Colts GM Chris Ballard Says Andrew Luck Will Return To Practice This Week

Colts GM Chris Ballard confirmed Monday that QB Andrew Luck will return to practice this week on a limited basis.

“We’ll slowly start working him back into practice this week,’’ Ballard said Monday during a radio appearance, via CBS 4 Indy. “We’ll see how much he gets.

“But we’ve got a plan in place to where we want him to start getting him reps and then, in time as we can get him incorporated back into teamwork and all that, we’ll get him back on the field.’’

According to Ballard, Luck is starting to get his throwing motion back after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery.

“Andrew’s doing good, he’s doing really good,’’ Ballard said. “I’ve watched him throw the ball and he’s starting to get his motion back, getting his lower body to start working with his upper body.

“His strength levels are getting back to where they need to be.’’

The expectation has been for a few weeks now that it’s going to take a few weeks of practice before he’s able to return to game action, so we still may not see him until the end of October or early November.

The Colts elected to not place Luck on the PUP list coming out of the preseason, which would have cost him the first six games of the season because they felt he could return before then.

Indianapolis has wasted no time in ruling Luck out the past four weeks. The Colts have been starting Jacoby Brissett, who has shown some signs of promise for them.

Luck, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Colts back in 2012. He’s currently in the second year of his six-year, $139.125 million contract that includes $87 million guaranteed and is set to make a base salary of $12 million for the 2016 season.

In 2016, Luck has appeared in 15 games and thrown for 4,240 yards while completing 63.5 percent of his passes for 31 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 4 quarterback out of 36 qualifying players.

We’ll have more regarding Luck as the news is available.