The 2024 NFL Draft is now in the rearview mirror. After a flurry of selections from April 25 to April 27, 257 players were selected to join the NFL.
With that, we give you our full recap of the Indianapolis Colts‘ draft, with analysis on every selection the team made during the weekend and an in-depth look at their top pick.
For more information on the players your favorite team drafted, it’s not too late to get the 2024 NFL Draft Guide, which includes expanded scouting reports, draft grades, offseason reports, unique advanced data, PFF grades and much more.
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2024 Draft Picks
- 1 (15): EDGE Laiatu Latu, UCLA
- 2 (52): WR Adonai Mitchell, Texas
- 3 (79): T Matt Goncalves, Pittsburgh
- 4 (117): C Tanor Bortolini, Wisconsin
- 5 (142): WR Anthony Gould, Oregon State
- 5 (151): S Jaylon Carlies, Missouri
- 5 (164): S Jaylin Simpson, Auburn
- 6 (201): CB Micah Abraham, Marshall
- 7 (234): DI Jonah Laulu, Oklahoma
Latu — Latu was the most productive pass-rusher in college football over the past two seasons at UCLA, leading all qualifiers in PFF pass-rush grade (94.5) and pass-rush win rate (23.1%). If it weren’t for medical red flags, there’s a good chance that Latu would have been viewed as a consensus top-10 prospect in this class.
Mitchell — Mitchell will immediately provide Anthony Richardson with another weapon opposite Michael Pittman Jr. He is an immediate impact player in the red zone with his size and body control, and he brings incredible hands. Mitchell dropped just one pass over the past two years on 103 targets.
Goncalves — A potential swing lineman, Goncalves played both right tackle and left tackle at Pittsburgh and posted a 75.0-plus grade in each of the past two seasons, However, his limited lateral agility may make him a guard in the NFL. The Colts value versatility on their offensive line, and Goncalves offers solid depth from Day 1 with the potential to develop into a starter down the road.
Bortolini — Bortolini allowed just one sack and 11 total pressures from 479 pass-blocking snaps in 2023. He earned a 77.6 PFF pass-blocking grade on true pass sets, ranking eighth among centers in this draft class, and could be a long-term starter on the Colts’ interior.
Gould — At just 5-foot-8, Gould is a smaller receiver, but he has true field-tilting long speed and bursts off the line of scrimmage, giving the Colts a potential high-ceiling deep threat with the ability to make an impact in the return game. He posted a career-high 711 receiving yards last season and has a 90.4 punt-return grade since 2022, which ranks fifth in the Power Five.
Carlies — While he’ll need to improve his tackling (21 missed tackles in 2023), Carlies has an intriguing all-around game. He posted an 88.4 pass-rush grade last year while notching two interceptions and four pass breakups in coverage.
Simpson — Simpson is undersized at 182 pounds and started his career at cornerback before moving to safety at the end of his Auburn career. He’s coming off the highest-graded season of his career, as he put up an 87.4 PFF coverage grade in 2023. Simpson was particularly effective in a deep role, earning an 85th-percentile coverage grade at free safety a season ago.
Abraham — Abraham brings plenty of experience after logging more than 3,000 defensive snaps in five seasons with Marshall. While Abraham was productive (10-plus forced incompletions in each of the past three seasons), there are questions about how well that will translate to the NFL, as he has an underwhelming athletic profile at 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds.
Laulu — Laulu is not elite in the pass-rushing department, but he was more than serviceable in 2023 with the Sooners, recording 17 pressures on 166 pass-rush snaps. After transferring from Hawaii, Laulu was thrust into a much tougher level of competition, and he held his own.
DRAFT GRADE: A+
Rookie spotlight: EDGE Laiatu Latu, UCLA
Scouting summary
Despite suffering a neck injury in 2021 that almost ended his football career, Latu was the most productive pass-rusher in college football over the past two seasons.
His hand usage is fantastic — fast, precise and, most importantly, purposeful. He has a wide variety of pass-rush moves and counters that appear second nature to him.
He is also a versatile edge defender, having played a near-even split of left- and right-side snaps with a good mix of two- and three-point stances.
The UCLA product is just an adequate athlete with a sub-50th percentile arm length. He could also benefit from adding some density and strength to improve his anchor ability and tackling.
Wins above average
WAA represents the number of wins a player is worth over an average college football player and is a metric evaluators can utilize to assess performance.
It combines how well a player performed in each facet of play (using PFF grades) and how valuable each facet is to winning football games. The result is a first-of-its-kind metric that allows for cross-positional valuation and predicts future value at the player and team levels.
How Latu ranks in the stable metrics
Latu is among the best pass-rushers of the PFF College era. From 2022 to 2023, he generated 126 pressures and sacked the quarterback 27 times, both of which paced the position over that span.
On third down — when he could pin his ears back and get after the quarterback — Latu earned a 93.0 pass-rush grade, second among qualified edge defenders.
While defending the run isn’t his strength, Latu is no slouch. NFL teams will have to be confident in his medical evaluation, but based on his film, he is a slam-dunk pick.
The bottom line
Though somewhat limited athletically, Latu lives in the offensive backfield due to his hand usage and pass-rush moves, which will continue at the NFL level.
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