INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck has not thrown a regulation football in more than six months, but that isn't stopping team owner Jim Irsay from saying he has no doubt that his franchise quarterback will play this season, which will open up endless possibilities for the rebuilding franchise.
"Only Andrew can decide how far away we are because he's a magic man," Irsay said. "There's only a few magic men. You know who they are. I don't have to name them. If he's healthy and he's back, he makes up for a lot of deficiencies.
"Can he take you all the way? We'll have to see how [general manager] Chris [Ballard] is in plugging some of the holes, particularly on defense. But when you have a guy like that, it's hard to say how many deficiencies he can cover up because he's special. You guys have seen it."
If Luck is healthy.
That has been the case with Luck since he had right shoulder surgery in January 2017.
Irsay, doing an impromptu interview session at the team's facility on Saturday, knows doubt will continue to be there about Luck's availability next season after the owner said something similar last year before his quarterback ended up missing the entire 2017 season. Luck hasn't thrown a regulation football since October 2017.
There has been a different sense about Luck's status for next season for several months. Ballard said during the combine that he had "no doubt" that his quarterback would play next season, and then Irsay added to it Saturday.
"I know you guys are like, 'Jim are you sure?' Yes, I'm sure. Sure as a human being can be," Irsay said. "You're adding Andrew Luck and he's doing very well. That alone changes things. All of us, including Andrew, we were all surprised that he didn't play football last year."
Irsay, like Ballard, said if they had any concerns about Luck, they would have selected a quarterback in the draft. The Colts also wouldn't have traded back from No. 3 to No. 6 with the New York Jets last month. Irsay took it a step further by even hinting that teams inquired about trading for Luck.
"Trust me, there were people that would have given an unprecedented amount of draft picks all with the No. 1 behind them for him, and we wouldn't even think of drifting in that direction," Irsay said. "He's our guy. We feel 100 percent confident he's going to come back and lead this football team with some of the new teammates that he's accumulated to great things."
"I'm not trading Andrew Luck," Ballard said of his response when teams called looking to acquire Luck at last year's trade deadline. "I don't want that on my résumé!"
Luck's right shoulder has been the center of attention for the Colts since he originally injured his labrum in Week 3 of the 2015 season. Luck practiced for the first time for a couple of weeks in the middle of October 2017 before the team shut him down and gave him a cortisone shot because of continued soreness. He spent about six weeks in the Netherlands rehabbing the shoulder late last year and has spent the early part of 2018 working with throwing experts in Southern California.
"Football players like Drew Brees have come through and for a decade had excellence after the surgery that Andrew [Luck] went through. We feel that we have a guy for the next 10 years who is going to be a great, great football player."Colts owner Jim Irsay
Luck has missed a total of 26 games over the past three seasons after taking every significant snap during his first three seasons, all playoff appearances by the Colts, when he covered up many of the team's deficiencies. Indianapolis has missed the playoffs three straight years.
"It's tough," Irsay acknowledged. "You don't like to have to deal with what I would term historic type of injures. Tiger Woods starts to come to mind. Through the decades of great, great athletes that are dealing with an injury that's such a serious injury. As an owner, you don't like to see that.
"It pains to see your franchise quarterback in his mid-20s have to go through what Andrew has had to go through, but he's a tough guy. Andrew Luck era, you're always going to be talking about your franchise quarterback when he's got the excellence Andrew brings. It was almost put on hold for a second. But look it, he is young and we believe he can play at least [another] decade."
Luck is taking part in the team's offseason workouts. He was only handing the ball off during the team's voluntary minicamp last season. Barring any setback between now and then, the quarterback will be taking part in training camp and then will make his return for the 2018 season.
"The progress that he has made, I think it's a stepping-stone process," Irsay said. "He has to go through practices, he has to get roughed up a little by his teammates, he has to get roughed up in preseason and then he has to play in the regular season when it's all on the line. This is a process.
"Football players like Drew Brees have come through and for a decade had excellence after the surgery that Andrew went through. We feel that we have a guy for the next 10 years who is going to be a great, great football player."