Colts owner: 'I’ll be damned' if we don't win 'plural Lombardis' with Andrew Luck

Maybe start with getting back to the playoffs

The Indianapolis Colts might be the luckiest franchise in football, having been in a position to draft both Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck No. 1 overall. The Indianapolis Colts, however, definitely aren't the best franchise in football, having won just one Super Bowl with Manning and Luck.

But that hasn't lowered their ambitions. On Friday, Colts owner Jim Irsay proclaimed that his franchise's goal is to win multiple Super Bowls with Luck.

"I've said it before -- we're into plural Lombardis," Irsay said, per the Indianapolis Star. "That's what our goal is. And I'll be damned if we don't go out and get them."

Maybe they should focus on making the playoffs first. The Colts have missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, despite the fact that they reside in the AFC South, which has produced nine-win division champions in both of those years. Their handling of Luck's shoulder issues was also questionable, as our Will Brinson explained earlier this offseason. Throw in some bad front office decisions -- letting Jerrell Freeman leave for Chicago, the trade for Trent Richardson -- and you have a pretty good idea of why the Colts haven't done better with Luck.

There is, however, reasons for optimism in Indianapolis. The biggest reason? Luck is finally healthy. The Colts' success will also come down to Luck's development and health. In the past two seasons, Luck's been available for only 22 games. That obviously needs to change.

By the sound of it, Luck is on target to be the healthiest he's been for a while.

"Andrew is healing tremendously," Irsay said. "This (surgery) has been a positive thing, not a negative thing or anything like that. He was really struggling going through the process of being ready to play (for each week last season).

"This was, quite frankly, not that complicated of a surgery. This was a simple labrum repair. There are a lot of other things that could have been involved with this surgery that weren't."

As much as the Colts' Super Bowl aspirations ride on Luck's right arm, they're also dependent on Luck getting the supporting cast he needs. For far too long, he's been saddled with a poor offensive line and a horrific defense.

It's a good thing then that the Colts finally fired Ryan Grigson and hired Chris Ballard to take over as general manager. Ballard has already made an impact, bolstering their pass rush by signing Johnathan Hankins, Jabaal Sheard, and Barkevious Mingo. He went out and added an underrated target for Luck in Kamar Aiken, who racked up for 944 yards in 2015. He drafted Malik Hooker, who Pete Prisco called possibly the "next Ed Reed." 

With the Jaguars choosing to give Blake Bortles another chance and the Texans hoping Deshaun Watson can make the transition from college to the pros, the Colts might be considered the favorites to emerge out of the AFC South. But even if they wind up in the postseason, they're still a long ways off from putting together a banner-worthy season by dethroning the Patriots in the AFC.