If the Colts want to stop fading late, the answer isn’t buried in some dramatic schematic fix. It’s sitting in the margins of the roster.
That’s the real thread running through Chris Ballard’s latest comments about Indianapolis’ repeated late-season collapses. When he was asked about the way the year has unraveled, Ballard put it plainly: “We got to finish, man. We got to finish at the end of the year better."
Fair enough. But finishing better starts with building better depth, because the Colts’ biggest problem isn’t just who’s in the starting lineup. It’s what happens once the starters start dropping.
Ballard has earned credit for finding players like Alec Pierce, Tanor Bortolini and Laiatu Latu. And at the top end of the roster, the Colts can look like a team built to contend.
The trouble shows up from players 23 through 53, where the quality falls off fast. That thin layer has been the killer.
The running back room is the cleanest example. Since Jonathan Taylor arrived in 2020, he has handled more than 1,500 carries for over 7,500 yards and owns a 4.9 yards-per-rush average. Of the 13 other running backs who have carried the ball for Indianapolis since then, only one has a better career rushing average with the Colts.
That one is Jake Funk.
Funk got two carries in the Colts’ opening-day loss to Jacksonville in 2023 and turned them into 10 yards, good for a 5.0 average. He also caught his only target for 12 yards in that game. He never touched the ball again for Indianapolis and was gone to Miami less than two months later.
That’s the kind of depth problem that keeps showing up. Ballard has repeatedly tried to find Taylor help on the cheap, drafting three running backs in round five or later and signing a string of former hopefuls near the end of their careers.
None of them, outside of Zack Moss, really hit. Taylor has still rushed for more than twice as many yards as all 13 of those other Colts backs combined, and he has 69 rushing touchdowns to everyone else’s 19.
Strip out Moss and the picture gets even uglier.
That workload matters. Taylor missed significant time in two seasons, and even though he stayed healthy last year, his production dipped over the final six games.
The same depth issue showed up on the defensive line. Once DeForest Buckner went down after Week 11, Adetomiwa Adebawore was forced into a much larger role. His Pro Football Focus grades from Weeks 12 through 16 ranged from 54.0 to 28.2, and those were all losses as the Colts slid into their collapse.
Quarterback was even more revealing. The team apparently had so little trust in rookie Riley Leonard that it reached for the most desperate option possible and brought Phillip Rivers back after five seasons away from the game. Anthony Richardson’s injury may have helped push that decision, but the larger question remains: should Indianapolis ever be in that spot without a dependable backup ready?
Then there’s the trade that sent Sauce Gardner to Indianapolis in exchange for two first-round picks and Adonai Mitchell. Giving up that kind of draft capital is always a gamble, especially for a roster this thin. But Mitchell was the other part of the deal, and that matters too.
Not many Colts fans were upset to see him go after the blunder against the Rams earlier in the season. Still, the current receiver situation makes the move look a lot different. The Colts still haven’t found a reliable replacement for Michael Pittman, Alec Pierce is set to miss time, and the team is now leaning on late-round picks, undrafted free agents and journeymen to fill major roles.
Meanwhile, Mitchell is projected to start for the Jets. For all his issues, that’s a hard name to erase when the alternatives in Indianapolis are so thin.
Linebacker depth has been shaky too. The Colts opened the season with Cameron McGrone and Joe Bachie fighting for a starting job, and both were gone by mid-October.
That’s why the Jake Funk answer matters more than the trivia itself. It’s a funny fact, sure, but it also says a lot about how the Colts have built this roster. If your bench can produce a running back whose two-carry cameo makes him the efficiency leader among all Indianapolis backs since 2020, you probably don’t have the depth required to survive December and January.
In Other News...
Anthony Richardson Suddenly Has Colts Fans Watching A Very Uncomfortable Situation
Anthony Richardsons place in Indianapolis was already a source of intrigue before camp opened, and the first few days have only made the conversation louder. The former first-round quarterback is back on the roster, but his early training camp throws have drawn fresh scrutiny because the accuracy issues that have followed him are once again front and center.
The timing matters, too, because his contract creates a tricky backdrop for any potential move. With a roster bonus built into the deal during the early part of camp, the Colts are staring at a situation that could affect when they would even be able to consider trade options, while also knowing Richardsons value is tied directly to how he looks on the field right now. [Read more 🡒]
Josh Downs Just Sent A Strong Message About Daniel Jones
Daniel Jones has spent training camp working his way back into the Colts offense, and the early signs have been encouraging. The quarterback is participating in 11-on-11 drills as he continues to recover from an Achilles injury, and Indianapolis has every reason to keep a close eye on how he looks after committing to him on a two-year contract.
Josh Downs added to that optimism with a simple but important assessment of where Jones stands. The receiver said Jones looks fully recovered and ready to play, which matters for a Colts offense that is expected to go as far as its quarterback can take it this season. The lingering question now is how that health translates once the pace picks up and the hits start coming for real. [Read more 🡒]
Charvarius Ward Just Revealed What Brought Him Back To Colts Camp
Charvarius Wards return to Colts camp has carried a different kind of weight this summer. After dealing with multiple concussions and enduring personal loss, the veteran cornerback said he was about 85% sure he would walk away after the 2025 season, a reminder of how fragile the last stretch of a career can feel even for a proven defender. Instead, Ward has shown up with renewed purpose, and his early work in training camp has been one of the more encouraging developments for Indianapolis.
What pulled him back, by his own account, was his children, and that kind of motivation can matter as much as anything on a practice field. It also helps that Ward has started well alongside Sauce Gardner, giving the Colts a cornerback pairing worth watching closely as camp unfolds. Wards play last season showed he can still hold up against top competition, allowing completions on 57% of the targets sent his way while breaking up seven passes in seven games. [Read more 🡒]