NFL DRAFT: Fotu to the Arizona Cardinals
After a strong day-two showing, the University of Utah got back in the draft board early on for day-three, as the Arizona Cardinals selected All-American defensive tackle, Leki Fotu, in the fourth round with the no. 115 pick of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Utah Career Highlights
Leki Fotu was arguably one of the best defensive linemen in the entire Pac-12 the past two seasons. That statement is backed by First-Team All Pac-12 nods in each of the last two seasons. During those two years Fotu acquired a total of 62 tackles, 14.5 for a loss, and 4.5 sacks. As a senior, Fotu was named by the Associated Press as a Third-Team All-America player after anchoring one of the best defenses in the country.
PFF Stats
SO- 70.6 overall, 73.8 Run D, 64.2 Pass Rush
JR- 75.8 overall, 77.9 Run D, 72.3 Pass Rush
SR- 75.7 overall, 83.4 Run D, 61.0 Pass Rush
Pros and Cons
Obvious pro for Fotu is the fact he is 6-foot-5 and 330 pounds. Even with being an extraordinarily large individual, Fotu is rather athletic. Fotu played rugby growing up, only playing one year of high school football. Fotu was so good at rugby that he was on the USA Rugby Boys High School All-American team. Fotu is strong enough to engage blocks and not get pushed back and athletic enough to give good pursuit in the ground game.
Most cons in his game according to scouts indicate that Fotu doesn’t possess the quickest explosion off the ball. As an interior defensive lineman, sometimes the most important play is to disrupt the offense’s running scheme by jumping gaps and occupying multiple blockers. Another weakness to his game is that Fotu doesn’t consistently push the offensive lineman back into the quarterback enough, shrinking the pocket. These are things Fotu, who’s still relatively raw, will need to improve on at the next level.
What Fotu Brings to the NFL
With Fotu’s size and skill set there’s no doubt he can play as an interior defensive lineman in the NFL. He would probably be best suited as a nose tackle in a 3-4 scheme because he is a tough man to move off the ball and he takes up a lot of space. It’s unlikely that Fotu will wow anybody statistically with sacks, but that’s not exactly expected as a nose tackle. The ceiling idealistically would be that Fotu has a similar career as fellow Utah native and future Hall of Famer, Haloti Ngata. Ngata and Fotu are of similar size, stature and both played a lot of rugby as youths. At the very least, Fotu can be an effective interior lineman for many years in the NFL.
It should be a scary thought for the NFL that Fotu’s best is yet to come.