With the dust having settled on the 2024 NFL draft, ESPN’s Field Yates went back and picked his favorite selections from each round of the draft. In the first round, one of the five best picks, according to Yates, was the Colts landing edge rusher Laiatu Latu.
Now, Yates does mention at the beginning of the article that the selections he made doesn’t mean that these were the best players taken in each round, but factoring in fit, value, and what the player will bring to the team helped determine what he thought the best picks were.
Here is what Yates had to say about the Colts landing Latu:
“There was no debate for me throughout this process that Latu had the best tape of the defensive players in this class, and he was 12th in my rankings. Medical concerns were the only issue that had to be closely examined — he medically retired with neck issues in 2020 while at Washington before returning and transferring to UCLA — but Indianapolis clearly had the assurance it needed to make a justifiable investment in him. Latu has a refined pass-rush skill set, and he had 23.5 sacks over the past two seasons.”
From a pure technical pass rush perspective, it’s not a surprise that Latu was not only the first edge rusher off the board but the first defender as well. Many draft analysts considered him to be the best of the defensive bunch, but unknowns around that previous neck injury led to unknowns around where he would be selected.
For two seasons, Latu was one of the most disruptive edge rushers in college football. In 2022, he totaled 65 pressures and 12 sacks, according to PFF. In 2023, Latue totaled 62 pressures and 15 sacks, along with ranking first in pass rush grade and pass rush win rate efficiency.
Although the Colts were able to generate the fifth-most sacks last season, they struggled to get after the quarterback consistently, ranking 23rd in total pressures.
Statistically speaking, if they hope to recreate those sack numbers in 2024, they’ll need to get after the quarterback at a higher rate. Not to mention that as we look ahead to 2025, both Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo are set to be free agents–although the Colts still have time to pick up Paye’s fifth-year option for the 2025 season.
Latu will immediately join Odeyingbo and Paye at the front end of the edge rusher rotation, especially on passing downs, as he continues to develop as a run defender under new defensive line coach Charlie Partridge.
