Who is Laiatu Latu? 5 things to know about Colts' NFL draft pick

Cody Manning

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Who is Laiatu Latu? 5 things to know about Colts' NFL draft pick image

The 2024 NFL draft finally arrived. With the surprise of six quarterbacks going in the first 12 picks, the Indianapolis Colts selected the first defensive player taken in this draft with the pick of UCLA edge rusher Laiatu Latu.

The addition of Latu adds the most polished pass rusher in this draft class to help add some juice to get after the quarterback in the upcoming season and beyond. 

LIVE: Grades for every first-round pick in NFL draft

Here are five things to know about the new addition to the Colts: 

1. Laiatu Latu's high school career

Latu is from Sacramento, CA, and played high school football for Jesuit High School. He played outside linebacker and tight end. In his senior year, he was named to USA Today’s All-California first team. Latu tallied 94 tackles, 29.5 TFLs, and six sacks in his final year of high school ball.

According to 247Sports, he was a four-star recruit, the 128-best recruit in his class, the eighth-best weak-side defensive end, and the 20th-ranked player in California.

Latu committed to the University of Washington despite having offers from UCLA, USC, and Alabama. 

2. Medically retired in 2021

The start of Latu’s college career came to an abrupt end because of an unfortunate injury. In his freshman season, he played in eight games and finished with 15 tackles (five solo), one-and-a-half TFLs, and a half-a-sack. When Latu was prepping for his sophomore season, he suffered a neck injury that caused him to miss the entire season. 

It was announced in the following offseason that Latu would need neck surgery, which Latu confirmed earlier this year that he had neck fusion surgery. He saw the same neck specialist as Peyton Manning. Despite his future football career looking bleak, Latu worked his way in rehab to get back onto the field. 

Latu ended up entering the transfer portal and decided to continue his football career with UCLA. Their team physicians cleared him to play which led to his return to the sport in 2022. A pretty amazing story to think about, he once thought he would never play again and ended up being the first defensive player off the board in his draft class. 

3. Laiatu Latu's UCLA career

Despite missing two years of football, Latu was an immediate impact player for the Bruins. In his first season at UCLA, he finished with 23 tackles (13 solo), 12.5 TFLs, 10.5 sacks, a pass deflection, three forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery. 

Latu continued to ascend his play in his final college year which helped put him in position to be one of the best defensive players in this class. He finished with 28 tackles (21 solo), 21.5 TFLs (impressive!!!), 13 sacks, two pass deflections, two interceptions, and two forced fumbles. 

He was a unanimous All-American while also winning the Ted Hendricks Award and the Lombardi Award. Latu was UCLA’s first-ever winner of those two awards.

MORE: What Laiatu Latu brings to the Colts

4. Brings versatility 

Latu is labeled as an edge rusher but his versatility is an under-the-radar ability that he is bringing to the Colts defense. Per PFF, he lined up mainly outside tackle with 862 snaps over the last two seasons but also has 73 snaps over tackle, 61 snaps in the B gap, and 33 snaps off the ball. 

He can kick inside not only as a pass rusher but can also defend the run from the 3-tech spot. Bill Belichick highlighted his ability to play inside on The Pat McAfee show after the selection. 

5. Laiatu Latu's RAS

The Colts are known for being a ‘RAS’ team, especially after last year’s draft class. For Latu, he received good to great grades on his Relative Athletic Score (RAS). He ran an impressive 4.64 40-yard dash which helped give him an elite grade. His 4.34 shuttle time and 7.09 3-cone at his Pro Day helped improve the overall score that he had leaving the NFL combine from an unofficial 9.19 to an official 9.37 official RAS score. 

His score ranks as the 114th best among defensive ends since 1987. 

For more Colts coverage, check out Cody Manning's work on Sporting News.

Cody Manning

Cody Manning Photo

Cody Manning is a graduate of the University of Tampa’s Sport Management program. He spent time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Guest and Member Relations Game Day staff where he was a Team Leader and earned Difference Maker of the Year in 2017. During his time with the Bucs, he helped start Blitzalytics, a scouting and analytics media company. After that came to an end, he joined USA Today’s Colts Wire as a contributor in 2021. Outside of football, he is an avid WWE and Batman fan. You can find him on Twitter/X @CodyTalksNFL.