The Indianapolis Colts fall to 2-7 after losing 27-23 to the Dallas Cowboys at home.

With less than 48 hours remaining before the NFL Trade Deadline arrives, the Colts are one step closer to establishing their new core of the future.

Indianapolis has until 4 PM EST on Tuesday, November 10th to strike deals for running back Jonathan Taylor and wide receiver Josh Downs, amongst others, and while the Colts reportedly prefer to keep the latter of which, their loss to the Dallas Cowboys is just further proof that they'd be better off cutting their losses and starting anew.

With that said, I'm taking the opportunity to break down my biggest takeaways from the Colts' loss in question.

Why Colts' Trade Deadline Process Has Potentially Backfired

The Indianapolis Colts took no time to trade franchise pillars LG Quenton Nelson and DT DeForest Buckner, but they've since held off from trading the rest of their roster.

Part of this is due to the reported belief that Colts' CEO/Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon prefers to keep Jonathan Taylor around to kick off the impending rebuild in question, but it's also because their season was technically over yet.

Sure, it was obvious to some of us that the Colts' season was over even before they began their fire sale, but for all intents and purposes, Indianapolis still had a statistical chance to make the 2026 playoffs.

After they fell to 2-6 in a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 8, it seemed like the Colts would come to their senses and bench their top remaining trade candidates for the foreseeable future as they look to strike a deal.

Jonathan Taylor, Josh Downs, and Daniel Jones have become the headliners for the Colts' trade deadline sale, but numerous other veterans, such as Grover Stewart and Mo Alie-Cox, are likely being called about as well.

Instead of going out there and leaving no doubt in their last game before the deadline, the Colts' top three trade candidates did nothing to help their case.

If anything, Taylor, Downs, and Jones have drastically hurt their personal stock, and now the Colts have lost some leverage as they enter crunch time in negotiations.

In the last two weeks, here's how the trio in question performed:

Daniel Jones: 39-62 (62.9%) for 324 passing yards, 2 TDs, 3 INTs, and sacked 5 times

Jonathan Taylor: 21 carries for 69 rushing yards and 2 fumbles

Josh Downs: 7 receptions on 11 targets (3 drops) for 47 receiving yards and 1 TD

The Colts should have shut down Jonathan Taylor and Josh Downs until their future was determined, and Daniel Jones should have been benched weeks ago.

Dragging these trade talks out has not only allowed for poor performance to hurt the players' stock, but it's also given potential suitors more time to address their shortcomings via other avenues and/or allowed teams who maybe shouldn't have been all-in to come to their senses and pull out of negotiations altogether.

That's not to say the Colts won't be able to net worthwhile compensation for any of these players come deadline day, though it does put them at a disadvantage.

This is the bed Indianapolis made for themselves, and now they must sleep in it.

Shane Steichen's Time in Indianapolis Should Be Over

The Shane Steichen era is officially 27-33 through 3.5 seasons, and the Indianapolis Colts are 2-14 in their last 16 games dating back to last season.

The Shane Steichen experiment has looked to have run its course on numerous stops throughout the season thus far, but nothing the Colts have done since firing longtime general manager Chris Ballard suggests Steichen will be able to right the ship in Indianapolis.

Of course, Colts' head coach Steichen is not fully to blame. The whole reason Ballard has been the lone decision-maker fired so far is because the Colts were finally willing to admit his vision was nothing more than fool's gold.

The Colts' shortcomings can all be attributed to Ballard's failed tenure as general manager, but in the three weeks he's been out of the building, Steichen and Co. have done nothing to prove they deserve one last shot in 2027.

Indianapolis finally looked competitive for the first time all season against the Dallas Cowboys, especially since franchise cornerstone and team captains Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner were traded, but it still wasn't enough.

Shane Steichen is undeniably one of the NFL's most creative playcallers, some even consider him an offensive mastermind of sorts, but unfortunately for Indianapolis, his tenure as a first-time head coach for the Colts has only suggested that he can't get the job done here.

Future Shines Bright Amid Dark Day

The rest of the Colts' season should be treated as an extended preseason.

With so many moving parts on the roster, the only development worth monitoring is that of the Colts' young players. Not all will prove to be building blocks of the rebuild, and that's why giving them as much opportunity as possible down the stretch should be the top priority moving forward.

Indianapolis didn't spearhead this as soon as they traded Quenton Nelson and DeForest Buckner as they probably should have, but they've slowly but surely ramped up the young portion of their roster's workload, and it's quickly paid dividends.

For starters, second-year defensive end Jaylahn Tuimoloau has really come into his own as of late. He has registered his first two career sacks in back-to-back weeks, and truly looks to have unlocked part of his pass-rushing game that was previously thought to not be there.

And that's not the only positive development we've seen across the defensive line.

Recently-extended defensive tackle Adetomiwa Adebawore has evolved into a legitimate star across the interior. The fourth-year defensive lineman leads the Colts in sacks and pressures through eight weeks, and remains a productive player despite taking on double-teams at the highest rate in his career thus far.

Furthermore, third-year edge defender Laiatu Latu remains a hot-and-cold pass rusher, but his flashes are too intriguing to give up on him just yet.

Rookie defensive end Caden Curry has also burst onto the scene as of late. After proving to be a hard-nosed special teams contributor to begin his career, the Greenwood, Indiana product has earned serious playing time as a rotational player across the Colts' defensive line.

Curry logged his first sack and third fumble recovery of the season against the Cowboys, and now it looks like the Colts may have found a gem on Day 3 of the NFL Draft.

Moving back one level of the defense, rookie linebackers CJ Allen and Bryce Boettcher look like the exact players the Colts envisioned they'd become.

Allen, in his second start and first as the green dot of the defense, registered 10 tackles against the Dallas Cowboys, which makes two consecutive games that he's logged double-digit tackles. He also added one tackle for loss and one pass break-up.

Meanwhile, Boettcher's 12 tackles were the second-most on the team. The Colts' second of two rookie linebackers may need to clean up his fundamentals, but he no doubt flies around the football.

Finally, second-year safety Hunter Wohler looked like the same player against the Cowboys that he has in the Colts' past two training camps. In his first start, Wohler led the Colts' defense in tackles with 16, though his below-average coverage ability reminded us that he's got a long way to go before he can considered for a full-time role.

On the offensive side of the ball, seventh-round pick Seth McGowan continues to look like a legitimate NFL running back. McGowan lead the Colts on the ground against the Cowboys, outrushing Jonathan Taylor to the tune of six carries for 45 rushing yards (7.2 ypc) and his first career rushing touchdown.

The Indianapolis Colts still have a lot of work to do, but at least their young core is softening the blow in the meantime.