Matt Goncalves has had an unconventional road to travel during the pre draft process, and really it’s not so different from his five-year career he just finished up at Pitt. Goncalves is an offensive line prospect for the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft who is garnering a lot of interest at the moment, in part because of an injury that sidelined him for much of his senior year and the combine.

This past year was supposed to be the big breakout season for Goncalves, but it did not work out that way. The lightly-recruited linemen from the class of 2019 had been a major depth piece for the Panthers for years, starting 21 games from 2020-2022, but he never actually had won a starting job out of training camp.

Injuries from teammates certainly helped pave the way to get him on the field as an underclassmen, and he had always flourished with the opportunity, but 2023 was supposed to be different. Goncalves was Pitt’s projected left tackle out of training camp, a preseason All-ACC pick at that, and was firmly on just about every draft board.

It all changed in the middle of the the third game of the season. Goncalves sustained an injury to his big toe, seemingly not a huge deal, but it ended his senior year. The injury has lingered and has now affected his pre-draft work. Goncalves was invited to the NFL combine, but was unable to participate. When Pitt held its pro day on Wednesday, it was his chance to prove himself.

“I was confident in my athletic ability to come out here and perform,” Goncalves told reporters after his pro day. “I really wanted to do it at the combine, but I couldn’t so I thought this would be the perfect time. I had an extra month to kind of get ready.”

His college teammate, Jake Kradel, reveled that Goncalves only had about three weeks to train for the pro day, as he is still recovering from that injury that occurred back in September.

“To see him come out here and run that fast and do great at his drills, it’s a testament to how hard he works,” said Kradel.

Goncalves still is not 100% right now, and he is not running away from that fact either. He also indicated NFL teams are aware of that as well, but despite that there were a lot of eyes on him anyway. Offensive line coaches from the Bills, Broncos, Colts, and Cowboys were all present for his pro day.

“I told everybody, ‘I’m not trying to break records here today, I’m just trying to check boxes’ and I think I did that,” Goncalves said.

His college head coach, Pat Narduzzi, could tell Goncalves was not at full speed for his workout, but pointed to his resolve to even go out and compete anyway.

“I think he was limping a little bit at the end, which shows you how tough he is,” the Pitt head coach said of Goncalves. “It shows you toughness and that’s who Matt is.”

Goncalves still checked in at 6-foot-6 and 317 pounds for his pro day. He repped out 19 on the bench press, ran a reported 5.12 in the forty, and claimed a 30.5’ vertical leap. The draft hopeful was aware of the pressure of the day, simply because he had to watch the combine instead of performing in it.

“Seeing all the numbers at the combine and seeing what the expectations is for the tackles and guards with how good of an offensive line class that it is. I think there was kind of an expectation for me to do well,” Goncalces explained.

Part of what may carry Goncalves’ draft stock may simply go back to who he is as a player, not necessarily what he did Wednesday.

Throughout his career, Goncalves was able to slide into just about any spot on the line. He started games at both tackle spots and even worked as a guard or center as well. Goncalves credits former Pitt offensive line coach Dave Borbely for helping build his versatility.

“As much as we hated it, it benefitted it us,” Goncalves said of learning multiple positions. “Because not a lot of people like to play different sides.”

Goncalves’ draft stock may not be where he would have liked it to be, but it’s also higher than he could have imagined when he was back in high school. Pitt was the only power-five school to offer him out of Eastport-South Manor High School on Long Island and it’s a chance he used to make a serious run at the NFL, something he never thought possible.

“The University of Pittsburgh gave me an opportunity to make a career out of this,” Goncalves said of his gratitude to the Pitt program. “It gave me an opportunity to come here and play football. Coming from Long Island, which the football isn’t so great out there, it means everything to be able to represent this university at the next level.”