GM Chris Ballard spoke to the media on Monday regarding Andrew Luck’s status, and he had a mixed bag of good and bad news.
Andrew Luck‘s recovery from offseason shoulder surgery has been the primary story surrounding the Colts this offseason. Chris Ballard finally offered a little bit of clarity to the situation after we hadn’t heard much from the Colts’ organization at all this offseason.
"“Andrew’s got to work on getting his throwing motion back, all his strength back,” Ballard said on Monday via the Colts official website. “Andrew has not had any setbacks at all in his rehab process or with his surgery. He is in good shape; he’s in good standing. Long term, his shoulder, the prognosis is very good and that’s very positive. We’re going to continue to follow the doctor’s orders and the rehab process. This is a process. We’ve not put a timetable on this for a reason. There’s a process with his rehab and his health and long-term success.”"
Luck has finally started some light throwing in the past week, but his status on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list will keep him out of practice during the beginning of training camp.
"“Right now the focus is on each step,” Ballard added. “I don’t worry about when he plays and where he plays. My concern and our concern as an organization, we’re all on the same page on this, Mr. Irsay, Chuck (Pagano) and I. We’ve all had long discussions about what’s the next step.To me, the next step is getting him into practice. Then once we get to practice, then the next step will be games. If we take out a step of the process, that’s where you have a setback. We don’t want to cause any setbacks at this point.”"
Andrew Luck is able to come off of this list at any time, but the Indianapolis Star reported that Luck will likely miss the entire preseason in an attempt to get him healthy for Week 1. The Star cites that the Colts’ front office did not add another legitimate quarterback this offseason, which suggests that they’re confident Luck will be ready for the regular season.
"“I’m comfortable when our doctors and our trainers clear him and say he’s ready to play,” Ballard continued. “Whether that means he plays in preseason or doesn’t play in preseason, that’s up to our doctors and trainers to tell us where he’s at and for Andrew to tell us where he’s at.”"
With only a few weeks to go before the Colts’ first preseason game, fans would love to hear that there’s no question about their franchise quarterback’s health. But Ballard provided a little bit more information on the recovery, even if he failed to provide any sort of timetable regarding when Luck would step foot on the practice field.
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It isn’t imperative that Luck play in the preseason as the Colts bring back most of their offensive personnel from last season. However, it would be nice for him to at least get some solid practice time to shake off the rust before they take on a tough Rams defense to begin the regular season.
The Colts’ organization will be forced to wait, just like their fans, and hear what the doctors have to say before they move forward in Luck’s process to get ready for Week 1.