The Indianapolis Colts have a tremendously talented quarterback in Andrew Luck, but they’re expecting more out of him as he evolves into a veteran leader.
Specifically, the Colts want Luck to stop turning the ball over so much.
“We say this all the time, ‘Andrew should not be a double-digit interception guy.’ Like that’s the phrase that we use,” quarterback coach Brian Schottenheimer said, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. “He’s just too good of a player. So again, if he can eliminate some of those decision-interceptions – I think there are five or six of them – those numbers drop significantly. You’re going to throw interceptions. It just happens. Normally they’re bad throws that cause those, but the decisions, if we can eliminate those, that’ll obviously help him drop down. That’s kind of the number we’ve been using. He should throw seven, eight, something like that. He had 13 [interceptions in 15 games] last year.”
In his 70 career starts, Luck has thrown 68 interceptions. That’s darn near Jay Cutler territory. Additionally, Luck has fumbled the ball 38 times in his career. So clearly he needs to work on his turnovers if he’s going to emerge as a championship-caliber passer.
If Luck can cut his turnovers in half, as Schottenheimer hopes he can, then the Colts will certainly have a better chance of winning games. Additionally, if he can learn how to slide more often instead of taking massive hits, his career will almost certainly benefit.