Jim Irsay reportedly wants Peyton Manning to run the front office. (Joey Foley/Getty Images)

I come not to bury Jim Irsay, nor to praise him.

Assuming all of the recent reporting -- originated locally by JMV and eventually corroborated nationally by Adam Schefter and Jay Glazer -- is indeed accurate, Irsay has tried to put together something of a dream team for his franchise: Peyton Manning atop the front office, Jon Gruden as head coach.

He also has apparently come up empty. Gruden has let it be known he isn’t interested in returning to the sideline, and Manning reportedly isn’t quite ready to jump back into the game one year after retiring.

This is a shame for Irsay and his Colts, but it is not shameful.

Far from it, in fact. Irsay has done what fans should want a responsible owner to do, aggressively explore every avenue for improving his franchise.

What he did not do was fire Ryan Grigson and/or Chuck Pagano before trying to replace them. That seems to be the most relevant and lingering source of angst, not the inability to land high-profile replacements.

But even this approach can be fairly and rationally argued both ways.

Why keep them if they aren’t getting the job done?

Why fire them if you aren’t certain you can find upgrades?

Irsay clearly does not want to make changes merely to soothe the frazzled nerves of the fan base, or the media. Consider, for a moment, the names that bubbled to the top of the list of coaching candidates: Anthony Lynn, Vance Joseph, Sean McVay and Sean McDermott have been hired. Any of those carry the weight of certainty? Would Josh McDaniels, Kyle Shanahan or Matt Patricia?

Apparently not to Irsay. What we’ve learned in the past couple of weeks is his next move, whenever it comes, will be big. It will not be lateral.

Question his timing, if you like, but he wasn't about to do anything that could distract the team while it still had a mathematical shot at the playoffs, and that door wasn’t closed until Week 17.

Question his methods, if you like, but what's more direct and effective than jetting across the country for hours of face-to-face meetings with those you are trying to recruit? If Irsay is guilty of anything, it is naïveté in thinking he could keep this quiet in a world where anyone with a cell phone and the tail numbers can track the movements of his private jets.

Question his judgment, if you like, but Manning just might be the most prepared ex-player in the history of the game to succeed as a GM, and there is a sense of inevitability he will be in that job with the Colts at some point. Might as well lay the groundwork now. Gruden has proven he can win a Super Bowl, a quality missing from the rest of the coaching prospects.

What cannot be questioned is his commitment. Had he succeeded in landing Manning and Gruden, it would’ve cost him tens of millions. Clearly, he is willing to pay whatever price necessary to win.

Yes, Grigson and Pagano have been hung out to dry, but do not weep for them. They’re big boys, and the fact this is a tough business does not come as news. They know what the boss expects -- and it isn’t consecutive 8-8 years from a coach who celebrates mediocrity and a general manager who manufactures it.

If they didn’t know it before, they now know the limits of Irsay’s patience with their lackluster performance have been reached, regardless of how many years remaining on their contracts.

I fully understand there is a palpable sense of dread about next season, that the Colts are destined for more of the same middling, maddening football, the same stream of baffling coaching decisions and mystifying personnel moves.

I share that dread.

I suspect Irsay does, as well.

That’s why he has not only explored his options, but pursued them vigorously. And who's to say he's done? Maybe Plan A didn't work, but maybe keeping Grigson and Pagano is Plan C, and we just don't know what would constitute Plan B.

Irsay has been understandably silent on the matter, but should not remain so for much longer. What he cannot do is try to smooth things over by offering some public vote of confidence for Grigson and Pagano, to try to suggest they’ve been his guys all along. That would be disingenuous and ultimately counterproductive.

Might as well go with that most radical of messages: the truth.

Put up or pack up.