Jim Irsay Hints at Draft Plans

Today, Irsay tweeted this little nugget:

Yea I saw Barkley n Luck last nite,and there's others with big time potential..but we want 18 back under center soon/18 now-2012Class future

Let's break this down. First, Irsay says that Barkley and Luck have been seen, and mentions that there are others. This indicates to me that drafting Luck isn't a foregone conclusion in Indy. The Colts are obviously still considering the "trade-down-but-still-draft-a-quarterback" route. This would land them a great load of picks, but would let Luck be picked up by another team. This is interesting and all, but it's not the part that interests me. I figured the Colts were still considering that. The interesting part is this little bit: "18 now-2012 Class future." This hints at the Colts drafting a quarterback (possibly Luck), but also keeping Manning. This has been proposed by many fans, for Manning to tutor a new quarterback, but has also been dismissed by many as an impossible solution. Irsay also specifically denotes the future as the 2012 class, not a generic future class. This could indicate that the Colts are definitely planning on drafting a quarterback in the spring. Of course, this could be all just motivational speak coming from Irsay, to keep the fans' hopes up. But it's always nice for the fans to be able to speculate about something.