The Indianapolis Colts need Andrew Luck healthy if they want to be as good as they can be, and owner Jim Irsay knows it.
For that reason, Irsay wants Luck to be a little bit different on the field.
“He has to change the way he plays, only because it’s just natural that he is not a 22-year-old kid at Stanford who could play tight end or quarterback,” Irsay said Saturday at a fan event in London, via Mike Wells of ESPN. “He has to understand — and he learned from the Denver game — the importance of staying on the field. I think honing his game is the key. There isn’t any sort of chronic shoulder injury or something like that.”
Irsay believes one key would be to be a little bit more careful when trying to make tackles after turnovers.
“Look, [Luck] throws the interception, he’s mad, I know,” Irsay said. “Do what Peyton did. Do a little fox trot and you don’t embarrass yourself. But you stay out of the fray. You don’t see Aaron Rodgers [do it]. You don’t see quarterbacks get involved in those types of frays. That’s when tough things happen.”
Of course, avoiding those turnovers in the first place would be a good start.
“Again, I look for great things to happen,” Irsay said. “Andrew is at the point of his career where he’s honing his game, where he’s dealing with ‘How do I keep myself as healthy as I can,’ and ‘How do I deal with limiting the turnovers,’ because Peyton learned eventually how important it was to not turn it over and to be able to stay on the field and stay healthy. I feel he’s doing that in a good way. He’s ready to go.”
Irsay truly believes that Luck can lead the team into a new “golden era.” He also understands that Luck needs to be on the field to do it, which wasn’t really the case last season.
