The Indianapolis Colts were fortunate to draft Andrew Luck to replace Peyton Manning, and they have seen tremendous growth from Luck in his first two seasons as an NFL quarterback. Luck was given the comparison to Manning while at Stanford, and Colts’ owner Jim Irsay made the tough decision to part paths with Manning and look towards the future. Three years later, it appears to have been a very solid decision and there is plenty of room for him to improve.
Where does Luck rank among active NFL quarterbacks at this point in his career?
Obviously he is behind quarterbacks like Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Drew Brees, but there aren’t many other options that are clearly better than him. He is a very similar quarterback to Rodgers, especially with their arm and ability to throw on the run accurately and make plays with his legs. There are plenty of ways that he needs to improve in before he reaches his full potential, but his growth has been steady and impressive.
Luck threw for 4,374 yards in his first season, and then backed that up with 3,822 yards in his second NFL season. He combined to throw for 46 touchdowns and 27 interceptions in his first two seasons as well. So far this season, he has thrown for 1,305 yards, 13 touchdowns, and four interceptions. Those numbers are on track to be by far his biggest season yet, and he has been showing improvement in nearly every aspect of his game.
Indianapolis has put together the best group of targets that Luck has had throughout his career, and it is showing. T.Y. Hilton, Hakeem Nicks, Reggie Wayne, Dwayne Allen, and Coby Fleener are a nasty top five receivers to throw to, and he also has talented rookie receiver Donte Moncrief coming off of the bench. Add those targets on top of having a much improved ground game with Ahmad Bradshaw and Trent Richardson splitting times, and the offense is the most potent that it has been with Luck at the helm.
If he wants to put his name to the top of the NFL as far as quarterbacks are concerned, there are a few areas that he must improve in order to take the next step.
One of those areas would be forcing the issue, which has been the cause for the majority of Luck’s turnovers throughout his first two years and three games. He has a very strong arm and sometimes forces passes into places where they simply shouldn’t be thrown. That will continue to improve with experience, and it already has begun to improve over the last couple of seasons.
There is no doubt that the Colts have one of the best quarterbacks when it comes to the fourth quarter and having to come from behind. Luck has already led eight fourth-quarter comebacks and 11 game-winning drives. At just 25 years of age, he is already showing poise in clutch situations that a 10-year veteran sometimes doesn’t show.
It’s going to be very intriguing to see what type of season Luck continues to put up this year, and what his numbers are at the end of the season. Luck has been drawing major attention from analysts and fans, and has been rising up the rankings. There are plenty of quarterbacks that are right around Luck, but the deadly combination of arm strength, accuracy, age, and mobility are what sets Luck apart from them.
Ron Jaworski of ESPN ran through his quarterback rankings prior to the NFL season beginning, and he had Luck listed as his fifth overall quarterback.
At this point in time, it is impossible to argue that Luck could be placed above Manning, Rodgers, Brady, or Brees, but after that it is a complete mess. Luck and Russell Wilson are very close to each other, but Wilson’s Super Bowl win puts him just a bit above Luck. That makes Luck drop to the sixth best quarterback in the league, which is where he will stay right now.
Needless to say, the future is extremely bright for Luck and the Colts. He has helped the Colts’ organization move past losing Manning extremely quickly, and fans are still in belief that they could win a Super Bowl at any time. Luck definitely has a chance to be the best quarterback in the game at some point in the next few years, but for right now he will stay at number six.
Expect to see Luck continue to put up massive numbers throughout the remainder of the season, and continue to improve his game and prove that he is an elite quarterback.
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