Colts coach plans to play Andrew Luck at the opening of the pre-season

Andrew Luck has not played in an NFL game since 570 days. The last chance was played on January 1, 2017 in the Colts regular season final against rival Jaguars. He underwent a shoulder operation at the start of the 2017 off season, but despite the insistence of team members to return at some point during the 2017 campaign, he never did it.

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If new Colts coach Frank Reich gets his way, Luck's play-free series will end fairly quickly. Reich announced on Wednesday that he planned to play Luck in the opening game of the 2018 season against the Seattle Seahawks, according to Zak Keefer of the Indianapolis Star.

If Luck actually plays in this game, he will have spent 585 days between walking on NFL field. It's a long time. We should probably expect a lot of rust, but the idea that Luck is back on the ground should be seen as a positive development for the Colts, who have been waiting for this day for a long time.

Luck at his best is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and he has shown himself capable of lifting a Colts team from the AFC South sub-soil to penthouse. When he returns to everything that looks like a full force, the Colts should be in the mix in what is now a much more difficult division than it was the last time he walked on field. It can be argued that AFC South could be one of the best football divisions next season, with playoff teams like the Jaguars and Titans joined by a Texans team that receives Deshaun Watson, JJ Watt, and Whitney Mercilus back from injury, and the Luck Colts back in addition to several strong draft picks.

Before going ahead and starting to project the Colts for great things, it will be good to see Luck return to the field and throw pbades. If we believe his coach, we are only 15 days to see this in a game setting for the first time in a long time.