Koppen: Andrew Luck Is In That Elite Class
BOSTON (CBS) - The Patriots travel to Indianapolis this week to play the Colts on Sunday Night Football, and it's being billed as "No. 12 vs. No. 12" and a passing-of-the-torch type game.
Andrew Luck is a once-in-a-generation type of quarterback. Scouts said as much about him coming out of Stanford, and midway through his third year he's pretty much lived up to the billing.
There's been some discussion this week that Andrew Luck is not quite in that top tier of NFL quarterbacks -- he's well on his way, but not quite there yet. "He makes too many mistakes" is the main knock you here about him.
Dan Koppen agrees with that assessment about his turnovers, but already in his third season Koppen believes that Luck is an elite quarterback.
"I think he's right up there. I think he's right up there with Peyton [Manning], he's right up there with [Tom] Brady, Aaron [Rodgers]. He's in that top one, two, three, four -- however you want to rate him. He's got all the skills and all the intangibles. He can make all the throws. Sometimes he has that gunslinger mentality and forces a few throws in there because he feels he can get 'em in there, and makes a costly or needless interception. The turnover thing is probably the worst thing going against him."
For Koppen, Luck is just as good as the top guys in many categories, and even surpasses them in others.
"You take a look at Peyton and Tommy and how good they are at reading defenses, controlling the line of scrimmage and being a leader on that team -- Luck does all that just as good as they do, plus he's mobile. His legs can hurt you, where Tommy and Peyton you're not worried about them getting outside the pocket."
Koppen also talked about playing on the road, the Patriots' tough schedule ahead and more.
Listen below!
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