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INDIANAPOLIS – Those wanting to believe in the potential of a return to football from Andrew Luck will not like the latest update from Chris Ballard.
Ballard, the general manager of the Indianapolis Colts, spoke with Andrew Luck during the 2019 season, but isn’t expecting the former franchise quarterback to come out of retirement.
“Look, Andrew is retired,” Ballard said on Thursday morning during his season-ending press conference recapping the 2019 season.
“Do I talk to Andrew? Yes, I do. Haven’t talked to him here in a few weeks. I’m sure he’s been busy being a father. But Andrew is retired. And I think we all need to accept that. That’s where he’s at. He’s retired.”
The Luck question was the first of more than 70 Ballard fielded on Thursday, in a presser that covered tons of topics non-Luck division.
As the presser was nearing an end, after more than an hour, the topic of Luck returned.
Ballard was asked at what point did the retirement of Luck—which occurred two weeks before the start of the regular season—finally sink in.
“Two days ago,” the Colts GM said.
“Because I didn’t have time to think about it (during the season) when Andrew retired, ‘Let’s go no excuse, no explanations,’” Ballard said of his thought process in the immediate aftermath of Luck retiring.
Some four months later, Ballard said that he’s had a couple of moments in the past few days thinking back on Luck’s retirement, which sent shockwaves around the NFL, and that it’s started to settle in as reality.
With the calendar now turning to 2020, Ballard will make a decision on the handling of the QB position in his first offseason knowing that Luck is no longer on his roster.
For now, the Colts are moving forward as Brissett will be the starter in 2020.
But, as Ballard found out abruptly last season, the Colts GM knows things can change in a hurry, with an intriguing group of free agent and draftees waiting in March and April.
“Well, I thought Andrew was going to be our starting quarterback going into last season,” Ballard said with a laugh when asked about Brissett being the starter come Week 1 of 2020.
“I’ll says this, ‘Yes, right now, Jacoby is our starting quarterback.’”
