What Colts Drafting Laiatu Latu Means for Other Young Pass Rushers

The Indianapolis Colts surprised many by selecting UCLA defensive end Laiatu Latu with the 15th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. With draft experts expecting a wide receiver, cornerback, or trade for Indianapolis, this came as a bit of a shock at first. 

With the 2024 draft in the past, it’s time to focus on prepping for the regular season. How will Latu’s inclusion affect the rest of the Colts pass-rushers? With these questions, two names come to mind immediately with Latu’s draft pick. Those players are Dayo Odeyingbo and Kwity Paye.

In 2023, Odeyingbo had a career season for Indianapolis, finishing with 17 games played, 38 tackles (nine for loss), 8.0 sacks, and 17 quarterback hits. This type of performance is encouraging, especially considering Indy spent a second-round selection on Odeyingo.

Despite having nearly his entire rookie season scratched due to a torn Achilles, Odeyingbo played strong to finish the lifeless 2022 campaign. That season was precisely when Odeyingbo started showing promise as a disruptor off the edge. 

Now, Odeyingbo appears to be ready for the next step. There are areas of improvement needed, mostly in run defense and technique.

In 2023, Odeyingbo was bad against opposing ground attacks, concluding the season with an abysmal 49.1 grade per Pro Football Focus. If the former Vanderbilt Commodore can smooth out his run defense, he could be a serious issue for offensive lines to handle. If there is one thing that Odeyingbo does have, it's power and explosion, which can always be a deadly combination in the defensive trenches. 

Even with the addition of a Day 1 starter like Latu, I expect the Colts to continue to look closely at Odeyingbo and put him in places to succeed in 2024 with new defensive line coach Charlie Partridge. With Odeyingbo hitting his full stride for the first time, I believe Indy has plans to keep developing him to see how far he can go. 

While he will be due a new contract in 2025, Indy will give it to Odeyingbo if he builds off an impressive 2023 campaign by showing out again in 2024. Putting Odeyingbo’s power and Latu’s relentless quarterback pressure (62 in 2023 at UCLA) on the field at the same time can be a nice combination with the rest of Indy’s front. 

Drafted in the same class as Odeyingbo, Paye was taken out of Michigan in the first round (21st overall). Right away Indianapolis was planning for Paye to be a starter and the future pass rusher needed to help the defense reach its full potential. Fast-track to 2024 and Paye has more questions than answers surrounding his future with the Colts, especially after the Latu selection. 

While Latu can improve in areas as a rookie in the NFL, he’s already past Paye on pressuring the passer, obtaining sacks, and overall potential as a defensive end. Paye finished the year with a career-high 8.5 sacks, 52 tackles, and two fumbles forced.

But, despite having an immense snap count (700 total; 410 passing), Paye only marked 28 quarterback pressures. This finalizes out to around one quarterback pressure for every 14.6 pass-rushing snaps. These aren’t first-round edge rusher numbers especially when teammate Tyquan Lewis outpaced him with far less work, snagging 44 pressures (third-highest on the roster) on 259 passing snaps. After some quick math, that is one quarterback pressure for every 5.89 pass-rushing snaps. 

While Paye is an elite run-defender, there’s a chance that Latu can get to that level with experience and proper development with Partridge. The NFL also won’t pay top money to edge rushers for elite run defense and less-than-stellar pass-rushing. While I expect Odeyingbo to be retained (over being allowed to walk in 2025 free agency), the drafting of Latu is a bad sign for Paye. 

With the Colts decision on Paye’s fifth-year option approaching, it won’t happen now that they spent a first-round pick on a defensive end. Paye is a fantastic addition to any NFL defense but has thus far not panned out to be a first-round selection. Multiple setbacks and injuries throughout his first three seasons haven’t helped his adjustments to the pro speed, but 2023 was encouraging, given the overall numbers.

We’ll have to wait and see what the Indy front office does with Paye, as his future with the team looks to be in question after the 2024 NFL Draft.