Former Colts coach: Andrew Luck’s ‘going to be back and he’s going to be better than ever’

Chuck Pagano hasn’t forgotten the sheer agony Andrew Luck experienced last season.

The former Indianapolis Colts coach realizes what Luck’s not playing last season due to the lingering effects of the shoulder surgery he underwent in January, 2017, had on the team.

‘We would love to have had Andrew healthy and playing last year’

It went a long way toward the Colts’ 4-12 season, which led to Pagano’s firing. On Tuesday, during the team’s minicamp, Luck threw a football in front of the media for the first time since October. Afterward, Luck vowed that he would be ready to play in the season-opener.

“We would love to have had Andrew healthy and playing last year. Absolutely,” Pagano told Bruce Murray and Brady Quinn on the SiriusXM Blitz. “Everybody in that locker room, everybody in that organization, everybody in that city would have said that, obviously. And you hate it for him. What he’s been through, what he continues to go through, he’s going to be back and he’s going to be better than ever. I know it.”

‘Not to be available and not to be able to go out there with your brothers and your teammates and compete just absolutely killed the kid’

However, as Pagano pointed out, Luck was devastated by not being able to play.

“It absolutely killed him, because (he’s) a top competitor and a great teammate and a great player,” Pagano said. “And not to be available and not to be able to go out there with your brothers and your teammates and compete just absolutely killed the kid.”