Colts' Sparano Jr. Confirms Plan for New Starters on Line

The Indianapolis Colts lost a part of their offensive identity this offseason when starting linemen Ryan Kelly and Will Fries left in free agency.

Between them, 13 years of high-level play walked out the door, leaving the Colts with a need to fill their now-vacant center and right guard roles. Luckily, the Colts foresaw the situation last year and were prepared.

Last April in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Colts traded up to draft Matt Goncalves in the third round and then took Tanor Bortolini in the fourth. Both players saw action throughout the year but will now be counted on to compete for more.

"There's gonna be a competition at both of those spots (center and right guard)," Colts offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr. told reporters this week. "Matt'll compete with the guards we have, and Tanor's gonnna compete with Danny Pinter for that (center) job. I wanna give Danny every opportunity to compete for that starting job, and so they're gonna split time in there."

As a rookie, Goncalves played 566 offensive snaps (333 right tackle, 230 left tackle, two extra blocker, one left guard) and started eight games while being active for all 17. Pro Football Focus credited him with a grade of 69.3 in run blocking and 57.1 in pass blocking, allowing a total of 22 pressures (15 hurries, four hits, three sacks) on 305 pass-blocking snaps for a pass-block efficiency rating of 95.5.

As to why Goncalves didn't get the nod at right guard last year when Fries suffered a season-ending leg injury early in the season, Sparano pointed to the fact that Dalton Tucker had been training at right guard essentially since May, whereas Goncalves only saw occasional looks in practice. Sparano didn't want to put Goncalves in a tough spot to have to change positions without enough preparation, whereas now, they have an entire offseason to prepare him.

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Bortolini played 351 offensive snaps (348 center, three left guard) in 2024 and started five of the 12 games in which he was active. PFF credited him with a grade of 65.4 in run blocking and 64.6 in pass blocking, allowing a total of seven pressures (five hurries, two hits) on 211 pass-blocking snaps for a pass-block efficiency rating of 98.2.

Both Goncalves and Bortolini graded among the top 10 rookie offensive linemen in the entire NFL, Goncalves earning the sixth-best grade (65.9) and Bortolini the ninth-best (65.1) despite both players playing far less than the rest of the top 10 rookie linemen. The other eight players were all full-time starters who saw at least 950 snaps.

"They'll both (Goncalves and Bortolini) have a tremendous opportunity to do it (start), and we'll see how that plays out," Sparano said. "Understand this, I have full confidence in both players. Wouldn't have started games with those guys without having that belief in them last year.

"They have a little bit different skill sets," Sparano continued. "They both bring a little bit something different to the table, but I think they're both very good players, both very capable players for us, and they can do a lot of different things. So, I'm excited to watch that play out."

Regardless of which players win the starting spots, Sparano is expecting the level of play to remain high, and because of that, the best players will start.

"The demands and the standard of the group are never gonna change, not as long as I'm the line coach," Sparano said. "They're gonna be what they've been, which is that we wanna be the best line in this league. We wanna perform at an elite level across the board, and we expect no drop off when the next man goes in there."

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