Curt Popejoy of Draft Wire set out to ‘get things right’ as he re-drafted the first round of the 2024 NFL draft. For the Indianapolis Colts, they still ended up with UCLA’s Laiatu Latu.
In this instance, however, Latu was not the first defender off the board. Instead, Alabama’s Dallas Turner went eighth overall to the Atlanta Falcons.
Here is what Popejoy had to say about the Colts taking Latu once again:
“We didn’t love this pick as the first edge off the board but with Dallas Turner gone, this pick makes much more sense.”
The unknown prior to the draft in regards to Latu was where he was going to be selected. While many viewed him as the top pass rusher in this year’s class, a previous neck injury and how it would potentially impact his NFL career left some questions. Obviously, the Colts were more than comfortable with what they found during the pre-draft process.
Latu comes to the NFL after two years of being one of the more disruptive pass rushers in college football. During both the 2022 and 2023 seasons he would record double-digit sacks and rank top five each year in total pressures. This past year, Latu ranked first in PFF’s pass rush win rate metric.
“I thought we got a little lucky on it,” said GM Chris Ballard after selecting Latu. “We thought there were four or five really elite players, and he was one of them. We felt fortunate to get him.”
Ballard added that Latu is a ‘pretty polished’ player and should produce fairly quickly at the NFL level.
Latu joins a defensive front that already featured Kwity Paye, Dayo Odeyingbo, Samson Ebukam, and DeForest Buckner, a group that should create a lot of havoc for opposing quarterbacks this season.
Although the Colts ranked fifth in total sacks last season, they were also 22nd in pressure rate. Generating a high level of sacks once again in 2024 may require more steady pressure to do so.
