Latu 3rd best Colts DE rookie year?

[John Hammonds]

Looking at basic stats on Pro Football Reference, Laiatu Latu is shaping up to maybe have the 3rd best rookie year among Colts defensive ends since drafting Dwight Freeney.  Now, let's not get too excited.  When you look at rookie year stats for our DE's, they're pretty bad.  If Ben Banogu can rank FIFTH in rookie year stats, that's pretty bad overall.  In fact, our DE's have not fared well early on.

 

ROOKIE YEAR DE BASIC STATS

#1 - 2002 Dwight Freeney - 16 games, 8 started, 13 sacks, 20 tackles for loss, 9 forced fumbles (and AP DROY)

#2 - 2021 Kwity Paye - 15 games, 15 started, 4 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble

#3 - 2024 Laiatu Latu (so far) - 7 games, 1 started, 2 sacks, 2 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles

#4 - 2013 Bjorn Werner - 13 games, 1 started, 2.5 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, 0 forced fumbles

#5 - 2019 Ben Banogu - 16 games, 0 started, 2.5 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble

#6 - 2018 Tyquan Lewis - 8 games, 6 started, 2 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, 0 forced fumbles

#7 - 2015 Henry Anderson - 9 games, 9 started, 1 sack, 5 tackles for loss, 0 forced fumbles

#8 - 2017 Terrell Basham - 15 games, 0 started, 2 sacks, 1 tackle for loss, 1 forced fumble

#9 - 2021 Dayo Odeyingbo - 10 games, 0 started, 0.5 sacks, 0 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble

#10 - 2010 Jerry Hughes - 12 games, 0 started, 0 sacks, 1 tackle for loss, 0 forced fumbles

 

It's possible that Latu could actually pass Paye for #2 on the rookie year list.

[Solid84]

I think Latu has had a rough start due to injuries on the Dline. I still think he'll be our best DE within a couple of years.

[JediXMan]

This isn’t to OP but why do we instantly have to compare young players to past players when they have less than 1 season of games that they played. Let them develop and get experience before jumping to conclusions about them.

[csmopar]

I’m more surprised to see Bjorn that high …

[Mighty Blue]

 

I hope he can make this list someday👍

[jvan1973]

31 minutes ago, Mighty Blue said:

 

I hope he can make this list someday👍

[BlackTiger]

3 hours ago, John Hammonds said:

Now, let's not get too excited.  When you look at rookie year stats for our DE's, they're pretty bad

Well yeah rookie DEs usually dont get a lot of playing time unless they were drafted high.  We should hope the first defensive player of the draft would be third or better in a fairly underwhelming group outside of Freeney and Paye who was solid but never quite jumped off the screen.

 

Some of these guys had good/decent careers but were mostly drafted as depth or flyers