Tonight it was announced that former number one overall pick and four-time Pro Bowl quarterback Andrew Luck is retiring from football. While his career was riddled by injuries, it does not mean he had an unsuccessful career. Luck has many accolades from both his collegiate and NFL career, but he also left the Colts preseason game tonight to a crowd of boos, leaving many Colts fans uneasy with the most unexpected sports news of the night.
That being said, let's take a look at the highs and lows of Luck's short, but not terrible, NFL career.
The highs
NFL accomplishments
Luck began his career with the Indianapolis Colts back in 2012 after he was drafted number one overall out of Stanford. He was one of 11 quarterbacks taken in that draft, and one of six quarterbacks from that draft to make at least one Pro Bowl appearance. He was also just one of three quarterbacks taken in the first round, with Robert Griffin III (second overall) and Brandon Weeden (22nd overall) being the others.
Luck has been to four Pro Bowls and won the Comeback Player of the Year award last year.
He has led the league in passing touchdowns once (40 in 2014), game-winning drives (seven in 2012, which is also tied for the second-most all-time) and total yards (4,873 in 2014). Luck has also finished top-10 in passing touchdowns three times, passing yards per game four times and completions per game twice.
At the time of Luck's retirement, he is the active leader in pass attempts per game, number two in passing yards per game and number three in passes completed per game. Luck will also finish his career with 23,671 passing yards and a 171-83 pass touchdown to interception ratio.
All of this is to say that Luck will finish his career having accomplished many feats and having been one of the better quarterbacks statistically when healthy. However, the key word here is when he was healthy.
College Accomplishments
During his days at Stanford, Luck was one of the most decorated quarterbacks in college football. In his 2011 season alone, Luck was First-team All American, won the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, was a Heisman Trophy runner-up, a Davey O'Brien Award finalist, a Manning Award finalist, was Academic All-America of the Year, Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year, First-team All-Pac-12, and a Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week.
He also helped turn around a Stanford program that had only won more than 10 games in a season three times in their history, with two of those seasons coming before the 1950s. They won 12 games during the 2010 campaign and followed that up with 11 wins during the 2011 season when Luck received all the aforementioned accolades.
During his college career, Luck won the trio of the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year award, First-team All-American honors and First-team All-Pac-12 honors twice each. He also led Stanford to a program-record 23 wins in a two-year span, 24 weeks in the AP top 10 poll and their first two BCS bowl berths.
The lows
The injuries
Luck sustained more than his fair share of injuries throughout his career. According to @zkeefer on Twitter, Luck has suffered "torn cartilage in 2 ribs, partially torn abdomen, a lacerated kidney that left him peeing blood, at least 1 concussion, a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder, and this mysterious calf/ankle issue that led to [retirement]." This was all suffered across the seven-plus seasons Luck has been in the league.
There is no question part of his injury history is due to the amount of sacks he has taken in his career, as Luck is number seven in career sack percentage among active quarterbacks. Either way, the injuries kept him sidelined for a larger portion of his career than he probably would have preferred.
The other quarterbacks
While Luck was the number one draft pick in 2012, he did not win as memorable of awards as other quarterbacks taken in that draft. Griffin III won the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award, while Nick Foles and Russell Wilson have both won the Super Bowl as starters. Luck is also the third-highest paid quarterback ($24.6 million) of that draft class, behind Wilson ($35 million) and Kirk Cousins ($28 million).
The takeaway
Andrew Luck may not have had as elongated career as many other high-caliber quarterbacks, but he did make an impact on his team and the NFL as a whole. He had four playoff appearances and an AFC Championship appearance, and brought about a fandom in Indianapolis. However, he had to cut his career short because he is "mentally worn down," as the injuries that piled up on him may have just been too much.
Luck was not the best number one overall pick to don an NFL uniform, but he is certainly far from the worst. He lived up to a lot of the hype in fans' and experts' eyes when he was healthy, but he had a hard time staying on the field on a consistent basis, including going 616 consecutive days without seeing the field at one point. With all the injuries, who can blame him for hanging up his cleats early?
Happy retirement Luck!
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