In the Indianapolis Colts’ first joint practice with the Arizona Cardinals on Wednesday, the pass rush “dominated,” as the Indy Star’s Nate Atkins put it.
The lead contributors to the dominant performance by the Colts’ pass rush were DeForest Buckner and Laiatu Latu.
It certainly isn’t a surprise that Buckner was wreaking havoc, and given how the last few weeks of training camp have gone for Latu, it’s not all that surprising that he was in the mix, either.
“It’s crazy, man,” said Kwity Paye about Latu after Wednesday’s practice. “The way how he just bends, like just seeing him, how he plays. Sometimes, the tackle will get him on his inside shoulder, and he just takes the shoulder away, drops, bends, and just keeps going. Like it’s amazing to see how he could manipulate the O-line and just play, man.”
Since early on in the Colts’ training camp practices, Latu has been making noise and that impact has only been magnified once the pads.
In the preseason opener against Denver, Latu was able to make his way into the backfield on a few reps, including on the play that eventually resulted in a Kenny Moore interception. He even faced a double-team or two, showing the respect that the Broncos offense had for him already at this point in his career.
“I think he just has it,” added Paye. “Some guys you can try as much as you can, but he just got it, you know? The way how he just moves, it’s like water. It’s just very fluid. So it’s crazy to see. Amazing to see.”
Latu was the first defender selected in this past April’s draft, and came to the NFL after two extremely disruptive seasons at UCLA, posting double-digit sacks each year and 60-plus pressures.
Following the draft, GM Chris Ballard would call Latu’s pass rush repertoire “polished,” and add that he expected him to make a fairly quick impact.
That quick impact has since become an even greater need with Samson Ebukam suffering an Achilles injury in training camp.
Of course, things can change, but that game against Denver gave us our first glimpse at where Latu may fit in the defensive end rotation–at least early on.
On early downs, it was Paye and Tyquan Lewis on the field with Latu seeing his first snaps during the obvious passing downs, where he can just go and get the quarterback.
With that said, as Latu gets more reps and continues to be a high-impact player, the time may come sooner than later where the down and distance doesn’t matter and the Colts will just want to get him on the field because he’s their best option.
“He’s a baller, man,” said Paye. “And he’s just looking for every day to improve. He’s not coming out here satisfied with the last practice he has. He’s trying to just improve on the last practice he has and just keep going.”