DUBLIN, Ohio — Their injuries were different, but future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning knows all too well about the mental obstacle Andrew Luck will face from missing a full season.
All indications are Luck will be back with the Indianapolis Colts next season after missing all of 2017 with a right shoulder problem, which he originally injured in Week 3 of the 2015 season. Manning missed the 2011 season with a neck injury. That season was the final one of his 13-year career with the Colts.
“Everything is an individual thing, so you have to be careful speaking on it since injuries are different,” Manning told ESPN after participating in Wednesday’s Pro-Am at the Memorial in Ohio. “But it’s also universal. For me, I was a [repetition] guy. I liked to get all the reps on practice. The theory of 10,000 reps, I believe in that. I felt like I was kind of behind because I hadn’t gotten the reps even though you have a lot in the bank. It took me a few games before I felt like I was coming back. Getting as many reps as possible is key.”
The issue Luck currently faces is that he’s taking part in the team’s offseason workouts to only a certain extent. He currently can’t get all those reps because he hasn’t thrown a football since October 2017.
Colts coach Frank Reich said on May 23 that he anticipates Luck will start throwing during the time between the end of minicamp on June 14 and the start of training camp in late July. At that point, if things go as planned, Luck will increase his reps with his teammates so that they can potentially hit the ground running at the start of training camp. If he’s ready to throw to teammates at that time, he’ll have to do it away from the team’s facility.
Luck, who has admitted he pressed too hard in an attempt to return last season, missed 26 games over the past three years, and he needs as many reps as possible with his skill position players because he’s in the process of learning Reich’s offense, which he brought with him from Philadelphia.
“For me, coming off missing the entire year with the neck, I knew I was going to have to play a different kind of way, a different sort of physical state,” Manning said. “I was looking for things like positive feedback from receivers on whether the ball felt the same coming in and then when you get into the game and you throw a deep out. We played a preseason game and I threw a deep comeback route, and that was a thing to check off the box. You want to do everything for the first time again. You want to get hit, you want to make a tight throw, have a two-minute drive. I wanted to do all those things again.”
Luck replaced Manning as the face of the Colts when the franchise made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2012. The two have remained friends over the years.
“I’m pulling for Andrew’s return,” Manning said. “I stay in touch with him. I came to the combine. He and I sat down for two to three hours and talked about in-season routine, offseason routine.”
Source : ESPN
