Colts Most Consistent Player? It's Quarterback Andrew Luck

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Week 1 will bring surprises. But to be Professional Grade is to be consistent. <a href="https://twitter.com/SBNation">@SBNation</a>: Who will be consistent all season? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GMCPlaybook?src=hash">#GMCPlaybook</a></p>&mdash; Marshall Faulk (@marshallfaulk) <a href="https://twitter.com/marshallfaulk/status/507625033246572545">September 4, 2014</a></blockquote>

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Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk played with the Indianapolis Colts for five seasons before being traded to the St. Louis Rams.  Faulk rushed for over 1,000 yards in four of his five seasons with the Colts, but his best season wearing the horseshoe was easily his last such season, 1998.  That year, Faulk rushed for 1,319 yards and 6 touchdowns (averaging 4.1 yards per carry) while also catching 86 passes for 908 yards and 4 scores - combining for 2,227 yards and 10 touchdowns.  That year, Faulk played with a rookie quarterback named Peyton Manning, who broke all sorts of rookie passing records.

14 years later, Manning's successor in Indianapolis would break the NFL's rookie passing records too.  And there's no doubt that this year, as Andrew Luck enters his third season quarterbacking the Colts, he's the team's most consistent player.

It's not just about stats.  It's not just that Luck had only one regular season game in 2013 with multiple turnovers (one out of sixteen!).  It's not just the fact that there were only two games that he didn't score either a passing or rushing touchdown in.  It's about much more than that.

Just watch this team play and you'll know that it's not one of the best overall teams and that it's filled with inconsistent players.  If only Vontae Davis would get more consistent, he could be elite.  While there's much more to it than just touchdowns, T.Y. Hilton scored in only two regular season games last year.  And then there are some players who just didn't play well last year.  I mean, I guess Trent Richardson was consistently bad in averaging 2.9 yards per carry, but that's not the intent of the question.

For the Colts, it all starts and ends with Andrew Luck.  Not only is he the team's best player, he's their most consistent player.  And if he wasn't, things wouldn't go well for the Colts.

Sometimes last year, Luck had a bad half.  There was a game or two where he didn't play well for the whole game, too.  But by and large, he was consistent.  An off day for him is magnified much more than an off day for anyone else because when Luck has an off day, the Colts aren't going to win.  The good thing is that his off days are rare.  Example number one is the Colts' 22-10 record over the past two years.  While quarterback wins is a very overrated subject, the truth of the matter is that without Luck playing well, the Colts wouldn't be winning many games.  The fact that they've won so many games over the past two years with a relatively bad team overall is a good indicator that Luck is pretty consistently good.

Furthermore, when I think of a player being consistent, I think of a player you can count on week in and week out.  Someone who you know is going to play well and who you're not worried about.  And by that definition, Andrew Luck is easily the most consistent player on the Colts.  Nobody is worried about him.  Nobody expects anything but greatness from him every single week.  The Colts can count on him every single week and they most certainly do.

Andrew Luck is the Colts' most important player, Andrew Luck is the Colts' best player, and Andrew Luck is the Colts' most consistent player.

Do you agree that Luck is the Colts' most consistent player?  Who else is consistent for the Colts?

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