Andrew Luck’s retirement didn’t necessarily catch the Indianapolis Colts off guard.
The former Colts quarterback would have retired earlier in the 2019 offseason, but team owner Jim Irsay convinced him to delay his decision, The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin reported Sunday, citing an NFL source. Critics blasted Luck for announcing his retirement Aug. 24, just over two weeks before the start of the regular season, but the Colts reportedly were prepared for the 29-year-old to walk away due to mental burnout.
“… A league source said Luck wanted to retire earlier in the offseason, and Irsay basically didn’t let him, imploring Luck to take as much time as possible with his rehab and his mind-set,” Volin wrote in his Sunday NFL Notes column.
“Luck reported for training camp, but not really — he mostly rehabbed and worked on his own with personal quarterback coach Tom House, while Jacoby Brissett took all of the reps with the starting offense and acted as the team leader. Luck held out on the decision as long as he could, but his mind was obviously made up. The fans didn’t see Luck’s retirement coming, but the Colts’ upper brass sure did.”
Given Irsay’s reported role in Luck’s retirement timeline, perhaps we should believe him when he said Aug. 24 he doesn’t rule out the star signal-caller returning to the NFL one day.
Indianapolis has moved on since Luck’s retirement, agreeing to a two-year, $30 million contract extension with Brissett, and signing another former New Enland Patriots quarterback, Brian Hoyer, to a three-year, $12 million deal to serve as Brissett’s backup.
The Colts might not have acted so decisively to shore up their quarterback options if Luck truly had blindsided them.
