Pro Football Rumors
The PFR pages have not seen a Quenton Nelson update in more than three years. That is a testament to the All-Pro Colts guard’s consistency and durability. Nelson has not missed a game since signing his current contract just before the 2022 regular season.
That deal is now winding down, which should move the ninth-year Colts left guard back onto the radar soon. The Colts have made a habit under GM Chris Ballard in extending core offensive linemen late in the summer. They paid Ryan Kelly in 2020, Braden Smith in 2021, Nelson in 2022 and Bernhard Raimann last year. Nelson is due again, with his four-year, $80MM deal set to expire after the season. And some key contractual updates have emerged since the former No. 6 overall pick set a previous guard record with his $20MM-per-year extension.
Nelson, 30, has not missed a game over the past four seasons. He has rewarded the Colts, during a time that has brought some notable unreliability elsewhere on the roster, with four more Pro Bowl seasons. Nelson now has eight, and with six All-Pro honors (three first-team appearances) on his resume, a Hall of Fame bust appears likely for a player who is probably the second-best O-lineman in the Colts’ 74-year history. (All-time great Jim Parker‘s spot atop that list seems safe, but Nelson could certainly create a gap between Nos. 2 and 3 on this list by the time he’s done.)
The guard market has seen some updates in recent years, but the ceiling has not moved substantially. (Curiously, neither has the tackle market.) Nearly four years after Nelson became the league’s first $20MM-AAV guard, that club now sits at seven. Tyler Smith moved into the top spot last year, signing a four-year Cowboys extension worth $96MM. Considering the salary cap’s growth, that seems like a fairly easy target for Nelson, now Indy’s lone offensive player left from the Andrew Luck era. A center deal may do more work to move the guard market, however.
