INDIANAPOLIS — Matt Goncalves went a little bit overlooked on the Indianapolis Colts’ offensive line last season.
Left tackle Bernhard Raimann became a core piece with a major extension, left guard Quenton Nelson’s on a Hall of Fame trajectory, center Tanor Bortolini established himself as a potential Pro Bowler and Jalen Travis showed enough that the team was willing to say goodbye to Braden Smith.
Goncalves pulled off something remarkable in the middle of all of that: Proving he can be a starting-caliber right guard after making a position switch.
“You watch what he did last year,” Colts offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr. said. “This dude played some really high-level ball for the majority of the season.”
The Colts had billed Goncalves as a blocker with the versatility to play inside and outside from the moment the team drafted him in the third round in 2024, and although he worked inside at times as a rookie, the reality is Goncalves had precious little experience inside heading into the 2025 season.
He played only one snap inside as a rookie, racing into the game for Nelson at one point.
Outside of that play, Goncalves had always played tackle.
“I can’t underscore how difficult that is,” Sparano said. “This dude was not a guard in Pop Warner. He was not a guard in middle school, high school, college. This guy was a tackle. Hes making a positional jump at the highest level of football, there’s going to be some growing pains.”
Indianapolis asked Goncalves to learn on the fly against the best interior players in the world.
He played 1,007 snaps, the second-most of any Colt on the offense behind Nelson. Nearly all of those snaps came at right guard; Goncalves played 948 snaps at right guard, the only break coming when he started at tackle in an emergency against San Francisco late in the year.
Every game was a lesson.
“The quickness of the game, guys are on you right now,” Goncalves said. “You’ve got to get your hands on them.”
An offensive tackle often has a couple of steps before he makes contact.
A guard does not have that kind of time. Defensive tackles explode out of their stance and into a guard immediately, hitting him with more weight and power than most defensive ends.
Goncalves quickly realized he needed to get more powerful.
“I felt like I was a little bit underweight, not as strong as some of the other guys in this league,” Goncalves said.
While he was learning on the fly professionally, Goncalves also went through one of the most difficult things a player can deal with personally.
His father, Bill Goncalves, died midway through the season after a battle with cancer. He was 63 years old, and he’d spent his whole life working with his son.
The loss hit Goncalves like a battering ram.
“We set out this dream to make it this far together,” Goncalves said. “We got there together. He was there for my draft night, for every step. Taking him away, it’s something that’s a little different. …. Every time I put my hand in the dirt, I think about him.”
When the offseason arrived, earlier than anybody in Indianapolis hoped after an impressive start, Goncalves knew exactly what he wanted to improve, and he knew who he wanted to help him. Former Colts offensive linemen Will Fries and Danny Pinter swore by their work with ex-Bears center Olin Kreutz.
Goncalves headed up to the Chicago area to work with Kreutz in the offseason, putting on enough weight to go from 317 pounds to 330 and adding 10 pounds of lean mass to his frame.
“Worked out six days a week, got a lot of good information from him about the offensive line, your body, stuff like that,” Goncalves said.
He still has the versatility that allowed him to make the switch to guard in the first place.
Goncalves is a natural tackle, and that makes him an interesting piece for a Colts offensive line that drafted Kentucky guard Jalen Farmer with a fourth-round pick this season. Farmer is a natural guard, a powerhouse of a man who needs to refine his technique, and it will be interesting to see how the offensive line shakes out going forward.
The goal is to put the best five offensive linemen on the field at the same time.
Whatever that takes, and that’s why Goncalves ended up moving inside
“Gonz has shown he can play both guard and tackle at a high level,” Sparano said.
For the moment, Goncalves is a right guard.
A blocker who believes he’s much better prepared to handle the position in his second year on the inside.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why Colts’ Matt Goncalves believes he’ll be better in second year at guard
Reporting by Joel A. Erickson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
