For Lou Anarumo, Carlie Irsay-Gordon’s offseason edict – “The sense of urgency has never been higher” – and the Colts’ principal team owner’s self-proclaimed season-long motto – “Find a way…” – mirrored the way the Colts' defensive coordinator already looks at his job in the NFL.
Multiple times over the last decade, Anarumo has been shown the door – most recently when he was fired by the Bengals before his arrival in Indianapolis – and so days like Monday, when Irsay-Gordon made the rare in-season decision to fire longtime general manager Chris Ballard, come with the territory, he said.
The worst thing you can do, Anarumo added, is let them alter your course of preparation for a stiff Week 7 matchup and the franchise’s attempt to salvage a 2-4 start to the 2026 campaign entering back-to-back road games against opponents with a combined 9-2 record and a potential fire sale looming at the trade deadline.
“We all know what we signed up for when we take these jobs,” Anarumo said. “There’s always a sense of urgency. Whether somebody’s been relieved of their duties or not, you’re always on high alert every day in this league.
“You’ve got to know coming to work here that there are 32 of these jobs. That’s it, so nothing changes for me. We don’t flinch. We move forward. We keep getting better because that’s what our job description is and continues to be.”
Colts head coach Shane Steichen told reporters Monday that the status of his job – after the team’s disastrous 26-20 home loss to the previously winless Titans on Sunday and Ballard's firing early Monday morning – had not been top of mind. The same goes for Anarumo, whose defense held Tennessee to fewer than 200 yards of offense but has severely underperformed multiple times.
Anarumo added that meeting schedules and team structures haven't changed. The biggest wild card, he said, is getting the younger players to be hyper-focused on the tasks in front of them and not the noise, speculation and potential changes that could come.
“Everyone has their own way of processing (the news). Chris brought all these guys in here, and I think they all went through that part of it, but again, we’re in the NFL. This is the business of change,” Anarumo said. “And we’ve got pros both on the coaching staff and in the personnel department and as players, so they know what their jobs are.
“Not to be insensitive to what’s going on, but at the same time, we’ve got jobs to do. We’ve got to focus and move forward just on beating the Vikings this weekend.”
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts' Lou Anarumo on Chris Ballard's firing, pressure: 'We know what we signed up for'