The Indianapolis Colts got even closer to locking up their entire 2024 NFL Draft class on Monday.
With the news of them signing offensive linemen Matt Goncalves out of Pittsburgh and Tanor Bortolini out of Wisconsin to their rookie contracts.
We have signed T Matt Goncalves and G Tanor Bortolini.
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) May 13, 2024
We have now signed 7 of our 9 draft picks from the 2024 NFL Draft.
The Colts didn't want to risk losing him, so they traded up from pick 82 to draft Goncalves with the 79th pick in the 3rd round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Goncalves logged 1,493 snaps over the last three seasons at Pittsburgh, with 967 coming at RT and 526 coming at LT. He only allowed three sacks, all coming in 2021, and only nine quarterback hits during his collegiate career. He now joins the Colts, where he will be able to compete at both tackle and guard to be one of the team's priority depth pieces as a rookie, with the potential of developing into a future starter as a tackle or a guard.
“I’m a Colt!”@MattGoncalves77 had the whole draft room fired up. pic.twitter.com/23w5U9ynVu
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) April 27, 2024
The Colts drafted Bortolini with the 117th pick in the 4th round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Bortolini logged 1,819 snaps over his three years at Wisconsin, and he lined up all over the offensive line. However, the majority of his snaps came at center, with all of his 2023 snaps (868) being there, as well as 74 snaps in 2023. He also spent time at LG, RG, and RT during his collegiate career. Even with him switching positions so often, he only allowed three sacks and six quarterback hits during his career. Bortolini will now compete for a backup job at center and either guard spot as a rookie. But I think the vision behind this selection is that he develops into a future starter at either center or guard.
#Colts 4th round pick Tanor Bortolini played T, G, and C during his college career, but is projected to stay on the interior at the pro level.
— Destin Adams (@TheDestinAdams) April 29, 2024
When I sat down with the now Colts draft pick earlier this draft cycle I had him explain to me the difference between playing G and C. pic.twitter.com/yQePoqlxMt
With these signings, the Colts now have signed seven of their nine 2024 NFL draft picks. The last two remaining are WRs Adonai Mitchell, who was drafted in the 2nd round, and Anthony Gould, who was drafted in the 5th. The Colts are on track to accomplish the goal of signing their entire draft class. I'd, for one, be shocked if their last two rookies don't put the pen to the paper over the next few weeks, so the team is fully ready to focus on football come Training Camp this summer.
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