After making a bit of a mess of things in the first round of the NFL Draft in recent years, the Indianapolis Colts appear to have hit the mark with their selection of center Ryan Kelly in the first round of the 2016 draft.

After six games, Kelly may already be the best Colts first-round pick since Andrew Luck in 2012. Granted, that's not saying much, seeing as how 2013 first-round pick Bjoern Werner is no longer with the team, the Colts traded their 2014 pick for Trent Richardson, and 2015 first-round pick Phillip Dorsett has yet to have the type of production expected out of a first round pick. It might be a bit early to give up on Dorsett, but Kelly has already cemented himself as a bigger piece of the puzzle on offense in less than a half a season of play.

That's what the Colts were expecting out of Kelly when they drafted him, and that's pretty much what had to happen to make the decision to pick a center in the middle of Round 1 worthwhile.

Kelly hasn't been perfect of course, but the positives have outweighed the negatives. Kelly is currently rated as the No. 20 center in the NFL by ProFootballFocus.com and is coming off a game where PFF says he allowed no quarterback pressures. Kelly has started since Day 1 and has proven worthy of the challenge, playing almost every snap so far and looking very much like a player who can hold down the center spot for years to come.

The next question is how good Kelly can be from here. He's done solid work so far, but there's room for improvement, as he acknowledged earlier in October.

“I think it’s going to come down to every single person and how much they want to get better," Kelly said. "I need to do a better job at my position as well (with) the communication overall, getting guys on the same page and just playing more consistent."

As of now though, Kelly is looking like the first-round hit the Colts and general manager Ryan Grigson needed after previous misses. And, in a season where so far the offensive line has been under fire for how many times they've let Luck get hit, knowing there's a piece of the future already in place is certainly a good thing.