{"id":230306,"date":"2025-04-27T13:30:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T17:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=230306"},"modified":"2025-04-27T13:02:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T17:02:11","slug":"j-t-tuimoloau-might-be-future-starting-duo-of-the-edge-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/04\/27\/j-t-tuimoloau-might-be-future-starting-duo-of-the-edge-room\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFuture Starting Duo of the Edge Room\u201d – NFL Analyst Praises Colts Youngsters"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, the Indianapolis Colts selected<\/a> Ohio State defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau with the 45th overall pick. The Colts drafted fellow defensive end Laiatu Latu<\/a> in the first round last year. Destin Adams<\/a> of A to Z Sports pointed out that the two youngsters could be Indy\u2019s future starting duo:<\/p>\n

\u201cTuimoloau is going to be awesome against the run from the moment he walks onto a field with a Colts jersey on. And he is coming off the most impressive stretch of games in terms of rushing the passer of his college career. The Colts seem to think Laiatu Latu and JT Tuimoloau could be the future starting duo out of the edge room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latu is primed for a breakout 2025 season. And Tuimoloau could be a good replacement for Dayo Odeyingbo, who signed<\/a> with the Chicago Bears this offseason.<\/p>\n

J.T. Tuimoloau and Laiatu Could be the Colts\u2019 \u201cFuture Starting Duo of the Edge Room\u201d<\/h2>\n

Laiatu Latu\u2019s Career<\/h3>\n

Laiatu Latu\u2019s college career began with the Washington Huskies in 2019. Entering his sophomore year, he suffered a neck injury during fall practice. The injury would cause him to miss the entire COVID-shorted 2020 campaign. Latu underwent neck surgery in March 2021 and was forced to retire from football medically.<\/p>\n

It appeared that Latu\u2019s career was over, but fortunately, he was later cleared to play. He wound up entering the transfer portal and transferred to UCLA. He returned to the field in 2022 after missing two seasons of college football. In 2023,\u00a0Latu produced 49 tackles (21.5 for loss), 13 sacks, two interceptions, and two forced fumbles.<\/p>\n

The Colts drafted Latu 15th overall in 2024. As a rookie last year, he started one of his 17 games. He recorded 32 combined tackles (five for loss), and four sacks.<\/p>\n

J.T. Tuimoloau\u2019s Career<\/h3>\n

Tuimoloau attended Eastside Catholic High School in Sammamish, Washington. He starred at defensive end and tight end and also played basketball.<\/p>\n

Tuimoloau then landed at Ohio State. He went on to have a stellar career with the Buckeyes. The Seattle area native recorded 144 tackles, 43.5 tackles for a loss, 23.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, and 12 passes defensed over 54 games. Tuimoloau earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in 2022, 2023, and 2024, and was named a second-team All-American in 2023.<\/p>\n

Last season, Tuimoloau had career-highs in tackles (61), tackles for a loss (21.5) and sacks (12.5). He also helped Ohio State win a national championship. The Buckeyes won the title game 34-23<\/a> over Riley Leonard<\/a> (Tuimoloau\u2019s new Colts teammate) and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.<\/p>\n

Improved Defense<\/h3>\n

The Colts\u2019 defense was far from spectacular last season. That led to the team parting ways with defensive coordinator Gus Bradley.<\/p>\n

This offseason, Indianapolis has assembled a quality group of defenders for Bradley\u2019s replacement, Lou Anarumo. They\u2019ve added guys like Charvarius Ward<\/a>, Camryn Bynum, and Neville Gallimore in free agency. They\u2019ll join forces with holdovers like DeForest Buckner, Kenny Moore II, and Zaire Franklin. With that said Indy\u2019s defense should be improved in 2025.<\/p>\n

Latu and Tuimoloau will be a part of the defense as well. Latu could be a starter. Tuimoloau, though, is expected to be behind Kwity Paye<\/a>, playing the run-stuffing role. Tuimoloau is expected to be involved a lot in short-yardage situations, especially in the goal line. He excelled there last season at Ohio State, stopping the run.<\/p>\n

Paye, Samson Ebukam<\/a>, and Tyquan Lewis will be free agents following the 2025 season. That means Tuimoloau could start at defensive end opposite Laiatu Latu in 2026. While Tuimoloau and Latu might not become Indy\u2019s next Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis, they could be a solid duo for years to come.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Kirby Lee – Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rookie J.T. Tuimoloau and second-year player Laiatu Latu could become the Colts\u2019 future starting defensive ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":230622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647,12,36],"tags":[7800,33313,32406],"class_list":["post-230306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","category-colts","category-nfl-news","tag-indianapolis-colts-news","tag-j-t-tuimoloau","tag-laiatu-latu"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230306"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230623,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230306\/revisions\/230623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}