With the first pick of Pride of Detroit's 2012 NFL mock draft, the Indianapolis Colts select Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. Lionsfan_772 is serving as the Colts' general manager, and his reasoning for the pick is below.
This pick doesn't come as a surprise to anyone after the "Suck for Luck" campaign went on (even though this was not the goal of the Colts at any point of the season). With Peyton Manning injured, he was released so we could move on to the future of our franchise. We selected the best QB in this year's draft and that is Andrew Luck. He has proved he can win and that he is not a one-year wonder. Also, I polled the fans at Stampede Blue and they agree that Luck is the best choice for this franchise.
Luck will be the best person to help the Colts heal from the pain of losing one of the best QBs of all time. At his pro day, Luck completed 45-of-48 passes and on his last throw, he threw a wind-aided pass of 70+ yards. Luck was a three-year starter at Stanford, and these were his stats in 2011:
In 2011, he was named the Pac-12 Conference's Offensive Player of the Year for a second consecutive season. He was also a finalist for the Davey O'Brien and Maxwell Awards. Luck led the Cardinal to back-to-back 11-win seasons for the first time in program history. Also, he was the catalyst to a Cardinal offense that averaged 43.6 points a game, which ranked fifth nationally.
In 2010, Luck finished second in the Heisman Trophy balloting behind Auburn's Cam Newton. He was also named Stanford's team MVP and quarterbacked the Cardinal to a school-record 12 wins and a No. 4 ranking in the final AP Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll. He set a Stanford single-season record for touchdown passes with 32, breaking the previous mark of 27 held by John Elway (1980) and Steve Stenstrom (1993).
In 2009, Luck earned freshman All-America honors from CollegeFootballNews.com, Scout.com and the Sporting News. Luck was named national freshman of the year by Scout.com. He was also named to the Pac-10 All-Freshman team by Phil Steele, ESPN.com and the Sporting News.
He has all the tangibles to be a great QB in the NFL, such as his leadership, vision, accuracy, arm strength, poise in the pocket and mobility (which is way underrated). Andrew Luck has the make-up to be the leader of the Colts and an elite QB for the next 15 years.
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Check out the 2012 Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft tracker for a look at all of the picks.
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