‘I Thought We Got a Little Lucky’

The Indianapolis Colts made a polarizing selection in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft on Thursday, taking the first defensive player of the night in UCLA edge rusher Laiatu Latu 15th overall.

On film, it’s hard to argue against Latu being the best pass rusher in the drat. However, he’ll end his rookie season at 24 years old and missed two seasons of his career after being forced to medically retire due to neck surgery from 2020-’21. Latu would return to football and transfer to UCLA in 2022, putting together arguably the best resume for defensive linemen in the country over the ensuing two seasons.

Colts GM Chris Ballard spoke to the media after making the pick and answered the burning questions.

The Colts tried to get in on an unprecedented offensive run. Fourteen consecutive offensive players were selected before the Colts took Latu at 15. However, Ballard admitted they did attempt to trade up.

“Yeah, just looking at it the other day you thought there was going to be a big run on offensive players. The quarterbacks – six quarterbacks going off – I don’t know is that the most ever? It was interesting.”

“We had some serious, serious discussions, yes – with big offers, by the way. We made a push, it just didn’t – you got to get two to tango. Nobody was moving. There’s some good players up at the top of the draft. When you’re sitting there, you ask yourself, ‘Okay, is it worth moving back to 15 and missing out on one of the?’ We were fortunate back in 2018 when we just were able to kick three spots back and still get a premium player in Quenton (Nelson).”

The Colts are not concerned with Latu’s previous neck injury and did their due diligence.

“Excited about we got Latu. He’s a really great kid. I know the medical is going to be a question. Like our doctors said, he played two full years with it and had 22.5 sacks.”

“I had a ton (questions about Latu’s health). You can imagine. I asked a ton of questions. Anytime you have any kind of neck injury. You remember (Clayton) Geathers – Clayton went through it. It wasn’t as bad as Clayton’s. (I) asked a ton of questions – career length, what’s the chance of it happening again – we asked a ton of questions on it.”

Latu helps diversify the Colts’ pass rush packages.

“The good thing is when you have Dayo (Odeyingbo), who can kick inside – you’ve got to think of third, you’ve got to think of rush downs too. Tyquan (Lewis) can go inside, you have shoot, 20 played all three technique for us. Dayo can kick in on third down, so they got versatility and that’s – when you have that, you have a chance to really have some really good green rush units, which we think we do.”

The Colts saw “four or five” elite players in the draft, Latu being one of them. They wanted to prioritize pass rush while in the moment on the clock.

“We think we got the best defensive player in the draft. I thought we got a little lucky. There were really four or five really elite players, and he was one of them so we feel fortunate to get him.”

“He’s a natural rusher. He’s a three-way rusher where he has got a great long arm down the middle and he’s got a great feel of when to counter inside and he can win on the edge. He’s kind of got all of it. He’s a really talented guy. I think our front – I think our defensive front is the best since we’ve been here. It’s excellent. It’s excellent and really excited about it.”

“It was on my mind (getting and edge rusher before the draft). Now, did I have any idea that it was going to go out at that time, 14 offensive players were going to run off the board? I couldn’t. I’m not – I think I got a pretty good IQ but it’s not that, I don’t think I can see the future that way.”

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Colts think Latu will produce right away, but he has to “prove it.”

“I think he’s going to produce pretty quickly as a rusher, I think he knows how to rush. Now of course, there’s going to be an adjustment period as there is with any rookie rusher and he’s pretty polished. This guy is a pretty polished product in terms of rushing. Of course, you’re going to have to learn especially against the tackles who are so good in our league and the protection schemes are so good. So, that will be an adjustment for him. But, smart kid – he’ll figure it out.”

“You have to prove it. You have to play. Like with any of these guys, that’s the one thing that I think gets lost sight in all of this is everybody has got an opinion on players and they project them. You don’t know – they have to play. They have to go play and prove it. Latu has got to go play, but we feel good about who is and how he works and his talent and how he’ll produce.”

You always put a lot of emphasis on character. What does the Lott Trophy Award mean?

“Matt Terpening and Chris McGaha did a tremendous job on the character, plus we have a great relationship with Chip (Kelly) so we had a lot of inside information on who he was. A lot of times the ones we know – and we visited with him at the Combine – guys we know, he fits what we stand for in every way. There are some guys you bring in that (you) dig, dig, dig on. He was one we had a really good feel for after the Combine. I thought we didn’t need more information and the character was really strong.”

“We visited with him a few times – our scouts did. Sometimes kids, like the ones that are really clean, you just do your work and then you move forward. We got a good feel for who they are. The ones we have questions on we always dig a lot more.”

Colts will make decision on Kwity Paye’s fifth-year option next week.

“We’ll work through that next week. But, Kwity is a really good football player. He had what, 8.5 sacks last year, plays the crap out of the run, he’s a great teammate. I think you know our philosophy; we want to keep as many of our own guys as we can. We like Kwity a lot.”

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