The No. 1 Pick

It seems like it's been decided since the beginning of time.

I can remember sitting in Mr. Wellman's fourth-grade class at Bear Creek Elementary when I heard it for the first time.

"Andrew Luck will be the #1 pick in the 2012 NFL draft."

Alright, maybe I exaggerated a little bit, but that's what it seems like. Andrew Luck has been the media's first pick this year since he announced he'd be returning for the 2011 season.

But now we're hearing otherwise?

After a surprising explosion of offense from a man from Waco some call RG3, some people are beginning to not be so sure about Luck being a member of the Indianapolis Colts next year.

Including their former head coach, Tony Dungy, who won a super bowl with the franchise. He went on the Dan Patrick radio show today and said he'd take Robert Griffin over Luck, citing Griffin's added dimension of being able to rush along with his Top 3 arm.

In case you live under a rock, some of the best quarterbacks in the league have that added dimension: Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton and Drew Brees (Though he doesn't do it much) to name a few.

But why would the Colts pass on what's regarded as "The safest pick to come through the draft since Peyton Manning"?

The answer to that, I'm not really sure of.

In fact, I think it makes no sense at all.

Let's take a trip back in time. Tony Dungy gained his head-coachmanship in Tampa Bay and instantly began revolutionizing the defensive side of the ball (Google "Tampa Two", you may have heard of it). He was eventually hired as the coach of the Indianapolis Colts.

In-between there somewhere, Peyton Manning was the quarterback for the Tennessee Volunteers, racking up a 50-9 record in his four years there. The Volunteers had a high-ranked offense, and a low ranked defense. Sound familiar?

Manning graduated left after the 1997 season, and a weird thing happened. The Vols won a national championship in 1998, led by a Top-5 in the nation defense.

Go back to Dungy. He came to Indianapolis and led the Colts to a championship in 2006-07.

Remember when he revolutionized the Tampa defense? Well, this Indy squad, led by Peyton Manning, had the 21st (out of 32) total defense in the league.

Just like in Tennessee.

The problem with the Colts, and Colin Cowherd said something close to this a few weeks ago, is that Peyton Manning's presence is so overwhelming and overpowering that the team takes it on as their own. i.e. Peyton Manning is finesse, so his defense becomes finesse. That's why the Volunteers became a smash-mouth defense as soon as he graduated.

Now, back-track to the draft conversation. Who do you take?

Andrew Luck, who has glimpses of Peyton Manning but is more of an Aaron Rodgers in that he plays smash-mouth, wear you down football? Or do you take the finesse Robert Griffin 3?

Given that Luck will willingly hold a clipboard for Peyton Manning's final years, as he deserves to have, then I would take Luck 10 out of 10 times.

And if they don't? They'll most likely have to watch as Luck dominates the NFL for the next 10-15 years, all while looking at each other repeatedly saying "What were we thinking?"

RG3 will be a good quarterback, but Andrew Luck will be a franchise changing quarterback with the mentality that he brings to the football field.

He basically says "I'm gonna run it through you, then throw it over you. Try and stop me", while Peyton says "Where are you lining up? Alright... Hang on just a second."

I'll have the Luck please, side of Reggie Wayne.