[FarmBoy]

[quote author=Boston Card link=topic=17367.msg200274#msg200274 date=1505178634]

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 of exceedingly large proportions 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

We should be so lucky.  Andrew should be so lucky.  There are tons of teams where Luck would change from a decent (or even not very good) team to a legitimate threat to win the Super Bowl.  Arizona, Jacksonville, Denver, and Houston come to mind in particular.  They'd have to give Indianapolis a truckload of draft capital to make it work, but I really doubt they ever go there.  I mean, Luck's presence is why Chris Ballard took this job.  There were other opportunities with better coaching staffs, more talented rosters, and more functional ownership situations.  But he knew that franchise QBs are the most important ingredient to winning a Super Bowl, that they're few and far between, and that Indy was the only place that had one but also needed a GM. 

Given how many teams would be interested in an upgrade at QB, and given how bad the rest of Indy's roster is, I have to think Ballard would take advantage of the opportunity to upgrade the roster around Luck and collect a few extra 1st/2nd/3rd round picks in exchange for moving down a few spots.  Viewing it another way, the QB they have is the best player on the team, meaning QB is the position least in need of an upgrade.  It would be colossally dumb to ignore those other roster problems and just replace a great QB with a QB that might be great, and Ballard doesn't strike me as that unwise.
[/quote]

It feels like Luck is in a no win situation. With Irsay as the owner, I have a hard time seeing them turning into a winner barring a miracle. Maybe Ballard is that miracle but there's not proof to support that idea. On the other hand, he's a valued commodity on the open market and Indy would make any team pay through the nose to acquire him, probably gutting the roster of the team Luck would join.

The best case scenario may be for him to have another couple of bad seasons in Indy and create a narrative that he's peaked and injury prone, get traded at a much lower value, and then pull it together at the next stop. But I fear Luck will always show that potential to be a star and therefore never lose the trade value he has, at least not for a long time.

[FarmBoy]

[quote author=Boston Card link=topic=17367.msg200274#msg200274 date=1505178634]

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 of exceedingly large proportions 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

We should be so lucky.  Andrew should be so lucky.  There are tons of teams where Luck would change from a decent (or even not very good) team to a legitimate threat to win the Super Bowl.  Arizona, Jacksonville, Denver, and Houston come to mind in particular.  They'd have to give Indianapolis a truckload of draft capital to make it work, but I really doubt they ever go there.  I mean, Luck's presence is why Chris Ballard took this job.  There were other opportunities with better coaching staffs, more talented rosters, and more functional ownership situations.  But he knew that franchise QBs are the most important ingredient to winning a Super Bowl, that they're few and far between, and that Indy was the only place that had one but also needed a GM. 

Given how many teams would be interested in an upgrade at QB, and given how bad the rest of Indy's roster is, I have to think Ballard would take advantage of the opportunity to upgrade the roster around Luck and collect a few extra 1st/2nd/3rd round picks in exchange for moving down a few spots.  Viewing it another way, the QB they have is the best player on the team, meaning QB is the position least in need of an upgrade.  It would be colossally dumb to ignore those other roster problems and just replace a great QB with a QB that might be great, and Ballard doesn't strike me as that unwise.
[/quote]

It feels like Luck is in a no win situation. With Irsay as the owner, I have a hard time seeing them turning into a winner barring a miracle. Maybe Ballard is that miracle but there's not proof to support that idea. On the other hand, he's a valued commodity on the open market and Indy would make any team pay through the nose to acquire him, probably gutting the roster of the team Luck would join.

The best case scenario may be for him to have another couple of bad seasons in Indy and create a narrative that he's peaked and injury prone, get traded at a much lower value, and then pull it together at the next stop. But I fear Luck will always show that potential to be a star and therefore never lose the trade value he has, at least not for a long time.