This quarterbacks column is multi-part preview with a new quarterback – or set of quarterbacks being released daily. To read the introduction, please visit the first post in the series.
I rarely hide when I like a player. I like Andrew Luck. A lot.
Part of it has to do with my dislike of his predecessor, Peyton Manning – not exactly “dislike,” but more a distaste of his overrated legacy that included far too many playoff losses. I’m on a tangent. Already.
What else is there besides a tangent for Andrew Luck? He is not, currently, interesting. He’s more of a cliche, if anything. “If he stays healthy, he’ll be good.”
Probably. Maybe.
Andrew Luck is one of the rare examples of a player destined to get injured because of his team placing him in dangerous situations – we could compare him to his draft-mate, Robert Griffin III as a man in harm’s way, but Griffin’s fatal flaw was as much his own nature as it was his team’s inability to protect him. Luck has a team unable to protect him.
The good news for Luck is that the Colts’ front office is painfully aware – no pun intended – of how miserably it is failing. It just lost a full season of its franchise quarterback, and finished with the third-worst record in the league. For an organization that has had nothing but quarterback success over multiple decades – it’s nearly impossible to be as fortunate as Indianapolis in this area – no team should be better prepared to protect such an investment. The strides have been made, as evidenced by drafting an offensive lineman with the sixth overall pick, but I suspect many will hesitate before trusting the Colts with Luck again.
Good. Let them hesitate. Let us jump in now, before it’s too late.
I already threw out the cliche, so why not use it, ourselves? If Andrew Luck stays healthy, he’ll be good.
But, really. He will be great.
Sam Bradford is an injury. He cannot and will not stay on the field. But, when he is there, we can see why the Rams selected him with the first overall pick in 2010. But even he, when healthy, has his moments.
Andrew Luck does not have “moments” in which we ever question the Colts drafting him first overall in 2012. He was the guy then, and he is the guy now.
Two years ago, I picked the Indianapolis Colts to win the Super Bowl. My reasoning was simple: Andrew Luck was no different than Aaron Rodgers prior to Green Bay’s quarterback hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
Nothing has changed.
Yes, Luck might not make it to Halloween without multiple trips to the hospital, but this threat of injury appears to be the only hurdle Luck needs to climb. That includes surrounding talent, because someone as gifted as and with the football mind of Andrew Luck – again, Aaron Rodgers – makes talent emerge where there appears to be none.
Fast-forward to January. Andrew Luck stayed healthy. Is he not automatically a top-ten quarterback? He’s probably top-five.
It all hinges on health, but we’re reaching the point where he has to be healthy. He and the Colts – obviously both are dedicated to Luck’s best interest – just devoted a full year to surgery and recovery. If not now, then possibly never.
What really to watch: Nothing. We need to be bold and take some risks if we want to get ahead. We know what Andrew Luck can be, and we should buy into seeing that, now, before the crowd comes running. If anything, we need Luck’s preseason games to be underwhelming – so far, so good, in that respect – so that his stock remains low. I also suspect that Luck – possibly the most intelligent player in the league – is using the preseason to test his body taking hits more than lead scoring drives. It isn’t a decoy, but intentional practice to strengthen any weak spots.
Previous Writeups: Deshaun Watson, Alex Smith/Kirk Cousins/Patrick Mahomes, Jared Goff
Up Next: Jimmy Garoppolo