Indianapolis Colts defensive end Laiatu Latu was picked to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year award by Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr in his annual “100 Bold Predictions” for the upcoming NFL season.
“The super athletic top prospect out of UCLA has DeForest Buckner on his side to clear out some space,” wrote Orr, “as well as Kwity Paye and Grover Stewart to work with. GM Chris Ballard loves traitsy players and Latu, despite a potential health issue red-flagged by many teams before the draft, could be one of the great steals of this class.”
Latu was the first defender selected in this year’s draft after a highly productive two seasons at UCLA. During that span, Latu eclipsed 60 pressures – ranking top-five among edge rushers both seasons – and recorded double-digit sacks as well.
Latu comes to the NFL as a “polished” pass rusher, as GM Chris Ballard put it, and is someone who he expects to make an impact fairly quickly.
Along with Latu’s already established skill set contributing to what could be early success, he is an excellent fit for Gus Bradley’s defense, which in the trenches is centered around going and getting the football.
Also, with a very deep defensive front rotation, Bradley can keep Latu fresh and be picky about putting him in specific situations where he can make the biggest impact. Not to mention that, as Orr writes, that aforementioned depth, which includes Buckner, Paye, Samson Ebukam, Dayo Odeyingbo, and Grover Stewart, will help take some of the attention off of Latu.
OTAs and minicamp provided Latu with his first taste of NFL competition, or at least as much as he can get this time of the year without the pads being on. The big takeaway for Latu from these experiences and his focus going into training camp will be on countering the counters.
At the NFL level, he isn’t always going to be able to simply win with speed or power against offensive tackles, and when the first move doesn’t work, he will need more in his pass-rush repertoire so he isn’t immediately taken out of the play.
“It’s really just knowing those counters off of my finesse moves,” said Latu during minicamp, “and really just knowing how to read blocks, how to work the techniques that I’ve been learning in the room and trying to apply it on the field in certain situations. That’s kind of where I’ve been at.”
Other first-round draft picks on the defensive side of the football who could compete with Latu for this award include Byron Murphy, Dallas Turner, Jared Verse, Chop Robinson, Quinyon Mitchell, and Terrion Arnold.
