In the grand scheme of Colts’ training camp, there’s only been one practice and the pads aren’t on, however, first-round pick Laiatu Latu made a great first impression.
Kevin Bowen of 107.5 The Fan would name Latu as one of his three standout performers from Thursday’s practice.
” During a second-team red-zone drill,” wrote Bowen, “Latu roasted second-year left tackle Jake Witt, getting to Joe Flacco extremely quick off the snap. Flacco had to alter his footwork and eventually fell down in the pocket for the “sack.” Of course, Witt isn’t starter Bernhard Raimann, but Latu continues to light up the (lower on the depth chart) tackles.”
As Bowen mentions, Latu wasn’t going up against Bernhard Raimann in these reps, but at the end of the day, Latu isn’t choosing he gets to line up against, it’s just his job to take advantage of the opportunity, which he certainly did.
Bowen notes that Kwity Paye and Samson Ebukam were the Colts’ starters at defensive end.
Latu was the first defender drafted this past April and comes to the NFL as an extremely productive pass rusher, totaling 60-plus pressures and double-digit sacks in each of the last two seasons.
As part of his offseason training, Latu was invited to the Sack Summit, where all of the top pass rushers around the league get together to teach, learn, and go through workouts.
“I went to Vegas for the Sack Summit for a weekend,” said Latu when meeting with reporters. “I mean, I’/ve just been training with Dayo’s (Odeyingbo) been out there. Kwity’s (Paye) been out there. Sosa’s (Samson Ebukam) been out there. Tomi’s (Adetomiwa Adebawore) been out there and then just getting to work with guys.
“And then just getting to work with guys like Kenny Clark, Rasheem Green, Khalil Mack, really just learning off of them and how to better myself and really seeing what success looks like.”
Colts’ general manager Chris Ballard would say after the draft that while there is a learning curve for any rookie, Latu is an already “polished” pass rusher, so he expects him to make a quick impact.
As Latu described during OTAs and minicamp, one area where he is currently working on with his pass rush repertoire is countering the offensive line’s counters. Of course, at the NFL level, pass rushers aren’t going to simply win with power or speed on every play, so when they are initially slowed down, what is their next move so they aren’t taken out of the play right away?
“I didn’t pick up new ones (pass rush moves),” said Latu of his time at the Sack Summit, “but I’m working on old ones, and bettering them and understanding them.
“How I can beat that O-linemen quicker in terms of my hips, certain moves like the swipe or something like that. Maybe I don’t want my hips too vertical. Like just little details that I can fix up and make my win rate a lot better.”
With a very deep defensive end group, how the playing time is going to shake out at this position this season remains to be seen, but Latu will certainly be a key member in that rotation, and will be tasked with adding consistency to the pass rush unit.
The next step for Latu is to build off of this first day, showing day-to-day consistency and getting incrementally better with each practice.
“It is a chance to prove myself,” said Latu about and I feel like I’m a go out there and kill it.”
