Quenton Nelson made quite a first impression on the Indianapolis Colts.
He's hoping to have the same impact on Andrew Luck.
The Colts finally gave their franchise quarterback some extra protection by taking the Notre Dame guard
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"I would say that I'm a very nasty offensive lineman who wants to finish every play whether it's in the run game or the pass game," Nelson said. "I want to work together to have the best offensive line in the league and protect one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL."
He's the first guard to be selected in the top six in more than two decades, and it didn't take the 6-foot-5, 330-pound Nelson long to convince the Colts he was worthy of it.
General manager Chris Ballard said he watched Nelson play once last season, against Miami. But because of an extended coaching search and the transition to a new staff, Ballard only made it to one pro day 鈥?in South Bend in March.
He spoke with Nelson after the workout, then headed home to explain to his staff why he thought Nelson was ahead of his college teammate, tackle Mike McGlinchey, who was taken by San Francisco at No. 9.
"You could just feel it," Ballard said as he struggled to explain the sensation. "I could feel it when I watched Adrian Peterson coming out. It was the same thing with Dez (Bryant). You can just feel it sometimes. With Quenton Nelson, it was the same way."
Back at team headquarters, others concurred.
Perhaps that explains why Ballard was willing to trade back three spots and then turned down another offer to move back. Ballard didn't say which team made the offer, but just minutes after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced Nelson's name Buffalo traded up from No. 12 to No. 7.
New coach Frank Reich jumped on board after watching Nelson's tape.
"My first impression is that this is the best offensive lineman I've seen coming out in a while
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Nelson also fills a huge need for Indy as Luck attempts to come back from a shoulder surgery that kept him out for the entire 2017 season. In 70 career starts, Luck has been sacked 156 times and taken 691 hits 鈥?the highest total in the league over that span according to the NFL. Last year, Indy allowed 56 sacks.
Pass protection hasn't been the only problem.
As Indy played musical chairs with the interior line for most of the past six years, the Colts have produced just one 1,000-yard rusher in that time and last season the Colts averaged 3.7 yards per carry.
Indy also lost its top rusher from the past three seasons, Frank Gore, in free agency.
Nelson, who started 36 games at left guard for the Irish, will now play alongside center Ryan Kelly, Indy's first-round pick in 2016. The line also will be comprised of left tackle Anthony Castonzo, a first-round pick in 2011; veteran guard Matt Slauson, a free-agent signee; and possibly guard Jack Mewhort, a second-round pick in 2014 who is trying to come back from two injury-plagued seasons.
The bigger question continues to be Luck, who not thrown a regulation football since returning from rehab in Europe late last year.
But if Luck makes it back
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He was a second-team All-American last season and one of four finalists for the 2017 Outland Trophy, which is awarded to the nation's best interior lineman.
"I definitely feel like I can come up and start from Day 1," said Nelson, who watched the draft from his family's lake home less than a three-hour drive from Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Colts are banking on it.
"He has everything we want. He's tough, passionate, he loves the game," Ballard said. "He's nasty, he's tough and his football character is off the charts. He's got unique size and bend and straight power."
Indy had eight more picks over the final two days of the draft including four Friday 鈥?three in the second round and one in the third.
Every marriage has its ups and downs. So New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft urged everyone not to read too much into any reported discord in his organization.
Kraft praised Bill Belichick on Monday when asked about some of the unusual decisions the coach made in the Super Bowl loss to Philadelphia.
As for any split among owner, coach and star quarterback, Kraft said he has learned to work with "a strong and powerful coach."
"The so-called tension gets greater when you lose," Kraft added.
And with Brady, Kraft noted that the "feeling of a loss is worse than the feeling of a win" in a Super Bowl, except for that first victory.
"I think Tommy is in that category."
Kraft spoke to media at the NFL owners meetings and was grilled about everything from whether All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski will return for another season (Kraft never really answered, though he said he'd seen Gronkowski at the team facility this offseason) to why cornerback Malcolm Butler
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Mostly, the questions were about friction in New England. Kraft said he has met with both Belichick and Brady, something he does regularly.
"I have faith in Bill as coach," Kraft said. "I don't think there's anyone (else) who has the football knowledge and expertise and understands personnel and is able to merge those. As someone privileged to own one of these teams, I encourage him to keep going with his instincts.
"This is not an energy firm where you go from A to B to C to D. I think Bill's structure has been pretty good most of the time and has worked pretty well."
Kraft admitted he was perplexed that Butler, a Super Bowl hero in the 2015 game, didn't play against the Eagles. But he acknowledged he was looking at it from a fan's viewpoint.
"There's no doubt in my mind that if he is doing it for the right reason," Kraft said of Belichick's decision, "I support it. I haven't had one instance where Bill has done any decision that was not in the best interest of the team."
While noting that Brady had an unparalleled season as a 40-year-old quarterback, including his third career MVP award, Kraft also recognized how difficult the final game of the 2017 season was for Brady.
"You don't get public with your feelings two weeks after a Super Bowl loss," he said.
Kraft got emotional when concluding the session by talking about lending the team's airplane to students from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida so they could attend the "March For Our Lives" in Washington on the weekend.
"When they called and asked would you send a plane and help take the wounded kids and their families and kids who couldn't go on a normal plane
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"I just thought this is a way for our organization to be able to reach out to those people who are hurting bad. I can't think of a worse, unnatural thing of losing your child."
Then Kraft, a donor to the Trump campaign, criticized the legislative process and current environment in the nation's capital.
"I have a big problem with what's going on in Washington and the divisiveness," he said, "and no one's listening to one another and forgetting where you stand on this issue."
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