Source: Brooke Sutton / Getty
**INDIANAPOLIS** **–** The Chris Ballard conversation on Friday of the draft with the National Championship head coach was more about the slew of Buckeyes that would eventually hear the names called.
But Day had one specific question about his decorated defensive end JT Tuimoloau.
32 picks had happened and Tuimoloau was still there with Round 2 and 3 coming later that night.
That didn’t sit well with Ryan Day.
“Ryan goes, ‘I’m trying to figure out why he didn’t go in the first round,’” Ballard explained on his conversation with Day.
“And we had a good grade on (Tuimoloau), but he was pretty effusive with his praise.”
Ray’s complimenting question to his 3-time All-Big Ten first-team defensive end might have been the cherry on top for the Colts clear desire about how Tuimoloau plays.
Even the trade back happy Ballard couldn’t do that at No. 45 overall, with Tuimoloau still on the board.
“I felt really fortunate to get him, I think everybody would tell you that in our room,” Ballard said after the Colts took the defensive end in Round 2.
“He’s a big guy. He’s a really good athlete. He can bend, he knows how to rush. He’s got good length. I mean, we’re excited to get him.”
In college, Tuimoloau mostly lined up outside, before being used inside at times on passing downs. The Colts are fans of the power aspect to his game (think power more than elite speed), which is something the player mentions too.
“I think it’s just passionate and powerful, and a mixture of speed and power,” Tuimoloau says when asked to describe himself as a player.
“You are just getting an all-around player that is always hungry that never wants to settle and get complacent.”
Mere hours before the Colts took Tuimoloau at No. 45 overall, the big man was out on the golf course for an early morning scramble.
This is how Tuimoloau describes himself.
He was one of the guys at Ohio State leading gatherings at his place to watch fight nights, the Super Bowl, etc.
That’s the Polynesian in Tuimoloau, the now Colts defensive end says.
The Colts were particularly struck by how Tuimoloau finished off his career at Ohio State, producing at the highest of levels during the Buckeyes’ extremely impressive playoff run.
In a stretch of Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame, Tuimoloau had a sack in each of those 4 games, piling up a total of 6.5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss in those 4 wins.
Walking into the NFL with a profile the Colts believe creates a high floor, Tuimoloau gets tossed in a Colts D-line room that Ballard continues to feel good about.
“I mean we’ve got a good group. And look, Dayo (Odeyingbo) was a really good football player, which the market ended up showing (Odyeingbo signed with the Bears in free agency), least from what he got paid. He did a lot of great things for us.
“You can never have enough (along the defensive line). I mean you just can’t, especially as the season gets – it’s 17 games. Everybody just kind of blinks at it, but I mean that’s a long season. I mean, you got to have as many defensive linemen that can. Can ever have enough rushers.”
So that’s where Tuimoloau enters the picture.
Whereas Laiatu Latu might be more of a speed rusher off the edge, think of Tuimoloau more with the power first and a thought he can help pretty early on multiple downs and potentially at multiple positions.
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