Colts GM Chris Ballard: I didn’t create enough competition on the roster

After the Colts’ season ended in Week 18, DeForest Buckner said that he felt the ego and complacency when it came to players not having to compete for jobs were issues that kept the team from being more successful.

The guy responsible for making the list agreed. General manager Chris Ballard said in a news conference Friday that he thinks the team is “on a roll” after finishing the 2023 season 9-8, and that’s what led him to stick with the players. Ballard went on to say that there must be “real stress” in the dressing room when players are given credit for their roles and he was “wrong” to avoid that.

“Instead of really creating competition and throwing new blood into the locker room, new players into the locker room, I said ‘you know what, we’re going to bring it back,'” Ballard said. “That was a mistake.”

Ballard said the Colts are “not close” to being where they need to be and need to be better at identifying the types of players who can create the kind of game-time struggles and “move the needle” in a way that hasn’t happened in recent years. Failure to do so hasn’t cost Ballard his job thus far, and four straight years outside the playoffs means it’s far from certain he’ll actually make it happen.