Leki
Fotu.
Leki
Fotu.
Utah· 6'5"· 330 lb· 5.15s 40
"A 335-pound Utah nose tackle who ate double teams for a top-ten run defense and offered nothing on third down, graded as a two-down anchor in a nickel league."Pre-draft read
Fotu is a 335-pound nose tackle built to eat double teams. He plays with a wide base and enormous natural strength, and when he keeps his pads down he can stack a center, extend, and shed into the gap without giving ground. Utah built a top-ten run defense in front of him by letting him occupy two blockers on early downs.
For his size he moves better than expected, with the quickness to chase runs to the sideline. What he lacks is a pass-rush plan: he wins with a bull rush or not at all, his hands are heavy but unrefined, and he gets tall against quick centers. Conditioning showed up on long drives. The signature is early-down mass: a two-gap anchor whose value is measured in the space he clears for others.
A base 3-4 or even front that wants a true nose tackle to two-gap on early downs and free its linebackers to run sideline to sideline.
Year 1 rotational early-down nose tackle, with a ceiling as a full-time starting run stuffer on a defense that plays base personnel often.
A one-gap penetrating front that asks its interior linemen to rush the passer and win one-on-one on third down.
Leki Fotu Highlights - Another Utah Stud DT?
Pre-draft film breakdown of the anchor and the pass-rush limitations.
Leki Fotu sack - Player of the Game
Senior-season interior rush showing the bull rush that produced most of his pressure.
John Penisini and Leki Fotu - Why U Play
School feature on the two-man interior wall that anchored Utah's run defense.
Fotu was a local product from West Valley City who grew into one of the best run defenders in the Pac-12. He barely played as a freshman in 2016, registering a single tackle, then became a rotational contributor as a sophomore with 22 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
His last two years were the case. As a junior in 2018 he made 34 tackles with six tackles for loss and a career-high 3.5 sacks, and as a senior in 2019 he added 28 tackles with eight tackles for loss for 51 yards, 1.5 sacks, two pass break-ups and a forced fumble on a Utah defense that was one of the nation's best. He finished with 85 career tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss and five sacks, forming a two-man wall alongside John Penisini that let Utah's linebackers run free. He earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors as a senior.
The league saw exactly what Utah saw: a true nose tackle in a league increasingly playing nickel. Evaluators praised the anchor, the strength and the run defense, and flagged the absent pass rush and the conditioning as reasons he would only be a two-down player. That combination is a fourth-round grade almost every year. Arizona, needing size in the middle of its front, took him at 114.
- 01
Two-gap anchor
At 335 pounds he absorbs double teams and holds the point of attack, the trait his entire evaluation was built on.
- 02
Natural power
Generates immediate knockback on contact and can walk a center backward when he keeps his pads down.
- 03
Senior-year disruption
Posted eight tackles for loss for 51 yards in 2019 on one of the nation's best run defenses.
- 04
Better movement than his size suggests
Chases plays to the sideline and shows enough quickness to avoid being a statue.
- 05
Four-year program contributor
Grew from one tackle as a freshman to first-team All-Pac-12, with 17.5 career tackles for loss.
- 01
No pass-rush plan
Wins with a bull rush or not at all, with only five sacks in four seasons and no counter moves.
- 02
Pad level inconsistency
Comes out of his stance tall against quick centers, which erases his leverage advantage.
- 03
Conditioning limits snaps
Fades on long drives, capping him at a rotational workload rather than a full-time role.
- 04
Two-down profile
Offers nothing on obvious passing downs in a league that plays nickel on the majority of snaps.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
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- 5.15sp50
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- 21repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Utah | — | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | Utah | — | 22 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2018 | Utah | — | 34 | 3.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Utah | — | 28 | 1.5 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Career | — | — | 85 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
Season lines come from Utah's official statistical archive, which publishes tackles, tackles for loss, sacks, forced fumbles, recoveries and break-ups by year but not games played; the games column is therefore left empty rather than estimated. The four seasons sum exactly to the published career totals of 85 tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss and five sacks. His 2019 tackles for loss accounted for 51 yards.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A two-down space eater who stays in the league for years as a rotational body without ever starting full time.
The ceiling: a massive nose tackle who anchors a top run defense for a decade and makes a Pro Bowl doing it.
A big interior defender whose snap count never grows and who bounces from roster to roster on short deals.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
He has done the job he was drafted to do, quietly, for six seasons. Fotu played eight games as a rookie in Arizona with eleven tackles and a sack, then settled into a rotation role, appearing in thirteen games in 2021 and sixteen in 2022 with 31 tackles. His best year came in 2023 with 28 tackles and 2.5 sacks across eleven games, career highs in both categories, before he left Arizona in free agency.
The road since has been a journeyman's. He played a single game for the Jets in 2024, six for Houston in 2025 with eleven tackles and a sack, and signed with the Giants for 2026. Through six seasons the line reads 66 games, 103 total tackles, 4.5 sacks and three passes defended with only two career starts. In hindsight this is a fair fourth-round outcome rather than a hit or a miss: a two-down nose tackle who has stayed employed for six years by doing exactly one thing well, without ever becoming a player a defense builds around.