With Samson Ebukam out for the season after suffering an Achilles injury, the need for Colts’ rookie Laiatu Latu to produce quickly becomes far greater.
Ebukam posted a team-high 9.5 sacks in 2023 and 48 pressures, which were the second-most on the team behind only DeForest Buckner.
In addition to the overall production from Ebukam, also valuable was his consistency, ranking 21st among edge defenders in PFF’s pass-rush win rate metric and ninth in run defense grade.
Latu was, of course, going to play a big role as rookie, but with players like Ebukam, Kwity Paye, Dayo Odeyingbo, and Tyquan Lewis at defensive end, the Colts had the luxury to really pick and choose when and how they used him this season–putting him in positions to be successful.
Not to say that luxury is completely gone, but it is diminished and a quick impact from Latu becomes a bigger need.
Latu comes to the NFL as one of college football’s most productive pass rushers for the past two seasons, totaling over 60 pressures and double-digit sacks in both 2022 and 2023.
After the draft, GM Chris Ballard called Latu a “polished” pass rusher and believes that, with his pass rush repertoire and intelligence, he can make some noise sooner rather than later in his rookie year.
Part of the learning curve that incoming pass rushers can experience, is figuring out how to counter the offensive line’s counters. At the NFL level, pass rushers can’t win every rep with either power or speed and need a secondary move to rely on so they aren’t taken out of a play instantly.
“At times, moves will work crisp out here,” said Latu, “but there’s times where I feel like it works crisp, but they’re still latched on to me. Now I’ve got to figure out a way where I can use their momentum or use my momentum to shift their hands off of me or try to reduce some type of surface level on my body.
“So I’ve just been in the film room trying to watch how to beat certain tackles off of certain sets because everyone is talented out here. Everyone’s so good from the top down. It’s just a blessing that I get to go up against them every day.”
Latu spent some of the time off between minicamp and training camp in Las Vegas for the ‘Sack Summit,’ learning from players like Kenny Clark, Maxx Crosby, and Khalil Mack.
Trying to replace Ebukam’s production isn’t solely going to fall on the shoulders of just Latu or just Odeyingbo, rather, it’s going to be a group effort.
Odeyingbo and Lewis will still be asked to get after the quarterback, but their abilities to impact the run game becomes more important. Latu will now see more opportunities during obvious passing situations and into the fourth quarter.
The Colts are only three practices into their training camp schedule, but from the sounds of it, Latu is off to a fast start. The first real test for him will be carrying that momentum over when the pads come on.
“It’s fun to watch,” said Shane Steichen about Latu after the third practice. “He’s explosive, like we said when we drafted him. He’s got an arsenal of pass rush moves and you can see him and how explosive he is coming off the edge. So it’ll be fun to watch this year.”