NFL: Why the Indianapolis Colts are set up for success

Andrew freaking Luck

Miami Dolphins v Indianapolis Colts

At the start of this article I already talked a little about Luck’s injury history that forced him to miss some games, limited his play on the field to some degree and ultimately led to him sitting out an entire season.

Let’s be realistic here – when you come back to your job after about a month of absence it may take you a day or two to get acclimated. If it’s one-and-a-half years that process can really take a while. Andrew Luck did not throw a football for more than 500 days. It’s not like he just didn’t play full-contact football, he did not even toss it around a little.

Can you imagine the type of dedication it takes to rebuild all that muscle memory and make throwing an effortless motion again? Not to mention the type of impact this can have on your psyche and how you have to get yourself ready mentally again to be able to deliver passes with 300+ pounders running full speed at you. Luck worked his butt off to get here and with more help around him, he now looks better than ever.

Before I get into his play this year, I want to quickly recap what the former number one overall pick did to start his career. From his rookie year in 2012 to 2014 he led flawed Colts teams to 11-5 records and playoff berths in three consecutive seasons.

He was a Pro Bowler in all of them and in ’14 he did not only lead the NFL with 40 touchdowns in the regular season, but he also carried a team all the way to the AFC Championship game whose leading rushing on the season was Trent Richardson.

When you look through that roster and consider where the few bigger names were age-wise, there is no way you would think they can go that far. The year after that he fought through multiple issues as I already mentioned and then in 2016 he still put up over 4000 yards and 31 touchdowns compared to 13 INTs despite playing through pain. With all that said, those numbers are far from what he is capable of with time in the pocket and weapons around him.

As far as raw ability goes, you can put the names of Aaron Rodgers and now maybe Patrick Mahomes up there with Luck, but he might trump them all. He was considered a generational type prospect and the easiest evaluation since John Elway for a reason.

I’m not sure there’s a quarterback in the league with a stronger lower body than the Colts star. He made a living off delivering shots down the field with defenders draped all over him when he first came into the league. However, he can also use those legs to burn defenses once he starts to scramble, averaging about five yards a carry.

He has made edge defenders pay on zone-reads, who think they can slow-play it and he has shaken safeties in the open field. Yet he is at his best when using those legs to maneuver around in the pocket with two hands on the ball and then throws lasers across the field.

Going back to the draft-process in 2012, Luck threw a 75-yard bomb at his pro day and to be honest I’m way more impressed when I see him firing 30-yarders towards the opposite sideline evading the rush and throwing off balance. Luck cannot just throw on the run, he gets passes out off the wrong leg, from his back foot and at times even moving one way and throwing at a completely different angle.

For as good as his physical tools are, he does not rest on them one bit. His intelligence, study habits and will to win are far greater than his arm strength or athleticism. Even though he knew he would have gone first overall in 2011 had he skipped his senior year, he decided to return to Stanford to finish his architectural design degree.

There he was asked to run a detailed Cardinal offense and had tons of freedom at the line of scrimmage since his redshirt sophomore campaign. You rarely see Luck hesitate because of what defenses do post-snap. He diagnoses defensive looks, confirms what he sees once the play starts and gets the ball out with determination.

The way he stares so hard in one direction to open up throwing lanes and then comes back the other way is incredible. Like I already mentioned, I didn’t think his offensive play-callers did him a lot of favors early on, which forced him to hold on to the ball and play backyard football. With Reich in his ear now, there is some pressure taken off him as clear looks are there and believe me – when Luck has an easy target he will get the ball there.

What the Colts did to Luck through his first six years was borderline criminal, when you look how many hits he took and how he was under constant duress. While he can escape the pocket and make those Rodgers-type magical throws, he truly is a prototype quarterback who wants to stay within the structure of an offense.

That’s why the ability to step up into the pocket and get the ball out on time and to his targets is what he is most effective at. Luck has put up big numbers ever since he entered the league, but I want you to look at two of them in particular – completion percentage and sacks taken.

Before the start of the 2018 season, he was completing less than 60 percent of his passes throughout his career and he was sacked almost 36 times per 16 games despite running the ball himself more than 60 times a season. Right now he is completing 68.4 percent of his passes and has been sacked just 11 times despite injuries on the O-line early on.

I trust Chris Ballard to continue to build around his superstar and when he does, I think Luck is back on track to becoming an all-time great.