From prospect to pro: Goncalves' path to the NFL
In early June 2018, Matt Goncalves made a seven-hour trip to Pittsburgh.
Six years later, that long drive has him headed even further west, as Goncalves was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft Friday night.
Goncalves is going to Indy, but the journey started when he attended Pitt’s prospect camp in June 2018. A standout in multiple sports whose 6’5” 300-pound frame belied a sneaky athleticism, Goncalves played offensive tackle, tight end and defensive end for his high school but focused on the offensive line when he worked out for the Pitt coaching staff.
His performance that day was good enough to earn a scholarship offer less than two weeks later, and by the end of the summer, he was committed to the Panthers.
Pitt was the only power-conference school to offer Goncalves - he also had offers from Bryant, Buffalo, UConn, Stony Brook, Toledo and Villanova - but offensive line coach Dave Borbely liked his athleticism and Goncalves liked what he heard from Borbely.
“It feels great,” Goncalves told Panther-Lair.com at the time. “I’ve been very patient and I’m very blessed to receive this and I’m going to stay humble and work hard. It’s a very big opportunity for me and I’m going to do the best I can with it.”
Goncalves certainly did that. He redshirted his first season with the Panthers but went on to start 24 games and emerged as one of the team’s top linemen over the course of the next four years.
Goncalves’ debut as a starter came in the pandemic-altered 2020 season, when Covid protocols forced him into the lineup for a home game against Virginia Tech. Pitt was down 16 players that day, including three starting offensive linemen, so Goncalves, a redshirt freshman with 46 snaps in his career, stepped in as the starting left tackle.
The results were impressive. On 58 pass-block snaps, he allowed two pressures and no sacks as Pitt’s offense piled up 556 yards and 47 points. In a loss at Clemson a week later, Goncalves started again, and while the Panthers’ offense struggled mightily that day, it wasn’t on Goncalves, as he allowed just one pressure on 54 pass-block snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.
All told, Goncalves started three games that season - Virginia Tech, Clemson and the season-ending win at Georgia Tech - but in 2021, he went back to the bench as Pitt returned starting tackles Carter Warren and Gabe Houy. Goncalves still saw the field in a reserve role and started Pitt’s late-September FCS game against New Hampshire. And when Houy was lost to injury early in a win at Duke, Goncalves stepped in again.
He played 72 snaps that day - with zero pressures allowed - and then started the next four games. That included the overtime win against North Carolina, the Coastal Division-clinching win over Virginia, the season-ending win at Syracuse and, most notably, the ACC Championship Game against Wake Forest.
Goncalves allowed a total of nine pressures in those four games, setting the stage for what was expected to be his breakout season in 2022.
But then Warren and Houy both announced they were returning as super seniors - news that led Goncalves to consider the option of the transfer portal. He stuck with the Panthers, though, and the gamble paid off, as both Houy and Warren dealt with injuries throughout the 2022 season.
In the end, Goncalves started every game that season, with six starts at right tackle and seven at left tackle. He allowed 11 pressures in 12 regular-season games, earning All-ACC honors in the process, and when he returned for the 2023 season, he did so looking to solidify himself as one of the top linemen in the conference and a pro prospect.
“I stuck with my gut,” Goncalves told Panther-Lair.com prior to the start of training camp. “I loved Pitt, everything I know is from here, they’ve always been loyal to me. They gave me my first Power Five offer, my first and only Power Five offer, so I wanted to stay through.”
His season was limited to just three games, of course - he only gave up four pressures in those three games - as an injury ended his final campaign after the loss at West Virginia, and Goncalves announced in December that he would not return for his super senior season. Following the recovery from injury, Goncalves worked out for NFL scouts at Pitt’s Pro Day this spring, and his journey culminated with the selection by the Colts on Friday night.
“Matt played a lot of football on our offensive line the past four years and played at a high level,” Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said in a press release. “He’s a leader, highly intelligent and incredibly tough, which was on display at our Pro Day following his offseason injury rehab. The Colts are not only getting an excellent tackle but also someone who will be a leader in the locker room. That’s why he was a team captain for us.”
Goncalves is the sixth offensive linemen Pitt has had drafted under Narduzzi but just the third drafted offensive linemen who was recruited by Narduzzi. Jimmy Morrissey, who joined the Panthers as a walk-on in 2016, was selected in the seventh round of the 2021 Draft, and Carter Warren went to the New York Jets in the fourth round last year.