On Tuesday, the Indianapolis Colts shook things up in a major way by trading Pro Bowl guard Quenton Nelson to the Seattle Seahawks. The move signals that the Colts are essentially throwing in the towel on this season after they recently dropped to 2-5 with a tough road loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Reviews of the trade, which brought back draft compensation to Indianapolis, have been mixed thus far, but former NFL executive Andrew Brandt seems to like the line of thinking from the Colts' perspective.

“I criticized the Colts for the worst trade of 2025, giving up two firsts for Sauce Gardner. But getting a 3rd (and a 5th) for Nelson on an expiring contract — they were going to lose him in two months regardless — is good work by their front office,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter

Indeed, around this time a year ago, the Colts found themselves in the exact opposite situation, looking to add pieces at another team's trade deadline firesale and doing so by getting Sauce Gardner from the New York Jets to shore up their defensive backfield.

Article Continues Below

However, this time around, the Colts very well could be the ones hosting the fire sale, as the team's playoff hopes are already on life support, and they will now move forward without their best offensive linemen. It's not off the table that the Colts could consider trading other big names as the season progresses, including star running back Jonathan Taylor, in hopes of cashing in on some of their veteran talent.

In any case, the Colts will next hit the field on Sunday afternoon for a tough divisional game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.