Just when you stopped worrying about Andrew Luck's shoulder, a new concern cropped up. Luck picked up a foot injury in the third preseason game last Saturday. He hasn't practiced since. For a quarterback whose fantasy appeal is somewhat reliant on his running ability, that's a concern.
Frank Reich says Luck will be back on the practice field come Monday, and he doesn't anticipate any regular-season practice restrictions. Taking him at his word, maybe Luck will be just fine. But recent history doesn't make it look like anyone should be counting on Luck to reward such optimism.
Luck played all 16 games his first three years in the league. He missed half of the 2015 season and all of the 2017 season, so he's now played just 22 of 48 games the last three seasons. In two weeks he turns 29, which is comparatively young for franchise quarterbacks, but he's not a kid anymore, either. And it's not the years but the mileage. The hits and injuries seem to be adding up.
In 2016, Luck was a top-5 quarterback, right up there with Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Matt Ryan. For the five-year window of 2013-2017, among all quarterbacks with at least 40 starts, only Peyton Manning (helped by one record-breaking season) delivered more fantasy points per start. Seems like a long time ago.
| QB FF PTS/START, 2013-2017 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | PYd | RYd | TD | Pts |
| Peyton Manning | 41 | 303.7 | -1.5 | 2.54 | 25.3 |
| Andrew Luck | 54 | 272.3 | 22.0 | 2.19 | 25.1 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 64 | 263.1 | 19.2 | 2.33 | 24.8 |
| Drew Brees | 79 | 310.5 | 2.1 | 2.19 | 24.7 |
| Cam Newton | 77 | 222.8 | 37.3 | 1.95 | 23.6 |
| Russell Wilson | 80 | 238.2 | 34.8 | 1.85 | 23.2 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 72 | 289.5 | 3.0 | 1.90 | 22.9 |
| Tom Brady | 76 | 281.0 | 2.9 | 2.07 | 22.8 |
| Kirk Cousins | 56 | 274.7 | 6.4 | 1.89 | 22.5 |
| Philip Rivers | 80 | 280.7 | 2.9 | 1.91 | 22.0 |
| Matthew Stafford | 80 | 274.3 | 7.8 | 1.79 | 22.0 |
| Matt Ryan | 80 | 285.5 | 6.5 | 1.66 | 21.7 |
| Jameis Winston | 45 | 258.6 | 11.3 | 1.71 | 21.5 |
| Carson Palmer | 60 | 279.7 | 1.7 | 1.77 | 21.3 |
| Blake Bortles | 61 | 241.1 | 22.6 | 1.57 | 21.1 |
| Marcus Mariota | 42 | 225.6 | 21.7 | 1.62 | 20.6 |
| Josh McCown | 40 | 242.7 | 10.0 | 1.68 | 20.5 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 61 | 248.5 | 14.0 | 1.61 | 20.5 |
| Andy Dalton | 77 | 239.8 | 10.1 | 1.73 | 20.4 |
| Tyrod Taylor | 43 | 202.3 | 35.7 | 1.47 | 20.3 |
| Alex Smith | 76 | 231.7 | 22.0 | 1.47 | 20.0 |
| Colin Kaepernick | 51 | 204.4 | 37.0 | 1.37 | 19.8 |
| Eli Manning | 79 | 255.2 | 1.8 | 1.65 | 19.6 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 51 | 228.2 | 16.2 | 1.55 | 19.5 |
| Derek Carr | 62 | 236.9 | 5.9 | 1.66 | 19.3 |
| Jay Cutler | 60 | 230.3 | 9.4 | 1.57 | 19.1 |
| Joe Flacco | 74 | 245.2 | 4.5 | 1.45 | 19.0 |
Maybe the foot injury is no big deal, and Luck will be back helping fantasy teams this season. But there's enough depth at the position that nobody really needs to take the risk.
--Andy Richardson