DeForest Buckner and Jonathan Taylor met reporters on Thursday for the first time since the Indianapolis Colts fired general manager Chris Ballard, and the two veterans took the news in different ways. Buckner, asked more than once about his own future with the trade deadline getting closer, kept bringing the conversation back to Sunday’s game in Minnesota. Taylor, whom Ballard drafted in 2020, said he was “lost for words” and still wants to “prove him right.”
The Colts dismissed Ballard on Monday, October 19, a day after a 26-20 home loss to a Tennessee Titans team that had not won a game. Indianapolis is 2-4 and visits the unbeaten 5-0 Vikings on Sunday. The Colts posted both news conferences in one video on their YouTube channel.
Buckner: “A tough part of the business”
Buckner, whom Ballard acquired in a trade from San Francisco in 2020, said the two men were close. “Chris and I had a great relationship. I got nothing but love for him and his family,” the defensive tackle said. “He’s been great to me. We had a really good, honest relationship with each other.” He called the firing “a tough part of the business” and said the rest of the team has to “learn to move on from it” and continue with the task at hand.
Asked whether he had thought about his own future in Indianapolis, Buckner answered: “Right now, I’m just focused on the Vikings.” When a reporter followed up and asked whether he would entertain a trade if the Colts came to him with one, he did not rule it out. “We’ll see. I mean, if that happens, we’re gonna see how that goes,” he said. He added that he knows how the business works, “but just distractions right now. I got a job to do, and my job is to prepare my best this week to help my team and to beat the Vikings.”
Buckner was visibly angry after Sunday’s loss, and he said a few days had only cooled him down so much. “Obviously I was frustrated, and if you’re not, then you don’t care,” he said. “It still stinks.” Asked how badly he wants to play meaningful football at this stage of his career, he said: “All I care about is winning,” and being able to compete for another Super Bowl. He said he has “no regrets” about coming to Indianapolis. “I love Indy. My family is able to grow here, and I built a lot of great relationships here in the building and outside.”
He said a win in Minnesota would help “the mood in the locker room” and get things “turned in the right direction.” Buckner has 4.0 sacks in six games this season.
Taylor: “He was your guy”
Taylor said the news hit him harder because Ballard picked him in the second round of the 2020 draft. “Definitely upset, because at some point it’s on the team as a collective, coaches and players, in order to prove the GM right,” the running back said. “So you just start thinking about all of the plays you’ve had, all the games you had, all the years, and what could have been different to maybe have a different outcome.”
He described the draft as the moment a team shows it believes in a player. “They’ve given you an opportunity of a lifetime to live out your dreams, to take care of your family,” Taylor said. “At the end of the day, when you’re going through the draft, it’s which organization believes that you can be a difference maker.” Of Ballard, he said: “He was your guy. That hurt me, because I felt like I wanted to be more of an X factor for him, and maybe it would have been a different outcome.”
Taylor said he still wants to show that Ballard made the right call. “It’s bittersweet, but I still want to prove them right,” he said. He also talked about why he chose to stay in Indianapolis when he signed his contract extension, praising the way the organization treats players and staff. “This is not an organization like any other 31 teams,” he said. “I don’t think you can get this anywhere else.” Asked whether he wants to stay through the rest of his deal, he said: “It’s not up to me.”
“No one’s going to feel sorry for us”
Like Buckner, Taylor said he has not given the trade deadline any thought. “That’d be crazy right now, especially when we got a great Minnesota Vikings team that we have to go against,” he said. “I think it would be a discredit and a disservice to my teammates and this whole organization to think about what could, what should, what maybe.”
He finished with a warning for the locker room. “No one’s gonna feel sorry for us. ‘Oh, our general manager is gone.’ No one’s gonna feel sorry for us. They’re gonna say, ‘Let’s try to kick them when they’re down,’” Taylor said. “This is when we got to stick together more than ever.” He said he had spoken with Ballard and told him he wished the result could have been different, “but the only thing that matters now is what are you going to do this week.”
Taylor has 122 carries for 492 yards and seven rushing touchdowns this season. Against Tennessee, Jeffery Simmons stripped him on the first snap of the third quarter, the play that started the Titans’ comeback. The Colts play at the Vikings on Sunday, October 25, at 1 p.m. ET (8 p.m. in Cairo), then host the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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