Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

Ever seen Ryan Grigson giddy? Me neither. Not until late Thursday night, when the Indianapolis Colts general manager popped out of his office with a big smile on his face and told the media that the Colts got the guy — the guy — they wanted.

His name is Ryan Kelly, he’s a center from Alabama, and Colts fans are going to love him. Maybe as much as Grigson and coach Chuck Pagano love him. But not as much as Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is going to love him.

Colts GM Ryan Grigson goes against his gut and makes the right move

With the 18th pick in the NFL draft, as Thursday was turning into Friday, the Colts got Luck his Saturday. That’s what this pick was about: It was about protecting Andrew Luck and finding for him a center the caliber of Jeff Saturday, who was Peyton Manning’s center from 1999-2011. Ryan Kelly could be as good as Jeff Saturday, which is almost blasphemous given that Saturday went to six Pro Bowls from 2005-12. But that's pretty much the over-under for Kelly: Jeff Saturday.

And I wouldn't be afraid to take the over.

You ask me, the Colts just got the next great NFL center. Centers rarely are picked in the first round, just one of those things, but when it happens they’re super. In the previous 10 years, just six centers were picked in the first round — Travis Frederick (2013), Mike Pouncey (’11), Maurkice Pouncey (’10), Alex Mack and Eric Wood (’09) and Nick Mangold (’06) — and combined they have made 20 Pro Bowl appearances.

First-round centers are home runs.

And Ryan Kelly looks like a grand slam.

Sitting next to Chuck Pagano late Thursday night, a few minutes after the selection of Ryan Kelly, Grigson divulged just how high up the Colts’ draft board this guy was.

“He was really our targeted player for months now, coach and I,” Grigson said, and then he turned to Pagano and got wistful.

“He’s the only guy you and I went to (see) together for his pro day,” Grigson told Pagano, then spoke some more to the media. “You want to get a good one if you pick a center at one, and this one is that guy.”

Kelly’s a unique center in that he can play guard and, gulp, tackle. That’s how good his feet are, that’s how long his arms are, that’s how enormous he is. He’s somewhere between 6-4 and 6-5, and he weighs 313 pounds.

“That’s almost tackle-ish size,” Grigson was saying, and now he was just gloating, beside himself that the guy he wanted was also the guy he needed — and somehow was still there when the Colts’ pick came up at No. 18.

“We were getting nervous here toward the end,” Grigson said as the first few picks came and went, then 10, 12, 14, 15 … 16 … “Hey, that’s our guy.”

For picks in the first round, NFL teams are given 10 minutes. The Colts didn’t need 10 seconds. There was a delay to clear the stage of the No. 17 pick, Florida safety Keanu Neal to the Falcons, and to give ESPN time to discuss Neal and project what the Colts would do at 18. But Grigson didn’t need the 10 minutes. He turned in Kelly’s name almost immediately.

Several hours earlier, Grigson had summoned the Colts scouting department and told them not to argue, not to present a case. Just give me one name, Grigson told his scouts. Who’s the one guy we should pick?

“His name was (given) more than anybody,” Grigson said of Kelly.

Centers don’t typically generate that sort of splash in a scouting room, but Kelly’s not typical. Alabama coaches have told college football insiders that Kelly is athletic enough to play right tackle in the NFL. He was the consensus first-team All-America center and the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the year, graduating from Alabama and earning his master’s degree in 4½ years. As a senior, he surrendered zero sacks and just four quarterback hurries while making 20 knockdown blocks. He committed one penalty, all season.

According to Alabama’s film study, he missed eight assignments in 1,012 snaps.

Pagano, grinning as he sat next to Grigson, called the selection of Kelly “a great start to our draft. … We’re gonna both sleep really good tonight.”

So should Andrew Luck, who has played with five centers in four years and was injured twice last season. The selection of Kelly doesn’t fix everything that ails the Colts offensive line, but it’s the perfect first step and the reason why this draft — which included trading down to take Clemson safety T.J. Green and give them a total of eight picks — will go down as the second-best draft of Grigson’s five years, behind only the 2012 haul that netted Luck in the first place.

And Indianapolis, you’re going to love this young man. He spoke to the media late Thursday night with the perfect blend of confidence and humility, saying he expects to start right away but adding, “I’m not saying going to the NFL is going to be easy. It’s going to be a huge challenge … But I’ll do the best I can.”

Asked what he does better, pass protection or run-blocking, Kelly couldn’t say. Because he says he doesn’t do either good enough.

“Plenty of room to improve on … in both areas,” he said. “It’s a work in progress.”

Go to Chicago for the NFL draft, soak up the cameras and the attention? Not this kid. He never considered it.

“I don’t want to be in that environment,” Kelly said. “I don’t want to be with people I don’t really know. I want to be with people who have been special to me.”

Kelly has been to Indianapolis just once, for the 2016 NFL Combine, and it was there he met Grigson and Pagano and answered their questions just right — and then topped it by asking them one thing:

“What can I do for your team?”

Be there at No. 18, Grigson was thinking. Be there at No. 18.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter:@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.

First-round centers

Before Thursday, six centers had been taken in the first round since 2006, all have appeared in at least one Pro Bowl: