No one saw it coming.
Even now, six years later, it’s shocking to think back on Andrew Luck’s retirement announcement that took the sports world by storm. And the toughest part for the Indianapolis Colts is that they’re still trying to pick up the pieces.
Every time negative quarterback news emerges from Indy, it’s easy to think back to Luck. He was supposed to be the face of the franchise for another decade, at least.
Instead, the Colts are staging an “open competition” in 2025 OTAs between draft busts Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones to see if one of them might be the answer.
Spoiler: They almost certainly won’t be.
Since Luck, the Colts have started Jacoby Brissett, Brian Hoyer, Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger, Nick Foles, Gardner Minshew, Richardson and Joe Flacco.
Richardson is the only guy on that list to have made starts in multiple seasons.
MORE: Colts make key Anthony Richardson vs. Daniel Jones decision
Luck is the general manager of the Stanford football program now, seemingly at ease with his decision all these years later.
It’s been anything but easy for the Colts.
Since Luck retired, they’re 48-51 in the regular season. They’ve made the playoffs as a wild-card team once, in 2020, and lost immediately.
At this point, Colts fans should be hoping that one of Richardson or Jones (or both) is bad enough to get Indianapolis a top-five pick in the QB-rich 2026 draft.
Otherwise, they’ll be stuck in this same quarterback black hole for another year, or three, or five.
Luck looms over Indianapolis, long after he surprised the football world. And at this point, what the Colts really need is some good fortune, or Luck’s unfortunate lasting legacy won’t be going anywhere.
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