Indianapolis wasted no time dismissing longtime General Manager Chris Ballard after the Colts’ loss to the woeful Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
They also wasted no time reaching out to the legendary Colt they want to replace him.
On Monday’s edition of The Dan Patrick Show, host Dan Patrick said he heard the Colts reached out to Hall of Famer Peyton Manning about taking over the position.
“The Colts’ first call will be/has been Peyton Manning,” Patrick said.
“The call will not only get names and suggestions, but the call will explore whether or not Peyton would be interested in being a general manager for the Colts as the entry point that would include ownership interest in the Colts. This would be the first major hire by Jim Irsay’s [daughters], the next generation. The community would love this. The league would love this.”
The fact that the daughters of late Colts Owner Jim Irsay would consider giving Manning an ownership stake speaks volumes of their seriousness about acquiring the quarterback who led Indianapolis to the most recent of their two Super Bowls.
It would also be an ironic twist, considering John Elway, the greatest quarterback in Broncos history, was Denver’s GM at the time and brought Manning to Denver. If Manning agrees to the job offer, he, the greatest quarterback in Colts history, would be handed the reins of his former team and tasked with guiding it back to its former glory.
The recipe has worked before.
After all, Manning and Elway did bring a Super Bowl championship to Denver.
The obvious difference, though, is that Elway had Manning to get when he was calling the shots. Is there a Manning out there for Manning to get? It doesn’t readily appear that there is. So, he would likely have to fix the Colts in a far different way.
But that assumes Manning takes the job.
Since his retirement, the former Bronco has busied himself with media projects such as his Monday Night Football ManningCast, which he hosts with his brother and former NFL great Eli Manning.
However, the show is in its sixth year, and viewership has been collapsing.
The ManningCast failed to breach the 1 million viewer mark at any point during the 2025 season and accounted for only 705,000 on Monday Night Football’s opening broadcast of the year, a mere 3 percent of ESPN’s total viewership that night.
Could those numbers make Peyton more likely to take the Irsay’s offer?
We may soon find out.
