Is Andrew Luck’s statistical fall a true narrative of his current ability? There are a lot of opinion

s right now in regards to the Indianapolis Colts franchise quarterback http://www.indianapoliscoltsteamonline.com/matthias-farley-jersey , Andrew Luck. Most of the media — and now a healthy dose of Colts fans as well — are questioning the strength of the passer’s surgically repaired right shoulder.The entrance of Jacoby Brissett to throw the Hail Mary in the waning moments of the Colts’ Week 3 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles only made the conversation more unbearable. And now, most are left wondering why Luck and this offense appear to be less efficient and more of an issue than the team’s defense, which was supposed to be the unit that would take time to mesh.Most might not be, but it seems as if a great deal of Colts fans are forgetting one of the most obvious reasons they feel they’re seeing a lack of aggression in Luck and the offense. First, head coach Frank Reich mentioned that his system would see to it that Luck was able to get the ball out of his hands quickly. He also suggested that this offense would be aggressive, multiple, and would attempt to eat up big chunks of yardage as well. It’s fair that these two statements from the rookie head coach might be where the disconnect lies.Of course there are additional circumstances: Anthony Castonzo has been sidelined, the right tackle position has been a bit of a turnstile already in this young season, and there’s a real lack of punch from the running game so far. Reich did touch on some of this yesterday, and here’s what he had to say during availability.About Andrew Luck receiving the balance of praise/blame —And about the optics of appearing to ‘check-down’ so often —I took the liberty of eliminating some of the redundancy in those statements, but that’s the meat and potatoes of those quotes. And Reich is correct, you can remember some of the plays he’s refering to, and thinking to yourself “yep, that was pretty obviously supposed to go deep and it didn’t pan out.”On the other hand, we are also seeing Luck make plenty of mistakes that a quarterback with that mind and so physically gifted such as him should not be making. But, a few other things remain absolutely true regardless of whether or not we want to believe them. Luck isn’t going downfield often, he’s not putting much ‘stank’ on passes that truly need it (this is not a new issue, however), and the Colts’ offense is nowhere near where it needs to be if the Colts are going to make any noise this year.If the Colts have any aspirations of a postseason berth, something is going to have to give. Luck has been sacked 5 times in three games, but has still taken 19 QB hits (19th). Should Reich/Luck sacrifice a sack or two more than they’re allowing per game right now in order to attack the opposing defenses a bit more? I think it’s a reasonable question, but would the payoff truly net more touchdowns? I would think that it would, but I don’t truly know if that’d be the case or not.The one thing that we must keep in mind right now is that we know what Andrew Luck brings to the table. He’s an amazing talent who hovers around 12 yards per completion for his career, has averaged about 4,300 passing yards when he’s played at least 15 games, has led the league in touchdown passes, and has the ability to be a clear top-5 passer in the league.As much as some of what Luck does occasionally aggravates me, I can’t — even for a second — accept that he no longer possesses the ability to be the most deadly quarterback in the league. At any rate, let’s look at the general statistics for Luck and sort of cross-reference them with NFL.com’s Next Gen Stats just for the fun of it.We often use yards per attempt or yards per completion to rationalize a common passing narrative, and sometimes to debunk it. Now, though, there are so many different stats that we can look to in order to attempt to shape our respective thoughts on a matter such as this.Here we’ll look at Next Gen Stats (their glossary), and Luck’s general stats for a bit of clarity. Then again, maybe it’ll just muddy the waters for some. Anyhow, here we go.Luck’s Next Gen StatsTime to throw: 2.52 seconds (7th fastest)Average intended air yards: 5.5 AYs (34th of 35)Aggressiveness percentage: 16.95 (14th)Air yards to sticks: - 2.1 yards (33rd)Expected completion percentage: 67.8% (comp% = 68.5%)Personally http://www.indianapoliscoltsteamonline.com/clayton-geathers-jersey , from this group of stats, I get that Luck has indeed been getting the ball out quickly — mostly by design of course — which is a good thing if you’re on board with the selection of Quenton Nelson, keeping the opposing pass rush under control, and are in favor of Luck taking what the defense gives him on early downs, thus, getting into manageable third down situations more regularly. On the other hand, we can’t presuppose anything about him getting ‘better’ protection from this stat. Luck has been hit 19 times, which seems to counter that argument.Additionally, we’re seeing that Luck isn’t going down field hardly at all (intended Air Yards), he’s not attacking the first down marker with any regularity (Air Yards to Sticks) and there is a reliance on an underachieving unit of receivers to gain an unrealistic amount of yards after the catch to keep this offense competitive and on the field.We also find that Luck is indeed more quantifiably accurate, and isn’t a victim of too many drops — don’t watch the Eagles game — or having a large number of accurate balls being knocked away by defenders. However, his aggressiveness percentage may be, in fact, skewed due to the receivers not getting separation early on in their routes. They’re being seen, or deemed aggressive, but it’s more likely a combination of a lack of receiver talent and some bad throws mixed in there.General Stats:Completion rate: 68.5% (10th)Pass yards: 662 yards (23rd)TD percentage: 4% (21st)INT percentage: 2.4% (T-17th)Yards per attempt: 5.3 yards (31st)Adjusted yards gained per attempt: 5.1 yards (29th)Yards per completion: 7.8 yards (32nd)Pass yards per game: 220.7 yards (24th)Net yards gained per attempt: 4.83 yards (28th)Adjusted net yards per attempt: 4.56 yards (28th)I can’t say that I expected there to be an AH HAH! moment in here somewhere between all of these numbers, but the general side of the statistical game looks even worse to me. Basically, it just confirms that Luck is checking down a lot, the receivers aren’t doing much after the catch, and that he’s probably thrown more interceptions than he should for running such a ‘conservative’ passing game.The yardage monster that Luck is, is not putting up those numbers this year, his touchdown numbers are on the down side of average thus far, but hey, he’s been really accurate up to this point. I know I tend to put a bit of a condescending tone to this, but the numbers are what they are, and the injury issues with the team, the offensive system, the talent level and everything else you want to add to it are all part of the formula.For all of the negative that this puts forward, I do actually believe that Reich and Luck will work together with the offensive line, receivers and running backs coaches to improve their offensive game plan. Attempting to limit Luck’s hits, get the running game going, lighting a fire under the receiver room and STILL trying to get the offense to third-and-manageable at a high rate is going to be a hard trick to pull off. But, we may at least start to see bits and pieces of alterations to the game plan as the weeks go by. Guys will get more comfortable up front, receivers more adept at getting open earlier in their routes and hopefully the running game will begin to take some of the pressure off. I think this is a reasonable assumption for the progression of Reich’s plan for the season, and I believe the Colts will need it in the back half of the season.Frank Reich’s offense: An introduction While the coaching search didn’t go as expected Authentic Jordan Wilkins Jersey , the Indianapolis Colts ended up finding and hiring Frank Reich, who by all accounts was a good candidate for the job. Reich enjoyed a long playing career as a backup quarterback. Most of his time was spent with the Buffalo Bills playing for Marv Levy and Ted Marchibroda while playing behind hall of fame quarterback Jim Kelly. After his playing days were behind him, Reich left football for a few years to pursue other interests. Reich had always maintained a relationship with long time Bills general manager, Bill Polian. Reich called Polian, who as you know was busy leading the front office for the most successful decade any team has ever had in NFL history, and asked for a job as a coach. Reich eventually worked his way to become quarterbacks coach, and if we’re being honest, probably learned as much from Peyton Manning as he was able to teach him. Not a bad gig for your first job as an NFL position coach. Reich went on to become the wide receivers coach with the Arizona Cardinals in 2012 under then head coach Ken Whisenhunt. 2013 saw Whisenhunt get the ax and accept the offensive coordinator role with the San Diego Chargers, Whisenhunt thought enough of Reich to bring him along for the ride. Our new head coach served as a quarterbacks coach for a year before taking over play calling duties in 2014, when Whisenhunt took the Tennessee Titans head job.Reich led the Chargers offense with mixed results for two seasons when head coach Mike McCoy had an opportunity to hire Whisenhunt, after the Titans job didn’t exactly work out. McCoy fired Reich, who then took the opportunity to upgrade his job by heading to the Philadelphia Eagles as their offensive coordinator under Doug Pederson, working along side John DeFilippo for two seasons. Those two seasons in Philadelphia saw Pederson, Reich and DeFilippo build a potent offense. All three men have been hailed for their effort in helping Carson Wentz progress as a passer and the way they were able to modify everything they did on offense when Wentz went down with a torn ACL in week 14 and backup quarterback Nick Foles emerged as the guy who would have to lead them into the playoffs, and ultimately led the Eagles to their first ever Super Bowl victory.But you knew all of that, right? At this point the story has been told about Reich in some way shape or form a few dozen times, so why did I take the time to write it again? Because Frank Reich’s history as a player and coach is ultimately what is going to determine how he leads this team and more importantly for the purpose of what I’m writing about, what his offense will look like. Frank Reich did give us a few hints into his vision for the offense:Most of that is pretty standard fare for an introductory press conference. He was asked about his offense, what’s he supposed to say: “We will be a vanilla, reactionary, slowed down offense.” So it’s not surprising he said what he said on some levels, but when you consider what he said with his history as a player and coach, maybe those standard answers aren’t just an answer that sounds good for the reporters. Over the next few days I’m going to give you more intricate details on what I expect the 2018 Frank Reich led Indianapolis Colts offense to look like. I will say, that while this is an educated theory (I subjected myself to all 16 San Diego Chargers contests of the 2014 season for this series, you’re welcome) it is at best a theory. We don’t know, beyond a shadow of a doubt what his offense is going to look like, but I feel I can get pretty close considering his influences and what the man himself has said. Tomorrow morning we will cover Frank Reich's time at Maryland and progress as the week goes on, culminating in what I expect his offense to look like. I hope you enjoy reading about the Colts new head coach as much as I have enjoyed researching and writing this piece.Frank Reich’s offense: The Maryland yearsFrank Reich’s offense: The NFL yearsFrank Reich’s offense: The assistant coaching years, part 1Frank Reich’s offense: The assistant coaching years, part 2Frank Reich’s offense: The 2018 Indianapolis Colts, part 1Frank Reich’s offense: The 2018 Indianapolis Colts, part 2