harder than ever.

I have said it before, I am not sure what he is waiting for. What needs to happen? The Colts have a quarterback on a rookie deal. Yes, they probably overachieved last year, but it wasn’t without other issues that should resolve themselves to potentially make them even better. Why not capitalize? Why is the porous secondary a “secondary” concern? Why are the trenches the only place to build a roster? Why are receivers unimportant? Why did Ballard get a second chance, and what is he going to do with it?