Quenton Nelson is one of the rarest players in the National Football League. Through 2 seasons, he’s been named 1st-team All-Pro for both years and is widely considered the best guard in the league barely through his 3rd season at the age of 24 years old. He has 2 years remaining on his rookie deal that will pay him nearly $24 million in total and when he engages in contract talks with the Indianapolis Colts he will surely be the highest paid player at his position when the ink is dry. Nelson is likely to sign a massive 5 or 6-year deal that will be worth close to $100 million sometime in the future.
Nelson left Notre Dame as a 1st-team All-American, and while he’s blossomed into a phenomenal pro, he was certainly fearfully awesome in college too. One thing that’s always amazed me is that Nelson was as physically ready as any Irish recruit at any position in recent memory and he still took a redshirt. I’m going to look back at how this happened.
Some expected Nelson to play at least a little bit as a freshman, many of our NSD scouting reports alluded to that possibility. Although rare for an offensive lineman it happened the year before Nelson signed when Steve Elmer saw action in 10 games, including 4 starts. The Irish were losing one of the best left sides in more than a generation as Zack Martin and Chris Watt moved on to the NFL so the opportunity for some minutes for freshman Nelson certainly didn’t seem crazy.
Injuries from 2013 likely hurt Nelson’s chances before he even arrived on campus, though. Watt, Nick Martin, and Christian Lombard–all interior players–each suffered injuries that would allow younger linemen the chance to add some seasoning heading into 2014. That included the aforementioned Elmer, plus Conor Hanratty and Matt Hegarty.
Reviewing the Redshirts: Quenton Nelson (from 2/27/15)Â
Still, it’s pretty weird to look back and see an extremely lightly recruited Hanratty starting in 2014 at left guard, even if he was a redshirt junior. He’d ultimately suffer concussion issues and retire before finishing his last year of eligibility in 2015. Not many people were all that excited about Matt Hegarty coming into his redshirt junior year, either. Remember, he was one of the highest recruited prospects of the Kelly era and he remained under-sized and well off pace relative to his high school hype.
Mike McGlinchey will back up both tackle spots. Hunter Bivin backing up tackle and guard. I.e. SAVE QUENTON NELSON’S RED SHIRT
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) August 26, 2014
Ultimately, it would be another redshirt junior who would keep Nelson off the field. Heading into 2014, Nick Martin was coming off an injury that sidelined him late the prior season and with 2 years left of eligibility I don’t think anyone believed he’d blossom to become a 2nd-round pick and a quality NFL center for the future. When Hanratty was lost after the third game, the staff decided to move Martin over from center and put the weaker link (Hegarty) in the middle.
There’s probably a simulation where Nelson got some minutes at right guard, too. Notre Dame started 5th-year senior Christian Lombard who was coming off a back injury in 2013 and wouldn’t make it until the end of 2014 without back back problems. Then, they weren’t happy with Elmer at right tackle so they flip-flopped him and Lombard until the bowl game. You may remember Elmer would eventually skip his senior season in 2016 to start his professional career at Booz Allen Hamilton.
The depth for the Irish also made it difficult for Nelson. He wasn’t close to replacing budding star Ronnie Stanley at left tackle and future Bash Brother Mike McGlinchey used the 2013 bowl game to show off his immense potential. There were 15 scholarship offensive linemen on the roster–and in addition to Nelson’s classmates (Alex Bars, Sam Mustipher, Jimmy Byrne) being one heck of a haul–they were directly preceded by the Elmer/McGlinchey class that also included Hunter Bivin, Colin McGovern, and John Montelus.
So, it’s a weird story as 4 players who started ahead of Nelson in 2014 never finished their full eligibility in college due to injuries of transferring. On the other hand, it was just the right mix of injuries the prior season giving enough experience to less talented veterans and a loaded depth chart to keep perhaps Notre Dame’s most famous offensive lineman of a lifetime on the bench as a freshman.
Hoping that one of the items in this series will be an explanation of how 17 year old Romeo Okwara ended up being forced to burn a year of eligibility as a true freshman. Was the recruiting at LB/DE that poor? Were there that many injuries (on a team that went to a National Championship)? Was Okwara able to see the future and know that he needed to get the hell out of South Bend before 2016?
That’s a great one, I may add it to the series.
Interesting series idea.
Looking back, and surely by design, Kelly certainly went from almost no bodies and depth on the o-line when he took over to a big-time overload by about 2014. I kinda wonder in hindsight if they didn’t want to just throw Nelson in there like other freshmen linemen that they pretty much had to play (specifically Elmer) who got thrown in the fire early and seemed to have stunted growth/development.
I also like the 4 game redshirt rule a lot too. That would have helped strategirzed (shoutout GWB) the use of players like Nelson an Okwara as Mikey’s comment above touches on. Very helpful for the program and the player.