In April, Malik Hooker‘s recovery timeline was not certain to allow for training camp participation. Now, the Colts might have to enter the season without their second-year safety. Hooker is not a lock to be ready to start the season, Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star writes. The Ohio State alum is recovering from suffering a torn ACL and MCL, a sequence that ended his rookie campaign in late October. The Colts drafted Hooker in the 2017 first round despite injury concerns unrelated to the more severe maladies he sustained last season, and provided he can stay healthy, he’s certainly viewed as a long-term secondary cog in Indianapolis. The Colts are in slightly better shape at safety, though, than they were going into last season. Former UDFA Matthias Farley enjoyed a quality season after ascending to the starting lineup. T.J. Green and Clayton Geathers represent the top depth pieces. Green played 382 snaps last season, seeing more time after Hooker’s injury.
Pierre Desir was having a breakout season for the Colts through nine games last year. The former fourth-rounder had already established a career-high in passes defended with seven, and he also compiled 32 tackles and one interception.
“I think I’m going to be able to use my size and my length to my ability,” Desir told Jake Arthur of Colts.com. “It’s going to allow me to mess up the timing of the receivers, because the front seven — they are going to get some pressure. So that’s going to allow me to create opportunities to make some plays, so I think I fit well.
- Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star suspects that the Colts have known about Robert Turbin‘s four game suspension for a while. He notes that the team has deflected from talking about him all offseason and that the Colts have kept him away from the media (Twitter link).
- Turbin’s suspension will cost him $235K according to Mike Chappell of Fox59. Chappell says “no one should understate the possible impact of Turbin’s absence” and writes that the Colts were counting on him to fill a big role with Frank Gore no longer with the team.
Colts running back Robert Turbin is facing a four-game suspension after testing positive for performance-enhancing substances. Turbin confirmed this news on his Twitter account.
Turbin is entering the second season of his two-year Indianapolis deal and is now part of a Colts running back contingent that doesn’t include three-year starter Frank Gore. Turbin, 28, will be shelved for at least a fourth of the Colts’ games after playing in just six last season.
Gore’s absence clears the way for Marlon Mack to have a much bigger role. However, Mike Wells of ESPN.com tweets Turbin operated as the team’s first-unit back this offseason, doing so despite his 2017 season ending early because of an arm injury. Mack underwent shoulder surgery this offseason, per Mike Chappell of Fox 59 (Twitter link). The former Seahawks back rushed for seven touchdowns in 2016 with the Colts but scored just one last year and saw just 23 carries.
The Colts made multiple additions to their backfield on Day 3 of this draft, so this suspension likely puts Turbin’s roster spot in jeopardy. Indianapolis selected Nyheim Hines out of North Carolina State in the fourth round and added Jordan Wilkins out of Ole Miss in the fifth. The Colts also house Turbin’s former Seahawks teammate, the now-well-traveled Christine Michael, and 2016 UDFA Josh Ferguson.
On this date two years ago, the Colts made Andrew Luck the highest-paid player in NFL history. Two years later, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether the deal will pay off. 
[RELATED: Latest On Andrew Luck]
The Colts inked Luck to a five-year extension worth a whopping $122MM, with $87MM in overall guarantees and $47MM fully guaranteed at signing. Without the deal, Luck would have been eligible for free agency following the ’16 season. From there, the Colts could have retained Luck for an additional two seasons via the franchise tag at estimated values of $25MM and $35MM, but it would have put them in a difficult position down the road. Instead, both sides used Luck’s expected franchise tags amounts as a framework for talks and hammered out a deal.
With the contract, Luck leapfrogged Joe Flacco, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, and Philip Rivers in average annual value. The deal made sense, but it did not come without risk. Luck was coming off of an injury-riddled, seven-game season in which he completed just 55.3% of his passes and logged 15 touchdowns against 12 interceptions.
Luck’s shoulder was largely a non-issue in 2016 as he threw for 4,240 yards and 31 touchdowns with a career-high 63.5 completion percentage. After the season, he went under the knife to fix his shoulder, and that’s where things started to get messy. First, Luck was held out of training camp and the preseason. Then, he was ruled out for week after week in the regular season. Finally, in November, the Colts were forced to place Luck on season-ending IR.
Luck finally was able to throw a regulation-sized football earlier this month, but questions remain about how effective Luck can be going forward. When healthy, Luck is one of the league’s best QBs and he has three Pro Bowl nods to back that up. Still, no one knows if his shoulder can withstand the punishment of a full season. The Colts will be married to the former No. 1 overall pick for a while, regardless of how things turn out.
Already, Luck’s $12MM base salary for 2018 and $6MM of his 2019 salary have become fully guaranteed. If the Colts want to push the eject button in 2019, it’ll leave them with $12.8MM in dead money versus $14.725MM in cap savings. Their first chance to move on from Luck with an impactful effect on the cap will come in 2020, when they can save $22MM by cutting him with just $6.5MM in dead money remaining.
The Colts and Luck are hoping that it won’t come to that. If Luck gets back to his old form this year, the mega deal he signed in 2016 will once again look worthwhile, and maybe even team-friendly.
Colts quarterback Andrew Luck hasn’t experienced any pain in his shoulder following a recent throwing session, as he told Zak Keefer of the Indianapolis Star. Luck, who missed the entirety of the 2017 season due to injury, has gradually ramped up his throwing, and has recently graduated from tossing high-school-sized balls to NFL regulation balls.
The story of Luck’s rehab, of course, is filled with stops and starts, and Colts management maintained at various points in 2017 that Luck was in no danger of missing the season. Therefore, it’s entirely reasonable to take Luck’s progress this time around with a grain of salt, although it does appear both Luck and the Colts are taking a cautious approach. Luck himself admitted that he attempted a 2017 return too quickly, which ultimately led to him being placed on injured reserve.
“I feel great. Right on the path I want to be,” said Luck, who said he will be conducting offseason practices with the Colts’ wideouts at some point, per Dave Calabro of WHTR. “I’ll be out here throwing at some kids today, hanging out, it’s been a long winding road, certainly some parts have been very, very frustrating. But I’m sort of done looking back and looking forward and I feel very, very optimistic.
“I’m convinced I’ll be ready for training camp, but I’m not going out throwing 150 balls a day. There will be a plan. I’ve talked with coach (Frank) Reich and our medical staff and training staff and I feel very, very confident about that plan. The goal obviously is to play each game as best I can.”
When healthy, Luck is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL: he posted more than 70 combined touchdowns in 2014 and 2016, and the 28-year-old is a three-time Pro Bowler. But Luck was limited to only seven total games in 2015 and 2017, and it’s fair to wonder whether his shoulder will hold up for a full season.
Coaching staff turnover was abundant this offseason, but most of that change occurred at the assistant level: while there were 33 instances of alteration among offensive and defensive coordinators, only seven new head coaches will be leading teams in 2018, a number that fits in nicely with yearly averages. Naturally, these seven new HCs are taking over clubs that are in something of a rebuild phase, as the Titans are the only team that made the postseason in 2017 before opting to make a coaching change at the top.
With that in mind, we’d like to ask PFR readers which new head coach will experience the most success during the upcoming campaign? While we aren’t solely asking about record (the Bears could stage a turnaround in 2018 and still not make the playoffs given their starting point and the strength of the NFC North, for one example), we’re looking mostly at wins and losses.
Here’s a refresher on the NFL’s new head coaches:
- Arizona Cardinals: Hired Steve Wilks to replace Bruce Arians
- Chicago Bears: Hired Matt Nagy to replace John Fox
- Detroit Lions: Hired Matt Patricia to replace Jim Caldwell
- Indianapolis Colts: Hired Frank Reich to replace Chuck Pagano
- New York Giants: Hired Pat Shurmur to replace Ben McAdoo / Steve Spagnuolo (interim)
- Oakland Raiders: Hired Jon Gruden to replace Jack Del Rio
- Tennessee Titans: Hired Mike Vrabel to replace Mike Mularkey
In the NFC, Wilks will be not only tasked with re-forming a defense that’s moving from a 3-4 to a 4-3 scheme, but deciding if and when to insert rookie quarterback Josh Rosen over free agent acquisition Sam Bradford. Nagy, meanwhile, has the benefit of leaning on veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio on one side of the ball, but he’s installing an all-new offensive system with weapons such as Allen Robinson, Taylor Gabriel, Anthony Miller, and Trey Burton. Patricia takes over a relatively stable roster in Detroit, but he’s looking up at the Packers and Vikings in the NFC North, while Shurmur will be asked to wring at least one more productive season out of 37-year-old signal-caller Eli Manning.
Moving to the AFC, Reich is the new lead man in Indianapolis after Josh McDaniels spurned the Colts; with a barren 53-man roster, Reich will need Andrew Luck at something close to full health. Gruden landed a $100MM contract to return to the NFL and Oakland, but after an offseason which saw the Raiders’ roster get older, it’s anyone’s guess if the Black and Silver can compete with Kansas City and Los Angeles in the AFC West. Vrabel takes over an already-contending Titans club after just one season as a defensive coordinator, but his addition of coordinators Matt LaFleur (offense) and Dean Pees (defense) drew considerable praise.
So, who do you like? Which of these coaches will post the most successful season in 2018?
The Colts have signed second round pick Braden Smith, according to a team announcement. With that signing, the Colts have now formally inked ten of their eleven draft picks. 
Smith, a 6’6″ guard, was taken with the No. 37 overall pick. The Auburn product earned All-America honors in each of his final two seasons and won the 2017 SEC Jacobs Blocking Trophy, given to the conference’s best blocker.
Smith projects to start at right guard on the Colts’ new look offensive line. Fellow rookie Quenton Nelson will start at left guard and free agent Austin Howard projects to start at right tackle with holdovers Anthony Castonzo (left tackle) and Ryan Kelly (center) rounding out the front five.
Second round pick Darius Leonard stands as the Colts’ last straggler in this year’s class. Although the deal is taking a while, Stephen Holder of the Indy Star (on Twitter) has not received word of any major holdup. Leonard and 49ers wide receiver Dante Pettis stand as the final two unsigned second-round picks in the NFL.
Mississippi State defensive back Brandon Bryant is making his case to NFL scouts in advance of the NFL’s supplemental draft. On Monday, 40 scouts from the Rams, Browns, Falcons, Jets, Giants, 49ers, Redskins, Colts, Steelers, Saints, Jaguars, Texans, Raiders, and Ravens watched Bryant audition, Chase Goodbread of NFL.com tweets. 
There may have been even more clubs on hand to watch Bryant work out, according to Tony Pauline of Draft Insider (on Twitter). Pauline hears there were “about 20 teams on hand” and he hears his 40-yard-dash times ranged from the high 4.3’s to the low 4.4’s. He also conducted five separate one-on-one meetings on Sunday.
Bryant established himself as one of the top safeties in the SEC in his time with the Bulldogs. Across three years, Bryant compiled 157 tackles and five interceptions in 37 games. This year, after Mississippi State hired Joe Moorhead as their new head coach, Bryant announced he was going pro.
This year’s supplemental draft will take place on July 11. Other entrants include former Western Michigan cornerback Sam Beal and Virginia Tech cornerback Adonis Alexander.
Tre Boston‘s recent visit to the Cardinals yielded a contract offer. However, it was a “very, very disrespectful” one, according to the safety (Twitter links via SiriusXM). 
The Cardinals “rolled out the red carpet” for Boston late last month, but the end result was a deal that he found insulting. Meanwhile, his visit with the Colts might not have been serious at all.
“I didn’t meet with the GM, head coach or defensive coordinator,” Boston said of his visit to Indy. “I was in the lunch room for two hours. I even got to play basketball.”
Like several other veteran safeties, Boston finds himself in limbo this summer. He finds the situation frustrating, to say the least.
“It’s kinda rough man, they got us where they think they want us,” Boston said. “For us, we have to communicate with each other so we don’t take this minimum wage.”
The longer things drag on, the more likely it is that Boston and his fellow safeties will have to accept minimum wage deals. Tyvon Branch, Ron Parker, Eric Reid, and Kenny Vaccaro are also among the safeties without contracts as we head into July.