'His career is the goal': Ryan Kelly, 30, is oldest player on young Colts roster

INDIANAPOLIS — Ryan Kelly really isn’t old enough to find himself in this position.

Kelly has the experience, the gravitas, to be sure.

But he’s only 30. Won’t be 31 until school’s out for the summer. Even by the standards of a league that seems to skew younger every year, Kelly should not be the oldest guy in the Colts locker room.

“Yeah, I mean, 30, Usually they’ve got a couple more over that,” Kelly said. “But you know, it’s a young man’s game.”

Indianapolis has the third-youngest roster in the NFL, averaging 25.8 years old per player. Only the Packers (25.5) and Rams (25.7) are younger, and each one of those teams has at least one player older than 30: Green Bay has two, led by left tackle David Bakhtiari at 31, and Los Angeles has five, paced by starting quarterback Matthew Stafford.

The Colts purposely built a young roster, cognizant of the reality that comes with starting a 21-year-old rookie at the quarterback position, that it might take some time before the Colts are truly ready to contend.

“We’re young in certain spots,” Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard said last week. “It’ll be fun to watch these guys grow and play together, and grow as a team.”

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But every team needs experience. Young players need somebody to show them how to approach the NFL.

“We do have some veteran leadership,” said coach Shane Steichen, himself only 37 years old, making the Colts head coach one of the youngest in the NFL. “Maybe not over 30, but we’ve got a good chunk of those guys that have been around the block a few times playing in this league and know what it’s all about.”

Kelly’s headed around the block for the eighth time.

In his first seven seasons, Kelly’s been a Pro Bowler three times, snapped for nine different starting quarterbacks, been a part of playoff teams and teams that spiraled to the bottom of the league.

“It’s a badge of honor to get old in this league, right?” Kelly said. “The league’s only getting younger. In order to stay, it’s not easy. You certainly have to figure it out. I tell a lot of young guys that, no matter if you’re undrafted, whatever the situation is, it’s one thing to get in the NFL, but it’s another thing to stay.”

Especially to stay in the same uniform for an entire career, a rarity that’s not lost on the rest of the locker room.

Even the rookies have some idea now, just how special it is to stay with the same team as long as Kelly has been Indianapolis. The NFL’s annual roster reduction from 90 players down to 53 makes that crystal clear; the Colts just watched a dozen or so journeymen with NFL experience on a handful of different teams be told it was time to start looking for the next opportunity.

“Obviously, (Kelly's) career is the goal,” second-year left tackle Bernhard Raimann said. “You want to get drafted to a team, and you want to stay there your entire career.”

The Colts offensive line has a trio of veteran starters to set an example.

Left guard Quenton Nelson and right tackle Braden Smith are headed into their sixth seasons as starters in Indianapolis, and they both set an example for the rest of a young offensive line to follow.

But the extra two seasons Kelly has played in the NFL, coupled with the critical role he plays in the offense as the team’s field general up front, sets a special kind of example.

“I really learned from him last year, how he handles his business, how he takes care of things,” Raimann said. “He’s been huge for me in my development as a pro.”

Kelly had his own example to follow when the Colts drafted him out of Alabama in the first round in 2016.

By that time, left tackle Anthony Castonzo had been in Indianapolis for five seasons, long enough to go through the fires of first-round criticism, come out on the other side and develop into the kind of starter who could provide an anchor for Indianapolis to finally build a strong offensive line around Andrew Luck.

Kelly played with Castonzo for five seasons, then watched his teammate ride off into the sunset after 10 seasons, still a reliable player when he retired.

“I’m trying to pull the Castonzo, man,” Kelly said. “Do it all with one.”

Kelly has been reminded recently how difficult it can be to get to a decade in one uniform.

Ballard admitted earlier this spring that teams came calling for Kelly with trade offers last offseason, raising the possibility that Kelly might have to finish his career somewhere other than Indianapolis, even though he has two years left on his contract.

But Kelly has made it this far as a Colt, and his teammates wouldn’t be surprised if he finds a way to follow in Castonzo’s oversized footsteps.

“If people, if fans knew a lot of the ins and outs of what’s actually going on in the football game, Ryan’s actual job, you’d understand how good of a player Ryan is,” running back Deon Jackson said. “It’s not surprising that he’s still here. It wouldn’t surprise me if he never plays anywhere else.”

That’s the goal.

Getting there is the hard part.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Ryan Kelly, 30, is team's oldest player