Kick 'Em Out 2025: Indianapolis Colts

A sterling start to the Indianapolis Colts’ 2025-26 season gave way to a bizarre ending featuring the return of Phillip Rivers.

Turn out the lights, the party’s over.

With a little help from Willie Nelson, former NFL quarterback and narrator Don Meredith would routinely herald closing time before it was cool on the original editions of Monday Night Football. Alas for all but one of football’s 32 finest, it’s over before the desired Vince Lombardi Trophy hoist, as the season, or at least the championship-contending portion of it, has come to an end.

With that in mind, TeamFB7 goes over the season that was for the fallen, looking at what was, what is, and what could be. We return to the AFC for the halfway point, as the Indianapolis Colts are the next to be analyzed …

Jonathan Taylor Indianapolis Colts — Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Team: Indianapolis Colts
Record: 8-9
Date of Playoff Death: Dec. 28
Last Playoff Season: 2020

What Went Wrong

In the absence of Indiana Jones, Lucas Oil Stadium became a temple of doom.

Quarterback Daniel Jones and the Colts rose as one of the most pleasant surprises in recent football memory with a sterling start defined by offensive prowess. Jones putting it together, as well as the continued re-emergence of Jonathan Taylor, helped a meandering offensive group establish its first form of sustained success and suddenly it felt there was finally consistent momentum that hadn’t been touched since Andrew Luck’s shocking retirement.

Combining that with a respectable-enough defensive effort (featuring Camryn Bynum and Charvarius Ward joining the secondary fold alongside incumbent run stoppers DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart), the Colts culled their doubters on a weekly basis.

With that in mind, general manager Chris Ballard created a tidal wave at the trade deadline, obtaining All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner from the New York Jets for the hefty price of two first-round picks and receiver project Adonai Mitchell. At the time, Indianapolis was 8-2 heading into a showdown with the defending conference champion Chiefs and some were penciling their name in the bye slot on the AFC playoff bracket.

From there, however, things collapsed with an epic thud in the form of a seven-game losing streak to close out the year. Jones was once again the “V,” albeit on the opposite end of the spectrum: already used to various lower body issues (i.e. a torn ACL that ended his 2023 season in New York, a fractured fibula endured in the clash with Kansas City), he was revealed to have torn his Achilles in a Week 14 loss to surging division rival Jacksonville.

The Colts returned to the department of bizarre gridiron headlines shortly after. With would-be aerial savior Anthony Richardson also ailing, the team turned to the ghosts of the new millennium by plucking prior passing sensation Phillip Rivers from the high school coaching ranks.

The 44-year-old Rivers, overseer of the Colts’ most recent playoff run, performed admirably after a four-year absence but it was far from enough to save Indianapolis from its dire fate of becoming the first locale (and just the third all-time) to miss the playoffs after an 8-2 start since the 1995 Oakland Raiders.

Colts QB Philip Rivers.
Dec. 10, 2025. pic.twitter.com/zD7F7pgvXA
— Jeremy Bergman (@JABergman) December 10, 2025

The almost-whimsical passing situation ultimately helped steer the camera away from the collapse. Jones’ absence (which derailed Taylor from his own path to the MVP award) was obviously the most glaring issue but he was far from the only one who disappeared: the Gardner gambit backfired in the short-term when he endured a non-contact calf injury. The progress of Ward was frequently interrupted by visits to concussion protocol while Buckner endured a neck issue that spared him from the brutality of the final hours.

Once those revelations began to vanish, the holes (i.e. pass defense) became far more glaring and difficult to contain. All that pushed the Colts’ current playoff drought to five seasons, tied with New Orleans for the league’s third-longest active stretch of denials.

Silver Linings

— Turned into a Big Blue punchline in New York, Jones found redemption in what might’ve been a last crusade for his opportunity as a franchise quarterback. Picking Jones up off Minnesota’s scrap heap and granting him the full-time starting reigns over presumed franchise man Richardson drew more from the online gridiron jesters but no one was laughing when the Duke alum took his devilish revenge. Sure, it helped to have the elite rushing talents of Taylor behind him. But Jones’ conventional consistency (throwing at least one touchdown pass in each of his first dozen showings, completing 68 percent of his passes) combined with advanced advancements (top 10 in on-target rate, completed air yards per attempt) but it’s likely that no one fulfilled the middle initial of “MVP” better than Jones in the pre-Thanksgiving slate, especially by conventional NFL standards where passing is king.

Daniel Jones Indianapolis Colts — Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Having “proved” it on a prove it deal (one-year, $14 million), Jones is reportedly engaged in new financial talks with the Colts, who rank at the cusp of the top 10 in effective cap space. His rehab will obviously take center stage of management’s offseason watchlist but there’s finally light at the end of the Colts’ quarterbacking tunnel paved by nostalgics from elsewhere and homegrown washouts.

— For a while, it felt like the Colts’ top passing playmaker beyond Michael Pittman Jr. was receivers coach and franchise legend Reggie Wayne. In between Rivers’ Indianapolis entries, Taylor had to pull double duty as the other top aerial option but the Colts enjoyed respective breakouts from Alec Pierce and Tyler Warren, the latter of whom is destined to be their last premier freshman entry for quite a while. Pierce saved the best for last in terms of his rookie contract, breaking loose for his first four-digit yardage season after leading the league in average aerial gain. Pierce is also a free agent but there’s an avenue to create a well-deserved payday for each: Pierce and Warren’s respective rises make the potential financially induced departures of Pittman and Josh Downs easier to bear.

Looking Ahead

Notable Free Agents: TE Mo Allie-Cox, S Nick Cross, EDGE Samson Ebukam, QB Daniel Jones, EDGE Tyquan Lewis, DE Kwity Paye, WR Alec Pierce, RG Danny Pinter, LB Germaine Pratt, RT Braden Smith

Potential Cap Cuts: WR Michael Pittman Jr. ($24 million), DT Grover Stewart ($12.25 million*), S Kenny Moore ($9.9 million*), CB Charvarius Ward ($8.56 million*), LB Zaire Franklin ($7 million*), WR Josh Downs ($3.8 million), CB Mekhi Blackmon ($3.6 million), CB Jaylon Jones ($3.6 million), WR Ashton Dulin ($2.9 million), P Rigoberto Sanchez ($2.55 million)

(*—post-June 1)

The Colts will be working through this offseason without a familiar face, as team owner Jim Irsay passed away in May.

His daughter and successor Carlie went viral during the early surge for her active sideline role that saw her armed with a clipboard and headset. Her first offseason at the helm, alongside the tenured Ballard, will be a challenge considering their next two regularly scheduled first-rounders are out in New York. The cap space is fairly strong but it’s clear that this core needs a kick, so that could force them to bid farewell to some tenured veterans, especially if they want to keep newly-crowned cornerstones.

Daniel Jones and the Colts have begun discussions on a multi-year contract extension, per @TomPelissero.

Jones signed a one-year, $14 million deal with Indy last season and there’s mutual interest on both sides to finalize a new deal. pic.twitter.com/qO2EjPUwl0
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) February 23, 2026

Ironically enough, Ballard and Irsay might have to be even more aggressive after the blunt strike of trading for Gardner. There’s something to say about the continuity Indianapolis has established despite the constant turnover at quarterback, as nine different men have made at least 62 starts over the past five seasons. Not one, however, has come in the playoffs, so it might be time to make an adjustment and the best way to build capital is letting several eight-figure paychecks escape the books. There are some undeniable essentials (Jones, Pierce, maybe Stewart) but it’s clear there has to be some of change.

Some of those adjustments may forced, as they’re set to lose some major pieces on an offensive line that faces a larger spotlight with a recovered Jones back under center. They’re also set to lose several members from a pass rush that placed in the middle of the pack in pressure but failed to reach 40 sacks. Once the checks to Jones and potentially Pierce are written, secondary depth will also be key. There’s definitely time to salvage the Gardner situation but the Colts need some form of improvement back there after placing second in most yards allowed behind only the porous Cowboys.

Is There Hope?

There’s certainly reason to believe so: even in their depleted state, the Colts lost only two games by multiple possessions, one of which was a clutch field goal roulette against the future champion Seattle Seahawks in Rivers’ return to horseshoes. That hints that there’s something to work with, a contrast to the trope of hopelessness that seems to follow a failed first-round sacrifice.

The Indianapolis Colts had the highest DVOA ever for a team with a losing record.

A crazy good first two months, and then a crazy collapse. pic.twitter.com/3QA8F8mWJf
— Aaron Schatz 🏈 (@ASchatzNFL) January 5, 2026

The common theme, of course, continues to be Jones and how much longer he can keep up the salvation show, evidenced by the aforementioned dwindled late numbers from Taylor. Management appears convinced that it has the right personnel to work with him, giving head coach Shane Steichen a fourth season despite sitting a game under. 500.

Again, the Colts’ relative accomplishments over the past near-decade are somewhat impressive despite their mediocrity, as they’ve never full spiraled out of control since the Luck vanishing. At some point, though, that has to stop being a landmark, especially in a division that has a propensity to wildly ebb and flow.