Colts rookie camp: Quenton Nelson isn't here for the nonsense

INDIANAPOLIS -- The jersey Quenton Nelson slipped on for the first time Friday is the jersey the Indianapolis Colts hope he keeps for 10 years.

Maybe 12.

Maybe 15.

The franchise’s loftiest draft pick since it grabbed a certain quarterback first overall back in 2012 – yes, Andrew Luck was working out Friday, as well – took to the Colts’ practice fields Friday for the first time as a pro, the standout among some-60 rookies at W. 56th Street. There might be 11 draft picks, each anxious to acclimate themselves to the rigors of professional football, but the centerpiece, the focal point, will always be Nelson, the refrigerator of a left guard GM Chris Ballard is building his offensive line of the future around.

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In a league in which o-linemen are renowned for their brevity, Nelson, picked sixth overall in last month’s draft, will slide in seamlessly. Across a six-minute interview Friday morning, his answers rarely stretched beyond a single sentence. Most were only a few words. It was clear: The draft was fun, but the draft is over. Nelson is here to work. He’s not here for the nonsense.

A sampling:

Are you excited to sign your contract – which Nelson did Friday – and get that part of this out of the way?

“Yeah, I signed my contract.”

Are you worried about what sort of football shape you’re in, after spending the last few months preparing for a battery of tests at the combine and your pro day?

“No. I’m good.”

And so it went, details be damned. Nelson wasn’t being rude; his bluntness spoke to his approach to the game. It’s not a lineman’s job to yap. It’s his job to pancake defensive linemen. (He does this quite well.) He, too, knows his place in this league. Rookies are wise to shut up and work. So Nelson will.

"It's just better (being a pro) that I don't have to worry about school, knowing that I can give literally everything to football," he said.

While it’s difficult to gauge the impact of a left guard during rookie minicamp – especially since the Colts are in shorts, not pads this weekend – Nelson stands out like a sore thumb. His width is simply stunning. It’s as if there have been two offensive linemen sewed together at the shoulders. His brute physicality – Nelson’s tape from his days at Notre Dame is downright violent – will change the tone of the Colts’ battered and beleaguered offensive line from the minute training camp commences.

In so many ways, he’s what they’ve needed for half a decade.

Rookie or no rookie, his impact will be felt immediately. Ballard felt it at Nelson’s pro day, watching and hearing and feeling Nelson work from mere feet away. “Y’all laughed when I told you you could feel him,” Ballard said shortly after the draft. “You can feel this kid come off the ball.” The GM made the three-hour drive home from South Bend that day dreaming of seeing Nelson with a horseshoe on his helmet. On the clock a month later, the Colts’ phones starting ringing, teams anxious to move into their spot.

Ballard mulled the possibility for a moment, then decided.

“Turn in the pick,” he blurted. He wasn’t passing on Nelson.

“If we’re going to start somewhere,” Ballard would offer a few days later, “we’re starting up front.”

In both Nelson and fellow guard Braden Smith, also on the Colts’ practice fields for the first time Friday, the team could see two-thirds of the interior of their offensive line manned by rookies this fall. And that might not be a bad thing. With the addition of tackle Austin Howard earlier this week, this much is certain: This is very likely the most depth the Colts have had in the unit since Luck arrived in 2012.

It doesn’t mean the line is fixed – “fixed” is a dangerous word with this group, just ask Jim Irsay. Plus September remains a ways off. But Ballard’s concerted efforts over the last few months indicate he’s tired of watching the line get beat up and bullied on Sundays, not to mention his quarterback lying helplessly on the turf. No pick is more indicative of that than Nelson. It’s the highest the Colts have drafted a guard in franchise history.

That should tell you something, both about the need and what they expect from the Notre Dame All-American.

He wasn’t much for words Friday. Does he worry about the lofty expectations that come with being the sixth pick in the draft? Does he embrace that? Does he even care about that?

“Not too much,” Nelson said. “I’m just doing everything that got me to where I am today. Like I said before, the approach doesn’t change. I’m still coming in and trying to be the best teammate I can be and the best player I can be.”

Work over words. The Colts have no objections.

Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.