The Indianapolis Colts have found their replacement for Ryan Grigson. Indianapolis announced on Sunday that it has hired Kansas City Chiefs’ director of football operations Chris Ballard to take over the vacant general manager position.
We have hired Chris Ballard as the Colts General Manager: https://t.co/YxMpIAxMBV pic.twitter.com/wIcpseC4zC
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) January 29, 2017
Ballard has been with the Chiefs since 2013. In that four-season span, Kansas City has made the playoffs three times and won nine or more games in all four years.
Ballard will have his work cut out for him with the Colts. The team has undeniable talent on offense with stars like Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton. That makes the Indianapolis job far more desirable than the other league’s general manager vacancy with the San Francisco 49ers. Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of work to do.
The defense that Grigson and company built leaves a lot to be desired. Even with that, the most important part of Ballard’s job will be to build an offensive line that can protect Luck. Since entering the league in 2012, Luck has been one of the most heavily hit quarterbacks in the NFL, forcing him to miss time in the 2015 and 2016 seasons.