Stampede Blue here:

"Head Coach Chuck Pagano announced on Monday that Andrew Luck has been ruled out for for the week 3 tilt against the Cleveland Browns. He stopped short of ruling him out from a return to practice and said the team is waiting on Luck to be cleared by his doctors. No indication was given with regard to a timetable except that Pagano did indicate that he has no doubt Luck will return to the field this season.

There you have it folks. The timetable is somewhere between week 4 and week 17. No further questions."


https://www.stampedeblue.com/2017/9/...out-for-browns

Until Luck takes the field I'm going to root for Jacoby Brissett to get exponentially better on a weekly basis to the point where the Colts somehow do better than expected without Luck. Reason being that if Brissett proves to be a capable starting QB some team out there may make a phone call after the season is over and prior to the draft make an offer of some substance revolving around draft pick(s). So while tanking would reap the benefits of a better draft position I'm not so sure it's the best option while Luck isn't playing. Brissett albeit having made the one stupid mistake he could not make looked capable knowing only a portion of the playbook. One game does not a career make so their needs to be a larger sample size. Personally I hope it does not get any larger than 3 weeks worth for Brissett and Luck is back along with Kelly and V. Davis. The thought of tanking a season makes me want to puke and that won't happen if it's up to the players.

taking emotion out of it, I would rather have a top 3 pick than whatever some team would want to trade for brissett (and keep brissett for our backup).

Tanking is dumb. If Luck comes back, you don't just sit your bajillion dollar QB. Play him. You're paying him.

But is my ideal season one that gets Luck back 110%, while Brissett learns the offense and is at least capable of orchestrating something resembling a NFL offense and while Ballard's first FA/draft class gives reason for optimism ... while losing close ones? Yes, yes it is.

This. A lot more games like this past Sunday's is ideal.

+Coaching staff housecleaning

I agree, but just to clarify, I'd imagine you would say that Luck starting Week 17 last year was dumb?

There does come a certain point (at least for me) where there's a point of no return so to speak. Whether it be at 0-4 or 0-6 or 1-5, where you could make the argument for shutting Luck down and not risking him having to do rehab all over again next offseason.

I remember this debate during 2011. I knew that it probably wasn't the last time it was going to happen. I didn't think it would be happening just 6 years later.

The difference being, Luck was not even close to 100% for that game. If he's 100%, he should play. If he's not, he shouldn't.

you can at times

you just never know exactly when he will get beat. it is not like he shits the bed every play.

i get that but fuck it


i want to win. i can't stand not winning our shit division. and i would love it just to shut all the people talking shit about this team up. we are a bad team but the way the media portrays it, we are the biggest joke the nfl has ever seen.

nope

you can't make an argument for shutting down a healthy Luck.

The biggest jackass at poking fun at the Colts is PFF ( florioisadick) and that's because he sucks Belichicks and Kraft's dicks !!

florio has been like that for awhile concerning the colts. it is truly unprofessional. i rarely see his shit though

The Colts are 0-15 and Luck is FINALLY healthy enough to go in Week 17.

You're advocating starting him?

You're lucky, but then again I don't have to read his shit if I don't want to, but then again I've never been mistaken for a member of MENSA!

Absolutely...gotta see what you got for next year..lol!

j/k

Of course

Is this a serious question? Of course you play him........
1. The organization needs to be able to make a full assessment of whether he's capable of returning to high level QB play so they can develop and implement the right off season plan for the QB position.
2. Andrew needs game time reps that no amount of non game practice can give him to get back ready for next year
3. The rest of the offense needs game time reps to reconnect into something resembling a competitive high level unit.
4. The rest of the NFL needs to see that andrew is better than ever so that Ballard and Irsay can recruit the type of head coach that can restore this franchise to excellence and finally
5. The fans need something positive to shake off the stench that this season will have been in your scenario so yes.....

The minute andrew is 100 percent he needs to be on the field. He is a competitive well paid professional and I can't believe he would want it any other way besides the fact that it's what the organization needs for all of these reasons.

I want him to play as long as him playing doesn't somehow save Pagano's job.

There is No Way Pagano will be back next year.

It's complicated with Luck. I'd ask how healthy is he really. You can come back from an injury
where technically you're cleared but things are still precarious, still a bit
raw. In his case it seems to be a major procedure he endured . Do you
want to trust the fledgling recovery to an offensive line that is playing
like it is the beneficiary of his life insurance policy?
On the other hand we really need to know what we have here, post surgery,
because if he's not there and won't be, there are some franchise Qb prospects in this draft.
I wish there was some slide rule that would tell us at what point that shoulder
is sturdy enough for contact given the constraints of this team but there isn't one. There are no easy answers
and whichever route is taken will be thoroughly second guessed. Yuck.

Lots of people said this last year. And the year before.

And he wouldn't be here if Irsay could have closed the deal with any of the handful of candidates (experienced, Super Bowl pedigree ) that he considered at the end of our last two mediocre seasons. This year, not even limping our way into the playoffs (which isn't likely to happen), will save his job. I firmly believe when he hired Ballard he also made the decision to put the selection of the next head coach into his hands which opens up the possibility of more less tenured candidates. Time will tell but I'd be willing to put money behind this prediction. I see NO scenario where chuck is back.

This is what my head and my heart both tell me. Irsay tried to bring in a high-caliber coach early in January, missed, saw it was too late for a new GM to hire a good coach and staff, and knew Luck would be out at least throughout OTAs and some camp.

Add all of that together and Irsay more or less told Ballard, "don't worry about the coaching staff for 2017. Build your scouting department, start churning the roster, and use 2017 as an evaluation year up and down the organization."

Exactly! Irsay may be an addict but he also has grown up in the football business and one of his deep seated motivations is to Not run his business like his father did so he's more loyal and sometimes slower to act than his fans would like but he's not the bumbling idiot that some are making him out to be. This season may be shaping up to be a bit of a cluster fuck (perfect storm) but as long as andrew comes back to full form physically and mentally we have the most important asset we need. Everything else from competent coaching to a better roster are all achievable within the next couple of years.....we just need to ride out the current shitstorm.

Obviously I hope you're right. But I'm not putting anything past the owner that signed both Grigson and Pagano to second contracts.

And already bought one of them out. The other is likely to go, too. Like was said, he had no real replacement options then.

You don’t know that !

Dead guy in the morgue would've been a satisfactory replacement.

2017 was a lost year regardless. I'd rather Ballard get feelers out and get his pick of the litter for 2018.

Also, if it's a guy like Toub, coordinators and position coaches are going to be ultra important. Those guys change jobs the first 10 days after the season, so Irsay had already missed the window.

I hate that dude, all that aside, exceptionally well reasoned.

There was a nice little break down the other day by Q&S- Chuck is legitimately the only guy in the org right now that needs to win now and you can hear it in his voice that he recognizes he is being hung out to dry.

Makes a lot of sense... just hoping there is nothing wrong with shoulder long term!

Pagano has no business being a head coach in the NFL. Luck is a once in a generational QB and Pagano is the head coach? What a fucking joke. I don't know how the SOB even sleeps at night! Everyone says that Pagano is a nice guy, I say fuck that. He threw all of his previous coaches under the bus and nothing has changed. HE IS the fucking problem! I didn't care for that prick Griggs, but Pags is just as bad if not worst. Irsay really fucked up hiring those two hacks.