[BostonCard]

FYI, Chuck Pagano said in his presser today that Luck is also OUT for the Colts' Week 2 game vs. Arizona.  Frankly, that's great news.  The OL, while improving, is still not great (and losing C Ryan Kelly for several weeks didn't help matters), and the Colts look primed to dig themselves yet another 0-2 hole. 

It looks like he might be out for at least a few more weeks, since it's not clear that he'll even practice this week, and they'll want to develop timing with receivers before he gets thrown back out there.  Apparently Ian Rapaport thinks it'll be more like October when they actually see him on the field.  http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000...12920357=1

Thus, the Colts could easily go into Week 5 with an 0-4 record, which would include losses to the Rams and Browns.  Week 4 (10/1) is on the road at Seattle, which would be a harsh way to start.  Better to come back Week 5 at home vs. San Francisco and get eased back into the league when expectations for the season are already shot. 

Frankly, I wish they'd just stash him on IR for the rest of the year, lock up the 1st overall pick, and then demand a king's ransom to trade down, given that there will be some good QB options in this year's draft, so there should be a market.  The roster is so bad that they need as many high picks as they can get, so it seems like it's in Indy's best long-term interests to be as conservative with Luck as possible.  A tanking season would fit right into Chris Ballard's plans, really.  He'd get to fire Pagano, hire whoever the hot new coaching candidate is, and stockpile high picks to build a more competitive roster.  The problem with Andrew is that he's good enough to drag that rotting carcass of a team to several more wins, so if Luck starts the last 12 games of the year, he could easily get them back to 7-9 or 8-8 and another middling draft slot.  Ballard needs to lock him up somewhere and not let him out until the end of the year!

Not to turn negative on Luck or anything, but... if the Colts tank and they get the #1 pick, is it so certain that they would trade it down or would they take Darnold and trade Luck himself.  I mean, I'm a brobdingnagian Luck fan, but at some point they will start to worry about his injury history and whether he will be the same after he comes back.

BC

[BostonCard]

FYI, Chuck Pagano said in his presser today that Luck is also OUT for the Colts' Week 2 game vs. Arizona.  Frankly, that's great news.  The OL, while improving, is still not great (and losing C Ryan Kelly for several weeks didn't help matters), and the Colts look primed to dig themselves yet another 0-2 hole. 

It looks like he might be out for at least a few more weeks, since it's not clear that he'll even practice this week, and they'll want to develop timing with receivers before he gets thrown back out there.  Apparently Ian Rapaport thinks it'll be more like October when they actually see him on the field.  http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000...12920357=1

Thus, the Colts could easily go into Week 5 with an 0-4 record, which would include losses to the Rams and Browns.  Week 4 (10/1) is on the road at Seattle, which would be a harsh way to start.  Better to come back Week 5 at home vs. San Francisco and get eased back into the league when expectations for the season are already shot. 

Frankly, I wish they'd just stash him on IR for the rest of the year, lock up the 1st overall pick, and then demand a king's ransom to trade down, given that there will be some good QB options in this year's draft, so there should be a market.  The roster is so bad that they need as many high picks as they can get, so it seems like it's in Indy's best long-term interests to be as conservative with Luck as possible.  A tanking season would fit right into Chris Ballard's plans, really.  He'd get to fire Pagano, hire whoever the hot new coaching candidate is, and stockpile high picks to build a more competitive roster.  The problem with Andrew is that he's good enough to drag that rotting carcass of a team to several more wins, so if Luck starts the last 12 games of the year, he could easily get them back to 7-9 or 8-8 and another middling draft slot.  Ballard needs to lock him up somewhere and not let him out until the end of the year!

Not to turn negative on Luck or anything, but... if the Colts tank and they get the #1 pick, is it so certain that they would trade it down or would they take Darnold and trade Luck himself.  I mean, I'm a brobdingnagian Luck fan, but at some point they will start to worry about his injury history and whether he will be the same after he comes back.

BC