Sport: Football
Born: March 19, 1996
Town: Holmdel, New Jersey
Quenton Emerson Nelson·was born March 19, 1996 in Holmdel, NJ. His father, Craig, had played football for Syracuse University and his older brother, Connor, would suit up for Villanova. His sisters, Shannon and Laylynn, would also compete in college sports. Quenton would become a head-turning athlete, too, but the first thing people noticed about him as a boy was his immense size. He passed triple-digits on the bathroom scale by the end of second grade. By the time pee-wee football started, he was too big to play with kids his age and had to play two years up—and needed to lose weight each summer to do so. His father coached a team with a 115-pound limit and, at age 10, Quenton was already 25 pounds too heavy to play for him.
Around this time, Quenton decided he loved football more than food. He limited his caloric intake, cut sugar and carbs out of his diet, and ran at the local high school’s cross-country track every evening when the weather allowed. Quenton also started a Taekwondo class to increase his explosiveness, balance and flexibility. He made weight each fall right through middle school, and then—finally unshackled by restrictions of the scale—became a monster lineman in high school at Red Bank Catholic.
Quenton also played prep and AAU basketball, which kept his footwork sharp as he grew to 6’5” and 300-plus pounds as a senior in 2013–14. That season, he was the Caseys’ top scorer and rebounder. College recruiters weren’t interested in his hardwood exploits, of course. They were drooling over Quenton’s pile-driving blocking skills on the offensive line. Indeed, more than two dozen Division–I schools dangled scholarships in front of Quenton.
In the end, Quenton chose Notre Dame. He red-shirted in 2014 so he could add another 30 pounds of muscle and commit the Fighting Irish playbook to memory. He showed enough as a freshman in 2015 to become the starting left guard as a sophomore in 2016. Notre Dame lost a lot of close games that season, but bounced back in 2017 to finish 10–3, with impressive wins over USC and NC State. The Irish defeated LSU 21–17 in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day to secure a #11 national ranking.
By this time, Quenton had become a superb run blocker and was particularly nasty in pass protection. At season’s end, he was a unanimous All-American—the 29th in school history—and the team’s Most Valuable Player.
Quenton was at the top of every NFL team’s list of non-skill position players in 2018. He decided it was time to test his skills against the pros. Quenton skipped his senior season and was taken by the Indianapolis Colts with the sixth pick, which was unusually high for a guard. The Colts knew it was the right pick—a fact confirmed when they were instantly besieged with offers for their first-rounder. No one was happier about Quenton’s arrival in camp than quarterback Andrew Luck, who was coming off a shoulder injury that had sidelined him for the entire 2017 campaign.
In 2017, the Colts’ O-line had allowed a league-high 56 sacks. Now, for the first time in over a decade, pass protection was a source of strength and pride for the team—although it took a few games for the players themselves to fully comprehend the culture change that Quenton brought with him. Indy started the year 1–5, but the team’s opponents were already starting to make defensive adjustments to compensate for the ridiculous blocks they saw Quenton making on game films. Time and again, he completely neutralized star pass rushers and linebackers, often in the most embarrassing ways. The Colts lost just one game in the second half of 2018, completing a remarkable in-season turnaround with a 33–17 victory over the Titans in a “win-and-in” game for both teams in Week 17.
The Colts ambushed the Texans in the Wild Card game 21–17 before falling the following week to the Kansas City Chiefs. After the season, Quenton was named a first-team All-Pro and was picked to play in the Pro Bowl.
The Colts went into battle in 2019 without their star quarterback, as Luck announced his unexpected retirement. Indy started out surprisingly well, winning five of their first seven games, but the wheels came off after that; the Colts finished 7–9 and missed the playoffs. For his part, Quenton played over 1,000 snaps and did not allow a single sack during the season, and was only flagged for penalties three times. He was an easy pick as a first-team All-Pro again and was invited to his second Pro Bowl.
The 2020 edition of the Colts featured a new quarterback, veteran Philip Rivers, and a new running back, fellow New Jerseyan and unanimous All-American Jonathan Taylor, who had broken all kinds of records at Wisconsin. The reinvigorated Indianapolis offense churned out win after win, keeping the Colts neck-and-neck with the Titans for AFC South supremacy. Rivers surpassed 4,000 passing yards and Taylor ran for over 1,000 yards in a regular season that came down to the final Sunday. The Colts came through again, defeating the Jaguars to snag the last postseason berth. They fell to the Buffalo Bills in the opening round of the playoffs, however, falling just short on a game-tying drive in the final minutes.
Quenton was a Pro Bowl pick once again and earned first-team All-Pro status for the third year in a row. He did not allow a sack, but in the opinion of many experts he fell a little short of expectations, particularly in the run-blocking department. D-line coaches are no dopes; they game-planned to take him out of his comfort zone and every so often they were successful—the result typically being a holding penalty. One of the interesting developments of 2020 for Quenton came in Week 14, when left tackle Anthony Castonzo was sidelined with a sore knee in a game against the Raiders. Quenton slid over to fill his slot and performed magnificently for eight snaps. Fans who think “a lineman is a lineman is a lineman” missed the point: Left tackle and left guard demand entirely different mindsets and skill sets, especially when ends and linebackers are tearing past you.
Quenton dealt with foot and ankle injuries early in 2021, which cost him three starts. He proved to be a quick healer, earning his fourth Pro Bowl nod. He was named a second-team All-Pro at season’s end, become just the second Colt after Alan Ameche to be an All-Pro in each of his first four years. The Colts went 9–8 with Carson Wentz at quarterback and missed the playoffs when they lost to the anemic Jacksonville Jaguars on the final Sunday.
Prior to the 2022 season, the team inked Quenton to a long-term deal that made him the highest-paid guard in football. He had another Pro Bowl season, despite the Colts’ 4–12 record. He played 100% of the team’s snaps for the time in his career and the number of times he was flagged for a penalty could be counted on one hand. The team recovered to post a winning record in 2023, but missed the playoffs. Quenton enjoyed his sixth consecutive Pro Bowl season.