Chris Ballard Building a Winner in Indianapolis on “Colts Character” and Collaboration
Indianapolis Colts General Manager Chris Ballard wrote an excellent article on his scouting and team building philosophy for Peter King’s Pro Football Talk column, and it dives into some great detail especially on structure the Colts have in place in terms of evaluating talent and their decision-making process. Here are some of my takeaways from this article.
Chris Ballard’s Humble Approach to Leadership Sets the Example in Indy
You can sense Ballard’s humility in that nothing is really about him and he has no ego when it comes to sitting in the GM chair. He has everyone focused on building a better football team, and it ends there. As an evaluator, Ballard is not looking for the “sexy” player. He’s just looking for football players and people that can make his team better.
Collaborative Environment in their Scouting Department
You can tell he and his scouts work hard to create a collaborative environment in their scouting department.
Ballard Leads Effective Meetings for Discussion
Part of this is the way Ballard leads these meetings. The meetings are really open forums for discussion with the sole focus of improving the team, and this starts with the leadership from Ballard in these meetings. When Ballard goes into a meeting room, he is really relying on his scouts and their opinions, not making judgements from the head of the table. With Ballard leading with such open-mindedness, they can remove the politics or agendas from any discussions that tend to disrupt most NFL franchises as people jockey for influence and favor with the GM.
The meetings are truly open forums where his scouts can share their information and opinions. As Ballard states, “I’m the ultimate decision maker, but I want everyone’s opinion.” This collaboration appears to be a true collective effort and mindset for the scouting department, which is a huge competitive advantage for this team.
The Colts’ Team Identity is Clearly Defined
They Know Exactly What They Are Looking For
They have obviously clearly defined what they want their team identity to look like and the type of players and people they want on their team. This definition of knowing what they are looking for further reduces any disconnect in the room because everyone is on the same page. Like a lot of the good NFL teams over the last decade (New England, Pittsburgh, Seattle), they are all on the same page.
Looking for High Character Guys
Ballard writes that “the talent of a player determines his ceiling, but his football character (Work ethic, Drive) determines his floor.” Ballard and the Colts have made a clear intention on doing as much as possible to build a team of character, due in part because of their feeling that people that care can overachieve. “When you get high character guys, they tend to overachieve,” Ballard says.
Winning by Sticking to the Plan and Limiting Risks
With the recent success of Indianapolis and the quality team they have already built, they routinely drafting in the 20’s (mid-late 1st round) of the NFL Draft. Ballard has great about he and his staff “have to do a really good job of ‘hitting doubles’, and sometimes they turn onto triples” rather than focusing on hitting homers from that point in the draft. This may seem obvious, but I love the awareness and, more importantly, the plan to hit those doubles and not create any unnecessary pressure on themselves to hit it big with each draft pick. Ballard knows with the continued selection of high character, good football players that his team can win without having to draft all-pro’s or future Hall of Famers every year with their picks.
Patience + ‘Hitting Doubles’ = Ballard’s Winning Formula
The important thing is Ballard does not feel any need to deviate from the plan and force anything to happen. His patience and looking to hit doubles is a sound philosophy that has already resulted in Ballard getting a bunch of solid players by nailing guys in the 20’s and 2nd round, and has built the base for the Colts to take the next step.
