According to The Athletic’s Mike Sando (subscription), Chris Ballard, general manager of Indianapolis Colts, is the 6th best (tied) in the league by classifying each NFL GM (among the 26 holders, that is, returning 2,021 NFL GMs) by their ten most expensive free agent hires, respectively:
T-6. Chris Ballard, Indianapolis Colts
Average subscription score: 2.0
Philip Rivers helped the Colts back into the playoffs with a below-the-market deal for top-level defenders, so his signature reaches Category 1, although Indy might want a second season from him. Justin Houston is tied with Joey Bosa in ninth place in sacks (19), while occupying 32nd place in pressure since the Colts signed him before the 2019 season. Denico Autry was a shockingly good sign. He has 25 sacks in three seasons with Indy after collecting 12 sacks in four seasons with the Raiders.
Scores were assigned based on the following categories:
Category 1: Movements that a smart GM would make again (20 percent of hires)
Category 2: We could argue anyway (37 percent of hires)
Category 3: Movements that a smart GM wouldn’t do again (43 percent of hires)
Ballard received three ‘Category Ones’ (ie smart GM signings) with Philip Rivers, Justin Houston, and Denico Autry, but received three ‘Category Three’ (ie, ‘we will not repeat this’) with Devin Funchess, Ryan Grant, and Austin Howard.
The rest of the hires: Johnathan Hankins, Jabaal Sheard, Eric Ebron, and John Simon they were all ‘Category Two’ – or those who could go anyway.
Of course, Ballard has a reputation for being notoriously prudent about spending a lot of money on a free agency, opting to hire players during the second and third waves of free agency – rather than paying more than their assigned value to a respective free agent.
Their most lucrative free agent contracts rarely go beyond essentially two-year commitments.
Armed with about $ 47 million of available limit space before the free agency, its ‘fiscally responsible’ approach is unlikely to change much for Indianapolis in this off-season.