Matt
Goncalves.
Matt
Goncalves.
Pittsburgh· 6'6"· 317 lb
"Matt Goncalves was drafted as a tackle whose hands were years ahead of his feet, and the Colts found out that the fastest way to make his length matter was to stop asking him to protect an edge."Pre-draft read
Goncalves is a long-levered tackle who plays the game from the top down. Pitt used him at both tackle spots and asked him to be a pass-set technician first: he sets with depth, keeps his hands inside, and uses length to catch and steer speed rushers past the pocket. The feet are functional rather than special, but the timing of his punch and the discipline in his hands are why he did not surrender a sack in his last two college seasons.
The run game is where the frame shows up. He drives through down blocks and combos with real weight behind him, less a reach-and-wall zone tackle than a displacer who wants a target in front of him. The signature is control: four penalties in an entire career from a lineman who lived on an island.
Gap and duo-heavy run offense that lets linemen down-block, double-team and pull rather than reach — the Shane Steichen mix of Duo, Counter and Long Trap with outside-zone changeups.
Year 1: sixth lineman and swing tackle who can start at either edge in a pinch. Ceiling: a decade-long starting right guard whose length and hand discipline make him a plus interior pass protector.
A wide-zone offense that asks tackles to reach defenders lined up outside them and climb on the move, or a pass-first team that leaves him alone on a premier speed rusher with no chip help.
Indianapolis solved his one real problem by taking away the edge: inside, the length that made him a good college tackle becomes a weapon and the lateral limitation stops mattering.
MATT GONCALVES BACK ON TRACK | Film Room
All-22 breakdown of his pass sets and hand usage during his Colts starts.
MATT GONCALVES MIGHT BE LEGIT | Film Room
Early film study of his rookie-year swing-tackle tape in Indianapolis.
MATT GONCALVES KEEPS THRIVING | Film Room
Follow-up review of his interior work after the move to right guard.
A four-year contributor at Pittsburgh who started on both edges and finished as a team captain, Goncalves is a size-and-technique offensive lineman rather than an athlete you draft on traits. He is 6-6 with 33-inch arms and plays to that length, keeping rushers at the end of his reach and taking the fight out of a pass rush before it turns into a collision.
The resume is unusual for a Day 2 lineman: 38 games and 24 starts split between right tackle (13) and left tackle (11), FWAA Freshman All-America honors in 2020, Third-Team All-ACC in 2022, and PFF pass-block grades in the mid-to-upper 70s in his last two years with zero sacks allowed. The flag is availability and lateral quickness. A season-ending injury three games into his captain year in 2023 froze his tape, and speed off the edge can widen his set faster than he can recover.
Boards had him in the fourth-round range as a developmental swing tackle with a guard fallback. Indianapolis traded up three spots to take him at 79, buying positional flexibility and a run-scheme fit rather than a Week 1 left tackle.
- 01
Length
6-6 with 33-inch arms and he uses every bit of it, meeting rushers early and steering them past the quarterback before they can build a plan.
- 02
Hand technique
Punches on time and inside, resets when the first strike misses, and rarely lets a defender into his chest on a straight pass set.
- 03
Discipline
Four penalties in an entire college career and no sacks allowed across his final two seasons, which is remarkable volume-adjusted control.
- 04
Positional flexibility
Real starting experience at both left and right tackle, 697 snaps on one side and 973 on the other, with a guard body underneath.
- 05
Play strength
Drives through down blocks and combinations with weight behind his pads, which makes him a plus fit in gap and duo run concepts.
- 01
Lateral quickness
Average feet for the position: bendy speed rushers can widen his set and force him to open the gate rather than mirror.
- 02
Availability
A season-ending injury three games into his 2023 captain year cut short the tape teams most wanted to evaluate before the draft.
- 03
Small sample as a full-time starter
Only one complete season of every-down college starts, so the technique is proven over less volume than the size suggests.
- 04
Recovery
When beaten early he grabs and rides rather than resetting his feet, a habit that draws holding flags against NFL-caliber counters.
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Pittsburgh | 9 |
| 2021 | Pittsburgh | 13 |
| 2022 | Pittsburgh | 13 |
| 2023 | Pittsburgh | 3 |
| Career | — | 38 |
Verified against the official Colts bio: 38 career games and 24 starts at Pittsburgh (2019-23), 13 at right tackle and 11 at left tackle, with 973 career snaps at RT and 697 at LT. Redshirted 2019, so no season row exists for that year. Season games and starts sum exactly to the career line (9+13+13+3 = 38; 3+5+13+3 = 24). Offensive linemen do not accumulate countable production stats, so no statistical columns are estimated here.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Late-round-value lineman who converted into a dependable, physical every-down right guard in this exact offense.
Technically immaculate interior starter who lasted more than a decade on hands, angles and never being out of position.
Long, well-schooled swing tackle whose feet cap him at emergency starter and sixth-lineman duty.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Matt Goncalves was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the 3rd round of the 2024 NFL Draft. He has not yet played in an NFL regular season game.
Indianapolis got value out of him immediately, but not the way the position label suggested. As a rookie in 2024 he appeared in all 17 games with seven starts at both right and left tackle, filling in as a swing player and blocking for a franchise-record 335-yard team rushing day against Tennessee. In 2025 the Colts moved him inside permanently: he had never played guard in his life and then started all 17 games at right guard on a line that became the backbone of the offense and Jonathan Taylor's workload. He entered 2026 as the incumbent right guard, listed by the team at that position rather than tackle.
In hindsight, the pick worked because the Colts read the body correctly. Goncalves was drafted as a tackle whose length and hands were ahead of his feet, and moving him to guard removed the exact rep that stressed him: the speed rusher with a two-way go and grass to work with. It cost nothing to find out because he could still swing outside. A 17-game starter in year two from pick 79 is a hit, even if the tackle he was drafted as never really existed.
Data note: Verified against the official Colts bio: 38 career games and 24 starts at Pittsburgh (2019-23), 13 at right tackle and 11 at left tackle, with 973 career snaps at RT and 697 at LT. Redshirted 2019, so no season row exists for that year. Season games and starts sum exactly to the career line (9+13+13+3 = 38; 3+5+13+3 = 24). Offensive linemen do not accumulate countable production stats, so no statistical columns are estimated here.