For anyone who knows me will know I’m Andrew Luck’s biggest fan and if I was ever to have a 2nd NFL team to support it would be the Indianapolis Colts. Due in part to my admiration for the talented 29 Year old QB. Over the last 3 years Andrew luck has been no stranger to injuries and his latest set back had a lot of alarm bells ringing. None more so than the Indianapolis Colts and Fantasy Football fans all over the world.
After the heroic comeback of the 2018/19 season where Andrew Luck won comeback player of the year and in my eyes should have been the league MVP. Instead that went to the incredible Patrick Mahomes who deservingly was given the award Andrew Luck proved that he is one of if not the most Talented Quarterbacks in the NFL.
Oh Andrew!
After a pretty gruesome shoulder injury from a snow boarding accident the Colts star QB1 returned in September 2018 to a 34-23 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals but would go on to have a MVP type season. Become the comeback player of the year for the 2018 season and some would argue that it was his best ever overall season.
Luck completed 430-of 639 passes (67.3%) for 4,593 yards with 39 touchdowns and 15 interceptions for 98.7 passer rating in the process setting single season career highs in competitions, attempts, completion percentage and passer rating. Lucks also had an outstanding rating for passing yards and touchdowns and ranked in the top 5 in the NFL in passing, was second in touchdowns, was second in attempts, second in completions and fifth in yards. What’s impressive is Luck threw three or more touchdown passes in eight consecutive games from weeks 4 through to 12 Which was the longest streak in the 2018 NFL season and tied second for the Longest in the leagues history.
What’s With The Retierment?
Now with all the latest injury news how does it affect the Colts? The QB1 position at the Colts! Jacoby Brissett’s rankings in Fantasy Football, should you draft him or be thinking about him in your NFL fantasy football draft and league.
We had an interesting timeline on Luck’s latest injury saga starting way back in April 2019 when he said he was fit and healthy and ready to get back to training. In May it looked like Luck suffered his 1st injury as he didn’t attend the 1st day of OTA’s due to a Calf strain. As we got to the end of may Luck was still missing from training but as per reports the injury wasn’t a concern at all.
As we started the month of June and there was still no sign of Luck for over three weeks the Colts and Frank Reich again reiterated that Lucks injury wasn’t a concern and he would be ready for training camp. We then get into the middle of August and Colts owner Jim Irsay comes out with “Luck is dealing with a bone injury and will be ready for the league opener come September the 8th”.
Then on Sunday the 25th of August it was leaked during the during the Bears-Colts pre-season clash by ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the 29-year-old would be retiring. The Colts fans booed their moments earlier, enigmatic quarterback, off the sideline. Disgrace-full behaviour by those who touted him as the face of the franchise mere days, nay seconds beforehand.
Fantasy Implications For Jacoby Brissett And The Colts
How will this affect the Colts players rankings in Fantasy Football? Will this have an impact on the skill positions? Will Brisset be ready for week one against the Los Angeles chargers?
Over the last few months (from July) Fantasy fans and analysts had been weary of drafting Luck as a QB1. This was due to the uncertainty over his health and especially the latest news on the bike injury that had seen his Value massively decrease over the last 121 days. Luck’s average draft position was 5.02 as the QB2 but we were seeing Luck being drafted at 6.08 as the QB4. Then came the earth shattering moment that destroyed most fantasy players teams if they had drafted Luck previous to Sunday nights news.
T.Y-Hilton now becomes a WR3 with low WR2 upside. He still has the skills and the target share upside but we have seen the Brisset to Hilton show before in 2017 and it wasn’t pretty. In 16 games in 2017 Brissett threw for 3098 yards and just 13 TD’s and seven INT’s. Hilton had a down year with a measly 966 yards and 4 TD’s.
Marlon Mack now sees a drop in Rankings too. Stocks has him now down as the RB 27 on the year. He will still be the work horse in first and second down situations but as the Colts will presumably be coming from behind in more games he will see less playing time.
Eric Ebron and Jack Doyle are now no more than a risky streaming option every week.
The Positives
It’s a Frank Reich lead Colts we are taking about. The offensive line is much improved on the 2017 season. This was one of the main reasons the Colts were poor on offence as Brissett had no chance to get rid of the ball. If Brissett remains healthy and can stay upright we may have a sleeper quarterback that can help win you a Fantasy championship. Lets not forget he still has an arsenal of weapons at his disposal. Such as the monster wide receiver TY-Hilton, tight end duo Eric Ebron and Jack Doyle. A possible top 15 running back in Marlon Mack and super talented rookie in Paris Campbell. All Colts are a big risk in fantasy now at the moment as we have so much uncertainty surrounding them. However Brissett has looked good in the preseason and has had full control of his offence. If the defence can help by keeping the scoring low we may see the Colts with a winning record. Or are they now in the hunt for Tua!!
We all hope and wish Andrew Luck happiness in his retirement from the National Football league. It takes a big man to admit he is done before he becomes done by playing past when he wanted. We have all been lucky to witness generational talent that Luck displayed in his time at the colts. Who knows whats next for the colts, Manning, Luck and now in the hunt for Tua?
Until next time, Keep Rushing.
-Stewart Love @stewartlovenfl
