Next man up, What Laulu brings and where he can grow

Film breakdown on the young defensive tackle as he steps into a bigger opportunity after Christian Wilkins’ release

Releasing defensive tackle Christian Wilkins creates a void in the middle of the Las Vegas Raiders‘ defense, where the coaching staff will have to dip into the depth chart to find Wilkins’ replacement. The next man up likely is second-year pro Jonah Laulu, who has received some praise during the early stages of training camp.

A seventh-round pick in the 2024 NFL draft, Laulu didn’t make the Indianapolis Colts’ 53-man roster last season but was claimed off waivers by the Raiders. He participated in all 17 games and made seven starts after Wilkins suffered a season-ending injury, collecting 35 tackles, three TFLs and one sack.

Additionally, the Las Vegas native recorded 20 ‘defensive stops’ from Weeks nine to 18, which was the 10th-most among interior defenders during that timeframe, according to Pro Football Focus.

With Laulu expected to take on a bigger role this season, let’s take a look at what he can bring to the Raiders’ defense and where he can grow.

Laulu stood out the most as a run defender last season, primarily due to his strength at the point of attack. That helped him create stalemates at the line of scrimmage or generate enough knockback power to play in the offense’s backfield, as well as get off blocks to collect a few of the defensive stops mentioned above.

Additionally, he was occasionally able to close his gap with the offensive lineman, as seen in the first clip here. That wasn’t something Laulu was consistently able to execute, but it did allow him to take away two gaps on the occasions when he was effective with the technique.

On the other side of the coin, Laulu is reliant on winning at the point of attack and depends on closing the gap with the man too much, in my opinion. That can lead to him getting reached, meaning the offensive lineman either gets to his outside shoulder when he’s on the front side of run plays or his inside shoulder on the backside, creating rushing lanes.

Right now, Laulu is late to recognize reach or backside cutoff blocks, resulting in him getting wheeled out of his gap. That can come with more experience, and the good news is that the second-year pro has the athleticism to work laterally and avoid getting reached when his block recognition improves.

Speaking of his athleticism, head coach Pete Carroll recently talked about how he likes the traits Laulu showed on tape. While Carroll didn’t specify, the defensive tackle’s combination of strength and athleticism is likely what the coach is referring to.

We’ve seen the power at the point of attack, and a wrinkle that Laulu has in his back pocket is his ability to use his quick get-off and spin move to make plays against the run. The former allows him to get penetration and play in the offense’s backfield, while the latter helps to capitalize and to get tackles near the line of scrimmage when running backs cut into another gap.

Another area of improvement for the Oklahoma product as a run defender is taking on double teams. That was one of his biggest issues in college and showed up last season, as he gets blocked into the linebackers in the two clips above. In both instances, he gives up his chest, which allows the offensive linemen to get a leverage advantage by standing him up, and he lacks some lower-body strength to sink his hips and anchor.

Taking on double teams is the hardest part of playing defensive tackle, but it’s a crucial element to playing the position. Expecting Laulu to make plays against combo blocks is unrealistic, but he needs to start creating stalemates more consistently.

To be honest, Laulu has a lot of work to do as a pass-rusher. In addition to only recording one sack last season, he had just 10 pressures on 244 pass-rush snaps, per PFF. However, one area where he’s already effective is as the looper in line games.

That’s where his athleticism and agility stand out, as he’s able to take efficient paths to the quarterback by not losing ground or even gaining ground while moving laterally. Also, Laulu has decent closing speed to either come up with the sack or force the ball out of the quarterback’s hands.

While the second-year pro needs to flush out his pass-rush moves, he’s flashed a decent spin move to build on. He’s a little late to work the move here, since his run-to-pass transition against play-action is slow.

However, the movement skills and use of an “ice pick” (throwing the elbow to knock the offensive lineman off-balance, essentially) allow him to get a win/pressure here. If Laulu starts the move a half-second earlier, he might get a sack or at least hit Justin Herbert on the pass attempt here.