KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- When the Kansas City Chiefs needed to do their homework on a temperamental player they were considering with their first-round pick in 2015, they dispatched Chris Ballard instead of their other scouts or coaches on the fact-finding mission. Ballard went to Oakland, California, to research cornerback Marcus Peters, who had been thrown off his collegiate team at the University of Washington for arguing with some of his coaches.

This was the kind of information the Chiefs had come to rely on Ballard for. He carried the vague title of director of football operations, but his contributions since joining the team in 2013 were anything but insignificant.

Ballard was No. 3 in the Chiefs’ chain of football command, behind coach Andy Reid and general manager John Dorsey, and as such had an important voice in a lot of their player personnel moves, including free-agent signings and draft picks.

The Chiefs no longer have Ballard to lean on. He was named on Sunday as the new general manager of the Indianapolis Colts and the Chiefs will either have to go outside the organization for a replacement or promote from within.

Longer term, Ballard could have been promoted to general manager in Kansas City if Dorsey moves on in the coming years.

The Chiefs face no easy task in replacing Ballard. He was known not just as a solid talent evaluator, but someone who could uncover the type of information the Chiefs needed to have to feel comfortable in drafting Peters. The Chiefs sent Ballard to Peters’ hometown of Oakland shortly before that 2015 draft and there he met separately with Peters, his mother and father and a high school coach.

They answered his questions to the satisfaction of the Chiefs and they wound up drafting Peters. They’ve been rewarded for that decision. Peters has been one of the NFL’s top cornerbacks in each of his two seasons with the Chiefs.

For the decision to draft Peters, the Chiefs can thank Ballard. But now they have to make a long-distance call to Indianapolis to do so.