The Indianapolis Colts are going to be a team to watch over the next couple of weeks. It’s not because of the product they’re going to put on the field, though. Entering fire sale mode, the Colts have already traded away stars OL Quenton Nelson and DT DeForest Buckner. Indianapolis doesn’t have a permanent general manager right now, either, with assistant GM Ed Dodds overseeing the personnel department on an interim basis after Chris Ballard’s dismissal.

Former NFL scout John Middlekauff expressed concern about owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon’s decisions and the Colts’ current standing.

John Middlekauff Rips Colts Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon and Current Situation in Indianapolis

The Colts are getting ready to potentially unload more pieces at the trade deadline, find a new general manager, and potentially a new head coach in the offseason. Middlekauff isn’t confident in where the organization is headed and ripped Irsay-Gordon for her decisions.

“This is a dog[expletive] gig. It truly is,” Middlekauff said about the Colts’ general manager opening. “‘We got rid of Quenton Nelson, DeForest Buckner, and we have a third- and a fourth-round pick to show for it.’ Good luck. You don’t have a first-round pick. You have a disastrous situation at quarterback. You’re going to have to eat money next year on the dead cap to get rid of Daniel Jones’ corpse, and there are a lot of questions with the owner.”

“But even if I just say, ‘Hey, she’ll be no different than some of these other nutties,’ because there’s no way to argue that, because she stands on the [expletive] sideline all dolled up taking notes,” he added. “‘It’s misogynistic,’ or it’s just the wackiest [expletive] we’ve ever seen. No one else does that. They’d just be like, ‘Well, it’s working for her.’ Actually, it’s not.”

“No quarterback, no picks of value, no talent on the roster. Especially, I would imagine they’ll keep trading guys, as they should,” Middlekauff continued, “And when you look at this Colts job, there is no way around it. GM, assuming that they end up firing Shane Steichen, this is a dog [expletive] gig.”

Middlekauff is not a fan of Irsay-Gordon’s unusual practice of spending games on the sideline taking notes. He took particular exception to that fact because the Colts aren’t winning games and are in a brutal position for the future.

The trade deadline will be another big moment for the Colts, as it was last season, except this time they will be having a fire sale instead of trying to improve a roster that held one of the best records in the NFL at the time. The Colts are still trying to recover from trading away WR Adonai Mitchell and two first-round picks for Sauce Gardner. They’ll be regretting that, as their first-round pick will likely be very high up this season.

The general manager gig is going to be tough to sell to candidates when, in their first offseason, they’ll be without high-quality draft capital unless they can accrue some at the deadline.

Rumors are swirling about potential key pieces being sold, including Jonathan Taylor and Josh Downs. Downs requested a trade with the Colts, looking to gain capital, but Taylor is the player who would help them recover from their disaster at last year’s deadline.

Taylor is the 10th-ranked running back in PFN’s RB Impact Metric, and will have contenders looking to transform their running game by adding a dynamic back like JT.

Indianapolis sits at 2-5 and seems to know that their season is over. Trading away cornerstones like Buckner and Nelson has been the signal of waving the white flag. A new era is coming for the Colts; it likely won’t arrive quickly, but they’ll have a few big weeks ahead to make their job more appealing to potential front-office candidates.