The Indianapolis Colts gave their franchise quarterback an anchor to an offensive line in need of improvement with the first-round selection of Alabama center Ryan Kelly in Thursday’s National Football League draft in Chicago.
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“After five different starting centers in four years, Andrew Luck has his center of the future”. “I think by doing that you don’t over think something that you for the most part have no control over now”. His hometown is West Chester, Ohio, and he went to high school just outside of Cincinnati. I don’t think I’d be here if I had red flags like that. After answering questions from the media for about 15 minutes, Kelly did not even crack a smile while holding his brand new #78 Colts jersey during a photo opportunity. Kelly, as a center, doesn’t have many tangible statistics, but Pro Football Focus reports he played 1,032 snaps previous year, 488 of which were pass-blocking plays.
“I’m not the smartest guy in the room”, said Kelly.
Kelly said he got that impression after meeting with Colts officials at the NFL Scouting Combine, and is confident he’ll not only be a good fit, but an immediate one. I’m pulling for him.
Weaknesses: NFL nose tackles may overpower him one-on-one.
The 6-foot-4, 310-pound Kelly won the Rimington Trophy as the nation’s top center and was a consensus first-team All-American in 2015.
“I think it goes to show you how much emphasis [the Colts] put on having a great quarterback-center relationship”, Kelly said. “He’s as good a center prospect as I’ve seen in years”. Saturday was responsible for snapping the ball to Peyton Manning for an NFL-record 170 starts.
“The kid is sharp”, Saturday said. He’s not me. We have different skill sets, different game types. But the one thing that we both have in common is that no matter who you’re playing at center, you’re going to have to have a great leadership role. We’ll go through each one, point by point. “I can’t compare myself to anybody”.
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“He doesn’t have a to say a lot to take a lot away from him”. I buy that Kelly was the guy the Colts targeted because he is going to help the Colts win more games than anyone else who was still available at #18, but had Grigson selected a non-offensive lineman and Andrew Luck got hurt again, fans with torches would have marched on the Colts facility.
