Indianapolis Colts' OTAs: The big question at defensive end

Yahoo

24-05-2025

The Indianapolis Colts will begin Phase III of the offseason programs on May 28th, which means the start of voluntary Organized Team Activities (OTAs).
Rather than only doing individual drills as the Colts have been doing, they will now be permitted to do 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 team drills, although no live contact is allowed.
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So with this important part of the offseason schedule about to begin, I wanted to highlight one big question facing each position group. Up next are the defensive ends.
Below you can find our previous position previews.
Indianapolis Colts big question: Can Laiatu Latu make a Year 2 leap?
Laiatu Latu is going to play a pivotal role in determining how good this Colts' pass rush is this season.
Latu finished his rookie season with 38 pressures, which were the second-most on the team, and he also recorded four sacks. Compared to the rest of his position group league-wide, Latu ranked 50th in pressures.
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While at the end of the day, results matter most, that final pressure number from Latu may not be indicative of the success he had as a rusher. By PFF's pass rush win rate metric, Latu ranked 27th among all defensive ends. What that tells us is that he was winning his matchups regularly, and with that, the production will often follow.
"He does it the right way," Shane Steichen said via the team site earlier this offseason. "The way he works, his work ethic is tremendous. I think you'll see a big jump from Year 1 to Year 2. I think he had four (sacks) his rookie year, if we can get into double digits in Year 2 that'd be tremendous."
The addition of Lou Anarumo as the defensive coordinator should help Latu and the Colts' pass rush as a whole. For one, we will see more movement up front to help create advantageous matchups.
But in addition to that, we frequently saw opponents last season take advantage of the Colts' secondary through the quick passing game, which made it very difficult for the defensive line to get home regularly. Anarumo's more aggressive scheme should prevent some of that, which then will give the rushers more time to get to the quarterback.
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Without Dayo Odeyingbo, the Colts lost their top pressure-getter from the 2024 season. Replacing that production will be a group effort, but a lot of that responsibility could fall on Latu's shoulders.
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Indianapolis Colts' OTAs: Can DE Laiatu Latu make a Year 2 leap?