It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Andrew Luck play in an NFL game. After undergoing shoulder surgery in January of 2017, a procedure that caused Luck to miss all of training camp and the 2017 season, it’s been a long and mysterious slog to not only get Luck back in uniform, but simply start tossing a football around again.

Luck initially hurt the shoulder in Week 3 of the 2015 season, and he played just seven games that year. He returned to play 15 games in 2016, but continued complications with the shoulder led to the aforementioned surgery. Since then, there have been setbacks, followed by optimism that Luck would indeed start throwing a football again, followed by more vaguely defined setbacks. And that’s what makes today such a momentous day.

Another step closer. pic.twitter.com/1INrKyrhJu

— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) June 12, 2018

Day 1 of Colts minicamp is here, and there Luck is, throwing a football for the first time in a very long time. For those who have followed the saga of Luck’s injury, the very sight of him throwing a pigskin forward is a humongous deal. There’s a long road ahead to get Luck back under center in a regular season game, but this is as big of a step forward as you could hope for.