PHOENIX – Unsettling.
Chuck Pagano agrees with that term used to describe the off-season outlook for having Andrew Luck possibly miss time with the first-team offense.
If the Colts do know when Luck will be full-go this offseason, they aren't ready to make that public.
The Colts were mum at the League's Annual Meetings in just how much normalcy Luck will have when Training Camp arrives in late July.
In past years, Luck has taken every first-team rep in camp.
But a January surgery on his throwing shoulder complicates the extent to which Luck will be working in the preseason.
"I would be lying if I said it wasn't (unsettling)," Pagano said at this week's Annual League Meetings. "I can't lie to you. Yeah, you want to have your guy available and you want to have him year around and we've got to adapt. That's what great teams and great organizations have to do.
"You have to adapt and you have to adjust on the fly so we'll do that."
One aspect of the roster where the Colts will be adapting before Training Camp is with the addition of another quarterback.
Chris Ballard said the move to bring in another quarterback, which should come later this offseason, has no reflection on Luck's rehab.
Bringing four quarterbacks to Training Camp (Luck, Scott Tolzien, Stephen Morris, plus a future signing) is something Ballard's past stops have always done. That will continue in Indianapolis.
If there is some good news in Luck maybe having to tone things back this offseason, it comes with the Colts not having to deal with continuity issues.
Rob Chudzinski's offense was installed last year. The only new face at the skill group is Kamar Aiken. Those are good things if Luck has to miss some practice time.
Nonetheless, it still isn't ideal to have Luck on the sideline.
"It's going to be a challenge, but we'll deal with it," Pagano says.
"Andrew's doing great. He's been in that facility from dawn to dusk doing what he's supposed to do from a rehab standpoint. He's on schedule. There's really no timeline. We'll leave it up to the docs and the experts. When he's 100 percent and he can start throwing the football around and the docs give us a green light on that, then we'll proceed accordingly."
A major reason for the Colts and Luck deciding on surgery came from what the quarterback dealt with in 2016.
Luck practiced full in just half of the team's weekly practices last year, a far cry from his first four NFL seasons.
The Monday-Saturday grind for Luck was immense last year.
Looking at Luck's stats from 2016 (the second best individual season he's had in the NFL) you wouldn't have noticed how difficult the weekly prep to play was for No. 12.
Any surgery is scary, but the long-term gain should be there for Luck.
"Anytime you have a procedure done there's some uncertainty that goes with that, but we felt fully confident," Pagano said of Luck having surgery. "There was a lot of dialogue, a lot of conversation that went into that decision. It wasn't one of those things where we woke up one day and said let's send him out to such and such and go get him fixed. We felt like it was the best thing for Andrew moving forward. His preparation from a physical standpoint and a mental standpoint last year was taxing. It's hard getting ready for Sunday's when you're healthy, let alone when you're dealing with stuff.
"I think (the surgery) was the best thing for the quarterback and for our organization."*
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