Nelson was born in Melbourne Florida where he attended Palm Bay High School.  

 

Nelson was a two-time first-team All-State high school football selection as a junior and senior.  He set a state record with 1,531 return yards his senior season. Nelson won state football titles during his freshman and junior years at Palm Bay.  In 2007, four years after graduating high school, the Florida High School Athletic Association named Nelson to its “All-Century Team” recognizing him as one of the thirty-three greatest Florida high school football players of the last 100 years.

 

Nelson arrived with the Red Ravens in 2003 and was redshirted his freshman season.  In 2004 Nelson was a starting safety for Coffeyville when he registered six interceptions on the season which still ranks as tied for sixth in school history.  The 2004 Red Raven team that Nelson was a member of had an overall record of 10-4 including a bowl victory over Scottsdale CC in the Valley of the Sun Bowl 33-14.

 

Nelson accepted an athletic scholarship to play for coach Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators football team in 2005 and 2006. Nelson was an immediate sophomore starter for the Gators at free safety in 2005. 

 

In his junior year, which would end up being his last season as a Gator, Nelson was selected as a member of the team’s Leadership Committee, which was only one small highlight of his 2006 campaign. The Gators ended up going to the BCS National Championship Game and defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes, while Nelson recorded fifty-one tackles, five pass breakups, and six interceptions. Two of his interceptions were against the Tennessee Volunteers, and he returned another for a seventy-yard touchdown against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Nelson was a first-team All-SEC selection and a consensus first-team All-American, and he was chosen by his Gators teammates as the team’s most valuable player.

 

The Jacksonville Jaguars selected Nelson in the first round (21st overall) of the 2007 NFL Draft.  Nelson would go on to play three full seasons with the Jaguars.  In September 2010, the Jaguars traded Nelson to the Cincinnati Bengals and Nelson would play six seasons with the Bengals.  Nelson would finish his NFL career playing his last three seasons (2016-2018) with the Oakland Raiders.   For his career, Nelson started 164 games in the NFL with a total of 38 interceptions.  Nelson had one All-Pro season in 2015 as well as earning two Pro-Bowl selections (2015 & 2016).