Adam Schefter says Andrew Luck's next contract will be "new landmark deal" in NFL

As the free agency craze has come and gone this year, the Indianapolis Colts have stayed quiet.  They re-signed two of their own key players (Dwayne Allen and Adam Vinatieri), added a few depth pieces (Scott Tolzien, Robert Turbin, and Jordan Todman), and added a starting cornerback (Patrick Robinson).

That's much less than we've come to expect from the Colts, and it represents a bit of a shift in philosophy for general manager Ryan Grigson - something he has been talking about all offseason.  At the same time, however, there's another factor that has led to the Colts not being too involved in free agency: the coming contract for quarterback Andrew Luck.

Owner Jim Irsay has said that he expects the deal to be in the nine figures, while he hopes to have the extension done by July 4.  There's really no reason for a deal not to get done within that time frame, as both the Colts and Andrew Luck are motivated to get a new contract done this offseason and lock the quarterback up long-term.

The deal is expected to be massive, and ESPN's Adam Schefter talked a little bit about just how big it could be last week on Mike and Mike.  Schefter was asked if Luck's new deal will be the largest in NFL history, and he had this to say:

"Yeah.  I believe that will reset, recalibrate the quarterback market.  I think that that deal is going to come in [at] 23 to 25 million dollars a year.  I think we're looking at guarantees in excess of 60, I don't know, 70 million dollars.  It's going to be a huge deal.  It's going to to be the new landmark deal in the sport of football.  And there's no reason for those sides not to get that deal done and I think it will get done, as the Colts hope it does, before the July 4 holiday."

Luck's contract is going to be huge, and the only question is just how huge that number will be.  His fifth-year option for 2016 will pay him just over $16 million, but his new deal will include a significant raise.  The structure of the deal will be very important, and it's possible that the Colts could dump a lot of the money into either this year or next year (when, according to Over the Cap, they currently have over $75 million in cap room).  Regardless of those details, this much is clear: Andrew Luck is expected to be signed to a long-term extension by the Colts this offseason, and it's expected to be a massive contract - one that, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, will be the new "landmark deal" in the NFL.