INDIANAPOLIS – One of the things Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard has consistently talked about since he joined the front office five years ago is patience.

Ballard often says he’s not an instant coffee person when it comes to putting together the roster. The foundation at many of the key positions has been set for several years for the Colts, but all they have to show for it is three playoff games – with one victory – since Ballard took over in the winter of 2017.

That lack of success is wearing thin on Colts owner Jim Irsay.

Ballard – and the Colts for that matter – are at a crossroads. With the NFL combine in Indianapolis next week, formally kicking off two months of nonstop action that includes free agency and the draft, Ballard is about to endure the most crucial offseason he’s faced as general manager. The Colts are 41-40 with no AFC South titles and two playoff appearances in five years during his tenure.

Irsay continues to publicly support Ballard and coach Frank Reich, but the fact is his patience is being tested by the lack of success from his franchise for so many years.

That was evident when Irsay had Ballard and Reich meet him at the team’s headquarters on the west side of Indianapolis immediately after returning from their 26-11 Week 18 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that knocked them out the playoffs.

“Jim wants to win,” Ballard said. “He’s competitive, he’s prideful, and I handle an ass chewing well. I promise you, as hard as he is on me, I’m every bit as hard, and I don’t run away when I screw it up or have a problem. I have to fix it. It’s okay to sit up here and admit when you were wrong, but you got to fix the damn thing or find somebody else to fix it.”

Ballard finds himself in basically the same spot he was in a year ago when it comes to the position issues on the Colts' roster.

Left tackle. Receiver. Cornerback. Tight end.

And quarterback – again.

“It’s not like we’re in a startup, like we have to start over here. I mean we have a lot of good players on both sides of the ball and a lot of them coming back," Ballard said. "... The cupboard is not bare. We’re not dealing with a bare cupboard here.”

The focal point of the Colts' offseason will be centered on quarterback after nobody in the organization committed to Carson Wentz as their starter in 2022. ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported on Super Bowl Sunday that it looked “bleak” for Wentz to return to Indianapolis for a second season. The Colts can save about $13 million if they release Wentz by March 18. His contract runs through 2024, though there is a potential out after 2022, per Spotrac.

Barring a trade, the Colts will not have a first-round pick in this year's draft after trading theirs to the Philadelphia Eagles for Wentz in 2021.

Ballard’s belief has been that you have to have strong offensive and defensive line play, and he won’t change his stance on that. But the Colts need more playmakers, which was evident by playoff teams like the Cincinnati Bengals, Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. Those teams have game-changing players on both sides of the ball at the most important positions.

The Colts have only a couple of them.

“I mean you have to be good on the O-line and D-line, you have to be,” Ballard said. “You have to get good quarterback play. Then the rest of your playmakers have to do their jobs. You can move forward with deep conviction that you have – I was listening to somebody talk the other day, and he said this, and I thought it was really good: 'You can have really deep conviction how you think things need to be built and run, but also have the curiosity and flexibility to change along the way.' ”

The money is there for the Colts to spend in free agency, as they’re projected to have around $40 million in salary-cap space.

But again, Ballard has a method to how he likes to tackle free agency. He shies away jumping into the first wave of signings, often choosing to wait until the second wave because Ballard believes talented players are still available then without having to overspend. And this year, he can't throw a first-round pick at a team like he did two years ago when the Colts acquired DeForest Buckner for the No. 13 pick in the 2020 draft.

Ballard can't swing and miss this offseason. Not with Darius Leonard, Quenton Nelson and Buckner getting older and potentially wasting away some prime years of their careers. And not with Irsay starting to lose patience in not being looked at as one of the top teams in the NFL.

"It’s our job to problem solve and find the solution," Ballard said. "It might not be a perfect solution. It might not be perfect. It might not be the long-term solution, but there’s a solution in every year. There’s a little timing and luck of getting sometimes long-term solutions to certain positions, but there’s a solution for that year coming up, and that’s what we’ve got to continue to work towards and through.”