There hasn’t been much mystery about who the Colts would take with the first overall pick of the draft on Thursday night and now there’s none whatsoever.
Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson said Tuesday that the team is going to be taking Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck with the top pick in the draft. Owner Jim Irsay pretty much admitted it last week and there have been reports that the team informed Luck a while ago, but this is the first public confirmation from a member of the Colts organization.
There almost certainly won’t be a contract signed before Thursday night. As Albert Breer of NFL.com reports, the rookie pool numbers aren’t known yet and that would make it very difficult for the two sides to agree on a contract at this point. Thanks to Luck’s schedule, there’s not much pressure to get anything done right away.
Outside of rookie minicamp, Luck won’t be able to join the team until after his time at Stanford wraps up on June 7th. That leaves plenty of time to get the rookie pool numbers and agree on a deal that ensures Luck can hit the ground running as soon as he’s allowed to start his professional career.