Jim Irsay stood beside his private jet just days after the 2021 season ended and made sure the camera was rolling to capture his thoughts.
The former Indianapolis Colts owner didn’t want anyone to miss his message following the Colts’ catastrophic end-of-season collapse that was punctuated by a 26-11 loss to the 3-14 Jaguars. That defeat denied Indianapolis a playoff appearance and infuriated the man in charge of it all.
“We have allowed, and I have allowed doubt, fear and a lack of faith to slip into our DNA and it will not stand,” Irsay said. “… I promise you one thing, anyone walking into the 56th Street complex this year will be walking in with ALL. CHIPS. IN. Period. (If) you don’t want to put all of your chips in for winning and excellence, then don’t walk in the building.”
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— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) January 14, 2022
For the next three seasons, Irsay’s declaration appeared to be more performative than productive as his “upper quartile” Colts went 21-29-1 and faded into mediocrity. Money was rarely spent, and trades were hard to come by.
That is, until Tuesday, when amid a surprise turnaround in 2025, Indianapolis GM Chris Ballard pushed all of his chips to the center of the table and acquired star cornerback Sauce Gardner in a trade with the New York Jets. In exchange for the two-time first-team All-Pro, Ballard parted with a 2026 and 2027 first-round pick and second-year wide receiver AD Mitchell.
There is no precedent for what Ballard just pulled off because for the majority of his tenure, he never had the team or the surrounding NFL landscape to be this aggressive. The Colts are 7-2 and atop the AFC standings. Meanwhile, C.J. Stroud and the two-time defending AFC South champ Texans are 3-5, Patrick Mahomes and the three-time defending AFC champion Chiefs are 5-4, and Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, who are two years removed from an AFC championship appearance, are just 3-5. That’s not to say there aren’t other formidable teams out there, like the Drake Maye-led 7-2 Patriots and the 6-2 Bills, who are seemingly always in the mix with reigning league MVP Josh Allen.
But if there was ever a time to capitalize on the fortune the Colts have found, Ballard believes it’s now. Sure, he’s struck deals in the past that involved first-round picks, and the results have varied. Indianapolis acquired star defensive tackle DeForest Buckner from the 49ers in 2020 in exchange for a 2020 first-round pick, and he’s since morphed into a franchise pillar. But Ballard also traded a 2022 first-round pick and 2021 third-round pick to acquire quarterback Carson Wentz from the Eagles in 2021, and he lasted just one year in Indianapolis before being jettisoned from the franchise — mostly by Irsay.
This, however, is different. This is Ballard shedding his skin and trying to maximize a surprise Super Bowl window that appeared to be boarded up just 10 months ago, when his team missed the playoffs for a fourth straight season.
Ballard has done a lot of remodeling since then, yet his latest endeavor is easily his most expensive. Acquiring Gardner isn’t the equivalent of simply gutting a bathroom. This is the Colts, who already have the highest scoring team in the NFL at 32.2 points per game, trying to fix the roof of a leaky defense. Indianapolis ranks seventh in points allowed per game at 20.1, but it also ranks 25th in passing yards allowed per game at 244.8 and 27th in third-down conversion rate at 45.0 percent. Gardner is supposed to change that.
“Having the opportunity to acquire a talented player like Sauce Gardner was one we did not want to pass on,” Ballard said in a statement. “He was a player that we scouted heavily coming out of college and there’s a reason he was the fourth overall pick (in 2022). Sauce is a proven cornerback. His skill and competitive nature will elevate everyone’s play on the defensive unit.”
Aside from what Ballard gave up in exchange for Gardner, the timing of this deal may be just as noteworthy. Through the first eight years of his tenure, Ballard had only made one in-season trade, and that lone deal was when running back Nyheim Hines asked out. Ballard’s willingness to break from his typically conservative approach to land Gardner speaks to just how much he believes the 25-year-old can add to what he’s already built and – in some cases – bought.
After years of mostly sitting out free agency, Ballard finally backed up the Brinks truck to fix his porous secondary by signing two standout defensive backs: cornerback Charvarius Ward and free safety Cam Bynum. Ward inked a three-year, $60 million deal, and Bynum signed a four-year, $60 million pact.
Their paydays marked the most lucrative contracts Ballard has ever given to free agents coming from another team, but those two weren’t Ballard’s only big- ticket items of the offseason. The GM also reeled in former New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, who inked a one-year, $14 million deal to potentially revive his career with the Colts.
The results have already been franchise-altering.
Bynum recorded an interception in each of the first two games of the season as Indianapolis started 2-0 for the first time since 2009. Jones had been playing at an elite level as well with 13 passing touchdowns against three interceptions through his first eight games. The 2019 No. 6 pick had a nightmare performance last week with a career-high five turnovers in a loss at Pittsburgh, Indy’s first AFC defeat of the season, but his teammates and coach have repeatedly stated that their confidence in him won’t waver.
“I think we’ve talked about it with him so much from the start that his preparation (allows him to be) the same guy every week no matter what happens,” Colts coach Shane Steichen said. “He’s been playing lights out for us, and he was the same guy even (when) playing lights out. It wasn’t like he relaxed at any moment or any time in the season so far… and you can see that our guys have got a ton of faith in his abilities to go out, be successful and put our guys in position to go make plays on Sunday.”
Ward has been the odd man out, appearing in just four games due to two concussions, but when healthy, he’s been a catalyst on the Colts’ backend. The 29-year-old suffered his second concussion during pregame warmups in Week 6 and was placed on IR. However, he’s expected back this season, league sources told The Athletic, and the earliest Ward could return is Week 12 at Kansas City. If Ward is able to regain his All-Pro form, that would give Indianapolis one of the fiercest cornerback trios in the league with Ward and Gardner on the outside, and 2021 Pro Bowler Kenny Moore II starting in the slot.
Of course, there is still a ton of risk involved with a trade of this magnitude. Cornerback is one of the most volatile positions in football, and Gardner hasn’t been as dominant as he was when he entered the NFL. Since earning back-to-back first-team All-Pro nods in 2022 and 2023, Gardner gave up 16.4 yards per target in 2024 and is allowing 17.3 yards per target in 2025. Comparatively, he only conceded 9.8 yards per target in 2022 and 10.7 yards in 2023. Gardner, who was sidelined for the Jets’ last game in Week 8 with a concussion, can still be a sticky defender, evidenced by the 46.4 completion percentage opposing QBs have when targeting him this season, though he’s prone to give up big plays as well, as our in-house film guru Ted Nguyen explained.
Regardless of his flaws, Indianapolis still agreed to pay Gardner $131.5 million over the next 5 1/2 years, while also parting ways with Mitchell. The 2024 second-round pick was arguably the most physically gifted wideout on the Colts’ roster, but his fumble-gaffe in their loss against the Los Angeles Rams was a mistake he never truly recovered from.
Mitchell played just 24 offensive snaps over the last four games and recorded two catches for 15 yards on four targets. It’s still a gamble whenever a team parts ways with a Day 2 pick this early because Mitchell has plenty of upside. But with the new-look Colts offense averaging 3.25 points per drive – which is the fourth-highest mark of any team through its first nine games this century – Ballard has earned the right to punt on Mitchell’s future for the overall team’s present.
He’s earned the right to push all of his chips to the center of the table.
Ballard struck gold in free agency with the acquisitions of Jones and Bynum (and potentially Ward), who’ve been vital to the Colts’ best start since 2009, which was the last year they appeared in the Super Bowl. He struck gold in the draft with rookie tight end Tyler Warren, whose 518 receiving yards in nine games are already more than the 467 yards all of the Colts’ tight ends had combined last season. And he’s trying to strike gold again at the trade deadline with Gardner, who became the first cornerback since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970 to earn first-team All-Pro honors in their first two seasons.
“I don’t know how to answer, ‘Why should people believe?’” Ballard said in August, when asked why he should be trusted to turn the team around given his lackluster resume entering Year 9. “They believe when you win. … If you win, they give you a little bit more benefit of the doubt.”
The doubt might still be there for some, but perhaps with his latest move, Ballard has given the Colts fan base something even more dangerous: Hope.