New Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo had his introductory press conference on Thursday. Among the topics discussed, Anarumo mentioned that he was a big fan of defensive end Laiatu Latu coming out of last year’s draft.
Lou Anarumo said he was a big fan of Laiatu Latu’s coming out of the draft. He’s used to working with a big-time edge rusher in Trey Hendrickson, so he’ll go to work developing this one soon.
— Nate Atkins (@NateAtkins_) January 23, 2025
Latu was recently named to the PFWA All-Rookie team following his performance in 2024.
He finished the year with 38 pressures–the second-most on the team–and four sacks. A sign of what’s to come for Latu is the consistency at which he won his reps. Among all defensive ends last season, Latu ranked 30th out of 121 defenders in PFF’s pass-rush win rate metric.
In addition to that, Latu steadily improved as a run defender as the season went on as well.
Anarumo is accustomed to working with high end pass rusher talent, coaching Trey Hendrickson over the last four seasons.
During that stretch, Hendrickson has steadily been one of the most disruptive pass rushers in the game, which included totaling the third-most pressures in all of football last season.
In fact, in each season under Anarumo, Hendrickson ranked top-11 among defensive ends in total pressures, and was twice in the top three.
Now, of course, Anarumo’s presence doesn’t guarantee or mean that Latu is going to be on the same trajectory that Hendrickson ended up being on. But what we know is that Latu has an impressive pass rush repertoire and Anarumo’s track record indicates that he can play a key role in helping him take that next step.
