The Indianapolis Colts have some work to do as it pertains to locking Andrew Luck up for the long term.
The fifth-year quarterback is entering the final year of his rookie contract and is set to earn $16.15 million. Things could get awfully interesting if he’s not signed to a long-term deal before the 2016 season.
With that in mind, Colts owner Jim Irsay hopes to have Luck locked up with said long-term deal by the fourth of July, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Per @coltsaroper1, owner Jim Irsay told reporters the hope is to have an Andrew Luck extension wrapped up by July 4.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 22, 2016
Given the magnitude of some of the contracts doled out this offseason to some rather mediocre and/or untested quarterbacks, Luck’s contract is sure to be a record-breaking deal, whenever that happens.
Irsay has said in the past that he plans on giving Luck a contract with a “shocking number.”
“Andrew is going to be here,” Irsay said (h/t WISH TV). “I don’t know when that might be, but it’s just a matter of time before we talk about this new contract and agreed to. It’s going to be a big number. It’s going to be a shocking number, nine figures and probably a 20 (million) starting point per year, but again we will find the right number to get to.”
When Irsay mentioned the $20 million starting point, he hadn’t yet seen that Sam Bradford and Kirk Cousins were going to be right around that same number.
Joe Flacco’s new deal with the Baltimore Ravens also far outweighs those two deals. He’s getting an average of $22.1 million in new money after signing a record-breaking contract this offseason.
Given Luck’s pedigree, you’d expect his new deal to exceed Flacco’s.
Though he’s coming off a rough year, Luck is still the league’s preeminent young signal caller. Before the 2015 campaign, he’d passed for 40 touchdowns with just 16 interceptions 4,761 yards through the air in 2014.