Colts owner Jim Irsay: We're making sure we build this right
INDIANAPOLIS – Not long after he put to bed his 21st NFL draft as owner of the Indianapolis Colts, Jim Irsay, dressed in the only manner Jim Irsay dresses — that’d be a slick, dark suit— pulled up a folding chair inside his team facility and mused aloud on the current and complex state of his football team.
He is an owner wrestling with his incessant need to win now, this instant, this year, and the sobering reality before him: His team isn’t equipped to do that, and he knows it. These Colts, as currently constructed, aren’t ready to win now, certainly not ready to win big.
Too many holes. Too much youth. Too much uncertainty.
“You have to be willing to put up sometimes with having the patience, sometimes, to slow down and make sure we’re going to build this right,” Irsay was saying one minute.
Then Andrew Luck popped in his head, and Irsay was saying this: “We’re going to go after it, like, ‘Hey, we have a chance to do something special this year...’
“It’s hard being patient, I tell ya,” he added.
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Yet Irsay remains mindful of the mistakes that led his football team to back-to-back 8-8 seasons and a spot on the couch each of the two previous two Januarys. Too many free-agent busts, too many draft whiffs, too much win now and not enough long-term vision. Those blunders stagnated this once-ascending team. The Colts went from one game shy of Super Bowl XLIX in January 2015 to third place in the AFC South in January 2017. Ouch.
The defense wasn’t just bad, it was old.
Thus all the change. Irsay’s newly hired general manager, Chris Ballard, went to work over the weekend, spending six of eight draft picks on that side of the ball. The aim, Ballard has explained, is to inundate his roster with competition. That breeds progress. Eventually, that breeds winning.
This will take time, Ballard has stressed once, twice, a dozen times since taking over in January. Give him time. There’s no instant coffee in the NFL, he likes to say.
“My feeling is that he’s going to be around for a while,” Irsay said, effusive in his praise of his new general manager.
“He has a lot of tendencies that remind me of Bill Polian,” Irsay said, comparing Ballard to the Hall of Fame executive. “He has some that don’t remind me of Bill, which is also good,” he added before a hearty laugh.
Moments later, Irsay’s fate lit up at the mere mention of his star quarterback. Ballard mentioned earlier in the day that Luck — who is currently recovering from surgery on his throwing shoulder in January — is “starting to get good motion in his arm” — and Irsay didn’t seem particularly worried about Luck’s status for the regular season, which kicks off Sept. 10 in Los Angeles against the Rams.
“I just wish — and I think our fans know — (but) I can’t emphasize enough how Andrew’s leadership skills and his passion to win a world championship, how much that means to him,” Irsay said. “It’s his focus, it’s what his life is based around. And that’s exciting. And we’re trying to get that on defense. And we need leaders on defense.”
The team’s defensive struggles from 2016 clearly still irritate Irsay. There was the collapse in Week 1 against Detroit, in Week 6 in Houston, in Week 16 in Oakland. Blown chances: It became that team’s broken record.
And it’s what kept them out of the playoffs.
“The opening game last year speaks for itself,” Irsay said, still fuming. “You score 35 points at home and you can’t win the game? That’s a problem.”
It’s why Ballard took an ax to the defense this spring, cutting or not re-signing six critical pieces in an ambitious effort to start anew. The headliner this weekend started just 13 games in college before the Colts grabbed him in the first round Thursday night, but Irsay, like Ballard and coach Chuck Pagano, earnestly believes the Colts got a special one in Malik Hooker.
“There’s no question that defensively we have to become good enough to finish games, good enough to win games,” Irsay said. “I don’t think right now we’re talking about the Colts being a defensive team that’s going to go in and dominate.”
No, Jim, nobody’s talking like that. The Colts were 30th in football last year in total defense.
But the gradual build, followed by the long-term payoff, is the creed Irsay has professed more than once this offseason. He wants no flash-in the-pan Super Bowl run; he wants a string of them. For Irsay, it’s about reaching the mountaintop and staying there.
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It goes back to his biggest regret of the Peyton Manning era: a dozen years of dazzling seasons and just one world championship.
“I’d rather win two Lombardi (trophies) and endure several losing seasons than have one Lombardi and be in the playoffs every single year and never have a losing season for 10 years or what have you,” Irsay said. “It’s about greatness. It’s about world championships.”
Central to that is the continued development of the unit that has given Irsay constant headaches and Luck constant beatings. Irsay sees growth in his offensive line, and for the first time in years, there is ample evidence: The Colts yielded 31 sacks during the season’s first eight games and only 13 over the final eight.
Former general manager Ryan Grigson spent half his draft haul last spring — four of eight picks — on offensive linemen. The payoff could come in the years to come.
“That offensive line is a lot better than people think,” Irsay said. “That offensive line, particularly if it can stay healthy, and we can get a five that’s consistently playing together, that is going to become a strength. Not, ‘Well, it’s OK, it’s decent enough, let Andrew do his work.’ No. It’s going to become a strength. I see that there. Not only with the five starters but when I look at the seven, I look at depth.
In the end, so much comes down to Luck. Irsay’s star is entering the sixth year of his career. It’s time to start competing for world championships — or at least get back on the right track.
“I think he’s really going into that sweet spot area,” Irsay said of Luck. “I’ve talked before about Peyton (Manning) not winning his first playoff game until six years in. I think that we have an excellent chance to be scoring high 20s or even low 30s a game. I want to see us run the ball like I think we can.
“Look, we’re going into this thinking, ‘Hey, we’re not sure how good we can be, but we sure are looking to be playing in January.’ That’s our hope and I don’t think that’s unrealistic at all.”
Time will tell. Another January sitting at home for the Colts? Hasn’t happened since 1994. Jim Irsay remembers. He was the team's general manager back then.
Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.