Although Pro Football Focus has been giving grades for college players for only 7 years, the site decided to take a look back at this past “era” and come up with the best prospects within that time frame. Just one former Notre Dame player made the list, and it shouldn’t surprise you it was guard Quenton Nelson.
The star offensive lineman was an absolute mauler for the Irish, and that has continued during his career with the Indianapolis Colts.
The best prospects we’ve seen in our seven years of college grading. It’s the All-PFF era teamhttps://t.co/k0tLY11J4M
— Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) February 10, 2021
Michael Renner was very complimentary of Nelson, because “guard is definitely a position where, more often than not, the best prospects aren’t the ones who played there in college. Three of the four here were college left tackles. Nelson was obvious.”
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Quenton Nelson has only allowed 3 sacks on 1,946 pass-blocking snaps in his first three seasons pic.twitter.com/x0nXNKrXjk
— PFF (@PFF) January 27, 2021
This is another awesome play by Quenton Nelson, showing his awareness. Sliding left, sees the LT (a backup) not sliding out, and instead of pushing the LT out he just pops back and takes the blitzer. Most guys would try to shove the LT out to it but it would’ve lead to a hit/sack pic.twitter.com/0vVrb6icFh
— Mitchell Schwartz (@MitchSchwartz71) December 6, 2020
A sack allowed each year is a pretty damn good average for an offensive lineman, and we all knew this was coming. “He (Nelson) has run- and pass-blocking grades over 90.0 in his final season in 2017,” said Renner.
With all this success that Nelson has had, he’s not done. The Colts are kicking the tires over moving him out a spot to tackle. Either way, Nelson is sure to continue the dominance he has shown so far in his career.