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Colts: Should Andrew Luck play against the Jacksonville Jaguars?

By Scott Stewart

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With reports of Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck being hurt emerging from practice this week, GM Ryan Grigson has caught a lot of heat for not protecting his prize asset. The only question that remains is – should the Colts risk Luck against Jacksonville this weekend?

Simply put, yes.

Grigson has been named and shamed for not supplying an offensive line with the ability to protect Andrew Luck – and deservedly so – but the Colts QB should no question be in contention when they take the field against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.

The Colts (along with others) have reported that Matt Hasselbeck is preparing himself to line up under center should Luck not be available, and to add more fuel to the fire, Irsay announced today that the Colts have signed another quarterback, Josh Johnson, who also has a few years of NFL experience.

I understand where the Colts are coming from – they not only face Jacksonville on Sunday, who the Colts feel they should put away but turn around and face a short week and a road trip to Houston for Thursday night football. However, does that mean Luck shouldn’t see a single snap on Sunday? No, no it doesn’t.

Jacksonville should be an easy win – a Sunday afternoon game at Lucas Oil. But then again we said the same thing about the Jets’ trip to Indy on a Monday and we all know how that turned out. Right now though, there’s too much for the Colts to fix in just one go around. The 0-line needs help, their still battling injuries in the secondary, and they can’t just stop a player from having a slow starting *cough* Andre Johnson *cough*, but they do need to protect their biggest and best player on the offensive side of the ball and they simply haven’t.

Plus, let’s look at Matt Hasselbeck‘s current position. He’s a 40-year-old vet that has been in the league since Peyton Manning first came to Indianapolis. Sure, he’s a three-time Pro Bowl selection and an NFC Champion, but he accomplished all of that eight years ago with the Seattle Seahawks. Hell, the NFL almost jokes around with him by requesting a drug test, which he takes to very well. Right now, the Colts are fragile, and they need their field general and regular man to help inject some confidence into his team.

I’m not saying Luck will play, I’m also not saying he won’t play, but regardless of the decision of the men in charge, he should play. There could be a number of private factors going into this situation, the biggest being does Luck want to play, but aside from that if he feels ready to go then he should be the one to lead the Colts out of the gate as they seek to even up their record on the season.

Indianapolis hosts the Jaguars on Sunday, kick off at 1 pm ET.

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