Before the 2025 season began, Matt Goncalves had barely played any snaps at guard – the position at which he was expected to start on the Colts' offensive line.
He took one snap at guard in the NFL, coming in Week 7 of the 2024 season. In 2020, while at Pitt, he played a handful of snaps at left guard. But that was it.
"This dude was not a guard in Pop Warner, he was not a guard in middle school, high school, college," Colts offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr. said. "This guy was a tackle."
In 2025, Goncalves played 1,008 snaps at right guard, starting all 17 games for the Colts.
The 25-year-old Goncalves flashed upside as a guard last year, but he felt "underweight" playing at 317 pounds. He also saw himself oversetting and playing a little too sped up – things that were leftover vestiges from his time at tackle.
But with a year of experience, and long weeks spent training with a six-time Pro Bowl interior offensive lineman, Goncalves feels like he's in a much better place at guard as he works through the Colts' offseason program.
"(I'm) coming into this year just more prepared, understanding the game plan, understanding my responsibilities, the technique," Goncalves said. "I feel very comfortable coming into this year, compared to last year. Last year was kind of like a feeling out process. It's a very difficult thing to do, transition to another position – one that you never played. So I feel a lot more comfortable and I feel great right now."
Goncalves spent time this offseason training in the Chicago area with Olin Kreutz, the aforementioned six-time Pro Bowler who spent over a decade as a brawling center with the Chicago Bears. Through those sessions, Goncalves added about 10 pounds of lean body mass, which should help him strength-wise against the bigger interior bodies he faces as a guard.
"I knew it was going to be long training sessions and tough workouts, but got it done," Goncalves said. "It was worth it."
Kreutz, who has a close relationship with general manager Chris Ballard dating back to their time with the Bears in the 2000s, also trained ex-Colts linemen Will Fries and Danny Pinter a few years ago. Goncalves described Kreutz as a "great resource" who helped him with technique pointers, too.
Ballard last month said Kreutz came back with a "really positive" impression of how Goncalves worked, and who he could be as a player.
Goncalves may be the Colts' incumbent starter at right guard, but he'll likely wind up competing with 2026 fourth-round pick Jalen Farmer for that gig over the next few months. The Colts are high on Farmer's upside and were thrilled to snag him with a Day 3 pick, but as Ballard mentioned in April, that selection doesn't mean the team has lost faith in Goncalves.
The combination of Goncalves' added strength and bulk, plus the experience he got playing last year, has given the Colts confidence he can make a leap in his performance in 2026.
"Any time you look at a Year 1 to Year 2 jump from a guy, you're going to see significant improvement if the guy is working like he does," Sparano said.
