INDIANAPOLIS -- The thought of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck not starting Week 1 of the regular season for the first time in his six-year NFL career is becoming more and more of a reality, as their game against the Los Angeles Rams is just 12 days away.

Luck remains on the physically unable to perform list following his right shoulder surgery back in January. Coach Chuck Pagano gave the closest answer to Luck not playing against the Rams that he's given since the surgery when he said on Monday that the Colts are "moving forward with who we have on this football team right now and who's practicing." Luck can't practice until he's taken off PUP.

The quarterback originally injured his shoulder in Week 3 of the 2015 season. So that brings up the question: Why did the Colts wait almost 16 months for their $140 million investment to have surgery?

"There are a lot of times that you hope that you don't have to have that surgery," owner Jim Irsay said when addressing Luck's status on Aug. 13. "You hope that it heals on its own. It wasn't one of those that totally subluxed out that where it was a ruptured or something like that, where it violently came out and went back in, that sort of thing. It was a hard call. Often those are the hardest types to deal with. Do you or don't you type of thing."

The Colts announced on Jan. 19, which was 18 days after their season ended, that Luck had surgery, which now has him on the brink of missing the 11th and possibly the 12th games of his NFL career.

But what if Luck had shoulder surgery when he was out for the final seven games of the 2015 season while recovering from a lacerated kidney?

He aggravated his already-injured shoulder while trying to make a tackle after throwing an interception in Week 2 against the Denver Broncos last season. Luck was limited in practice at least one day every week last season due to that shoulder.

The Colts may have been able to reduce the chances of Luck missing any regular-season time this year had they shut him down and proceeded with the surgery right after they were eliminated from making the playoffs with their loss to the Oakland Raiders on Christmas Eve last season.

"I don't think we would do anything differently given the chance to have done it any differently," Irsay said. "I think it's just one of those situations where I think we waited until we felt like we had to do it. We picked the best time to do it, and I think it's going to prove to be something that was beneficial for [Luck] to have. A lot of positive things happened early in his career and [the goal was] to have the least amount of interruption time and get back to being completely, completely 100 percent going forward."