Everything must go

 And now … let the teardown begin.

Quentin Nelson, the anchor of the offensive line?

Traded to Seattle.

Forest Buckner, the keystone of the defense?

Traded to San Francisco.

Jonathan Taylor? Daniel Jones? Anthony Richardson? Head coach Shane Steichen and his staff?

Stay tuned.

Everything must go: This is what Indianapolis Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon signaled when she told general manager Chris Ballard to hit the bricks a week ago. And if you at all have been paying attention for the last seven years — ever since a battered Andrew Luck abruptly walked away, a wise decision from a wise man — you know it’s been a long time coming.

The rot in this franchise has been obvious for awhile, after all. The Horseshoes haven’t won a playoff game since 2018. They haven’t even made the playoffs since 2020. Since then they’ve done this: 9-8, 4-12-1, 9-8, 8-9, 8-9.

Beige on beige, in other words.

In that time, they’ve tried journeyman Carson Wentz and Geezer Patrol alums Philip Rivers and Matt Ryan at quarterback. Then they drafted a kid barely two years out of high school — 20-year-old Anthony Richardson, an off-the-charts athletic talent who’d started just 13 games at Florida — threw him into the deep end right off the bat.

No seasoning. No learning curve. No bring-him-along-slowly. Just, “yep, he’s good to go.”

And then they were shocked when he wasn’t.

So here we are, three fruitless years later, and Richardson is backing up Daniel Jones, which was likely the plan all along when the Colts got him from the New York Giants.  Jones was a revelation for nine games last season, and then he got hurt, and now he’s back to being New York Daniel Jones: Serviceable, occasionally more than serviceable, but rarely the guy who’s gonna win games for you when no one else can.

So is he on the block now?

Maybe. Probably. Everything must go, right?

 When you’re 2-5 this season and 2-12 since that 8-1 start a year ago, after all, that’s not just a sales catchphrase. That’s your mandate.