Indianapolis Colts

Colts rookie says he has to improve his vocabulary playing with Andrew Luck

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:26 p.m. ET

Cameron DaSilva

Andrew Luck spent four years at Stanford, one of the best universities in the country academic-wise. He not only left the Cardinal an outstanding quarterback, but also an intelligent citizen.

His wide-reaching knowledge of a multitude of topics comes across in his interviews and is evidenced by his recently created book club. In order to play quarterback at a high level, you have to be intelligent. But Luck’s smarts have thrown his rookie center Ryan Kelly for a loop.

The relationship between a quarterback and his center is an important one. Making calls at the line of scrimmage is a big part of protection assignments and audibles, which is why the quarterback and center always have to be on the same page.

Kelly and Luck are heading in that direction and are helped by their growing off-field relationship.

The Colts hope they’ve found a solid center in Kelly after dealing with a makeshift line for the past few years. Luck especially hopes Kelly upgrades the front five, given the number of times he’s faced pressure up front and had to escape the pocket earlier than he wanted to.

Now it’s just a matter of time before Kelly stumps Luck with a big word of his own.