Luck’s protector: A big man, bulldog tenacity
WESTFIELD, Ind. — The first thing Andrew Luck noticed about rookie guard Quenton Nelson was his back.
He calls it the biggest he’s ever seen. And he’s not the only guy doing double-takes of his new, massive personal protector.
Veteran guard Matt Slauson talks about Nelson’s expansive shoulders and enormous chest. Longtime left tackle Anthony Castonzo dubbed Nelson an immovable refrigerator on reporting day.
Regardless of the description, they seem apt for the newest addition to another revamped Indianapolis Colts offensive line.
“At guard, you want one of those people that if he’s walking down the street and someone comes and runs at him full speed, that person is going to get knocked out,” Castonzo said. “He’s got that ability that when people run into him, they move, and he doesn’t.”
The Colts have spent years searching for someone with Nelson’s punch.
Andrew Luck took more than 400 hits from 2012-16, the highest total among quarterbacks in the league, and has been sacked an astounding 156 times in 70 career starts.
All those shots finally caught up with Luck. He missed nine games with assorted injuries in 2015, made 15 starts in 2016 despite playing through shoulder pain and missed all of last season to rehab from surgery for a partially torn labrum in his throwing shoulder.
If it wasn’t obvious Indy needed to invest in protecting Luck after he signed a $140 million contract extension in 2016, three consecutive seasons without a playoff appearance made the next step clear. So the Colts went big. They selected the 6-foot-6, 330-pound Notre Dame linemen No. 6 overall in April’s draft — the first guard selected that high in more than two decades.
He has not disappointed at training camp. Nelson has already shown he’s capable of stoning more experienced defensive linemen, using his flexibility and balance to keep his body in front of pass rushers and flicking away opponents with a quick swipe of his strong hands.
“There’s a reason an offensive guard was picked sixth overall,” said Jack Mewhort, the Colts’ former starter and a secondround pick in 2014. “Obviously, we haven’t played the game yet, but from everything I’ve seen, he’s lived up to it so far. He’s the man.”
The first real test comes Aug. 9 at Seattle. But Colts fans got a glimpse of what to expect when the Colts put on full pads for the first time last weekend.
In Saturday’s one-on-one drills, Nelson managed to recover from the initial punch of a 305-pound defensive tackle then stood his ground and drove the defender backward.
General manager Chris Ballard and coach Frank Reich expected nothing less after watching his college tape and hearing him explain his goal would be breaking the will of an opponent.
“He just brings a lot of power, but then you’ve also got his young, bulldog tenacity that is a lot of fun and fun to watch,” Slauson said.