3 potential draft busts Seattle Seahawks should avoid in 2024 NFL draft

Seahawks should not take edge rusher Laiatu Latu from UCLA

As opposed to Chop Robinson, Latu was extremely productive in his final two years of college as he was credited with 23.5 sacks, 34 tackles for loss, and he forced 5 fumbles. Those kinds of numbers jump off the page to an NFL scout. Plus, Latu is big enough to play right away in the NFL as he is 6'3" and nearly 260 pounds. He has a wide variety of pass-rush moves and prepares for different blockers each week.

So what is not to like? The major concern is probably not that he thought he might have to quit playing football altogether because of a neck injury he suffered at the University of Washington prior to transferring to UCLA. Teams will worry about a neck injury, of course, and as they should, so should the player. Without the neck injury, Latu might even go in the top 10 of the draft.

The biggest issue with Latu is he appears to only be very good at pressuring quarterbacks. He would be a liability against the run as he failed to hold his run lane quite a lot in college and he doesn't win at the point of attack very much. Latu is not a well-rounded edge rusher and head coach Mike Macdonald likes players who can play on any down because that helps him disguise his scheme more.

Latu might turn out to be a slightly higher-level Darrell Taylor. Latu might consistently getter pressure on quarterbacks, but if Latu and Taylor are not good against the run then the Seahawks would have a group of edge rushers where half of the group can only play on obvious passing downs. That is not going to work.