‘Refreshed’ Andrew Luck Returns With Plenty Of Goals For 2019

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While the first couple weeks of the offseason workout program are physically limited to weight room and conditioning work, the players are able to participate in classroom work with their coaches for the first time since the end of the previous season.


Luck, who turns 29 in September, is hoping to build off a very successful first season with Reich at the helm calling the plays. The NFL’s 2018 Comeback Player of the Year, Luck posted career-bests in completions (430), passing attempts (639), completion percentage (67.3) and quarterback rating (98.7), throwing for 4,593 yards and 39 touchdowns in all.


Forever a perfectionist, however, Luck acknowledged there were several areas of his game he was going to be chipping away at heading into the regular season — well, “all areas,” to be exact, but he touched on a few in particular Monday.


“Cut down on interceptions, accuracy, in the run game making sure the points and the ID’s are correct,” Luck said. “I think I could do a better job of setting our offense up to have a positive play each time – minimizing the possibility of a negative play. Protecting the ball. I want to throw more touchdowns. I want to put more points on the board.”


Must be refreshing to hear if you’re an offensive-minded head coach and your Pro Bowl quarterback isn’t sitting on the results of his MVP-level performance from a year ago.


“You can just tell that there’s a great mindset, an eager mindset,” Reich recently said of Luck. “Last year it was eager but in a different way; ‘To get my shoulder right, do everything so I can be here for the team.’ It was about the team, but it was, ‘I’ve gotta make sure I’m there.’ Well we know he’s here for the team, so now it’s going to those next couple layers, in the offense, for the team — it’s pretty exciting.”


Having learned Reich’s system last year, Luck is eager to have much better overall command and ownership of the offense moving forward.


“Yeah, I think that has to happen for me,” Luck said. “I think for me to take the next steps as a quarterback, certainly. And owning it is probably the appropriate word and command — understanding the why and where; the evolution of certain things and certainly making my feelings about plays, ideas or schemes known. A lot of it too is about creating great discussion at this time of year and trying stuff out, thinking about it, talking about it and leaving with a good plan. That’s certainly a challenge for myself this offseason and one that I am looking forward to.”