Playing nose tackle can be a lonely, thankless job but Cardinals' Leki Fotu thrives

Playing the nose guard or nose tackle position in a 3-4 defense is one of the most thankless jobs in the NFL. It comes with little notoriety and a ton of bruises. There’s not a lot of fanfare but plenty of pain.

Ask Leki Fotu, the Cardinals’ new starter there, who is asked to line up over the center or just off the shoulder of one of the guards, hold the point of attack, and swallow up as many blockers as possible so the rest of the defense can swoop in and make all the critical plays.

You don’t get your face on the game program and you rarely — if ever — get paraded into the media room for your own press conference.

“Yeah, but I love it,” said Fotu, who replaced the injured Rashard Lawrence Sunday and responded with a career high-tying five tackles against the Vikings. “In general, our job is kind of like the O-line. All the mess starts right there with us, up front. But the life is a nose guard, for me, it’s more of a hybrid thing because I’m moving around.

“But speaking for a nose guard, you’ve just got to have that nasty mentality knowing you have to be the anchor of the defense up front. It starts with you, and it sets the tone for the rest of the line and everybody else to follow. That’s a huge part of our team.”

Fotu and Lawrence were each selected by the Cardinals in the fourth round of the 2020 draft, Foti with the 114th overall pick out of Utah and Lawrence 131st out of LSU. Lawrence replaced Corey Peters as the starter this season and was playing well until suffering a shoulder injury against the Saints landed him on injured reserve.

For at least the next few weeks, Fotu will be the main man in the middle on Arizona’s defensive line, doing all the dirty work.

As much as the Cardinals miss Lawrence, coach Kliff Kingsbury said he and his assistants have always been impressed with Fotu, the 6-foot-5, 330-pounder of Tongan descent.

“He’s been a real good run stopper for us. He’s one of our top D linemen, interior pieces, and we feel like he’s a really good nose in this league,” Kingsbury said of Lawrence. “It’s tough when he goes out, but Leki stepped in and played at a high level. He’s getting better and better each week and we’ll see how he develops.”

Except for getting flagged for encroachment on the very first play from the line of scrimmage in Minnesota, Fotu, 24, more than held his own.

“I feel like I’m ready for it,” he said before the game. “There have already been moments in the past the past few years where we’ve had guys in different spots go down, so having that next-man-up mentality, I’m up for it all. The guys are all with Rashard and hoping he has a fast recovery. But I think we all have the same mindset to go out there and have drop off, no fall back.”

It's difficult to get noticed when you’re spending most of your time absorbing blocks from a center and a guard. But when Fotu is getting double teamed, it means he’s doing his job.

“It just depends on the scheme or whatnot, but for me, if I’m able to take on that double and hold onto it, that allows Isaiah (Simmons) or Zaven (Collins) to come back behind me. I have no problem doing that because they make the plays coming in clean. I get it off of them, and vice versa on the next play. They take it off of me, and I make the play, so that’s the chemistry of it.”

Simmons is listed as an inside linebacker on the Cardinals’ depth chart, but he’s played just about everywhere on defense. He’s lined up at safety, slot corner, rushed as an inside threat and spent multiple plays as an edge defender and pass rusher.

He’s never played nose tackle, though.

“I really appreciate them. I tell them how much I appreciate them,” Simmons said. “Just watching the game (Sunday) and seeing all the double teams Leki took on, all those guys take on. A lot of times those are things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. But a lot of times, people don’t realize that they’re really the ones making the plays even though they’re now showing up on the stat sheet.

“So, I’m very appreciative for them. They know that. They make my life easier at times, for sure.”

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Life isn’t so easy for a nose tackle when you’re getting bombarded in constant collisions. For Futo and other people who play his position at this level, it’s like getting into a car crash every single play.

“You tend to get used to it,” Fotu said. “You’ve got guys who have been playing ball since they were real young. You get used to it because you do it every day. You have to have that mindset coming into practice knowing you’re going to get after it.”

How long does it take for aches and pain to subside in a typical week?

“Coming off a game on Sunday, I would say probably Wednesday or Thursday,” Fotu said. “That’s when your body starts to recover. I come in and take care of it with treatments and whatnot, but that’s about how long it takes.”

One piece of great advice Fotu received as a rookie was how to take care of his body week to week through massages, hot and cold tubs and other recovery methods with the team’s training staff. Former longtime wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald was a mentor to Fotu in that regard.

“It’s such an important part of the process,” Fotu said. “That’s one of the major keys that I’ve taken from my first year and I apply it every day. It’s part of staying available, staying healthy, and just taking care of myself for the long term, knowing I’ll be able to walk away from this game.”

Until that day finally comes, Fotu will keep lining up in the center of the action, in the middle of the fray. He’ll take on as many blocks as he can, keep slogging away in relative anonymity and try to fend off all the holding, punching and poking that always goes on in the danger zone.

“It can go both ways,” Fotu said, smiling. “It’s the trenches. It happens. For the most part, we’re all grabbing out there.”

Note

NFL trade deadline came and went Tuesday without the Cardinals making a move. They did acquire wide receiver Robbie Anderson from the Panthers on Oct. 17 for two future late-round draft picks, but no other trade materialized.

They did, however, add a player on Tuesday, signing free-agent linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill, who requested his release last week form the Texans. He led Houston with 108 tackles and 13 tackles for loss a year ago and set a Texans’ franchise record for most tackles in a single game (19) against the Colts.

He started all six games for the Texans this season, recording 40 tackles. Grugier-Hill, 28, entered the league as a sixth-round pick by the Patriots in 2016. He spent four seasons with the Eagles (2016-2019) and one season with the Dolphins (2020) before signing with the Texans.

Have an opinion on the Arizona Cardinals? Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic.com and follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac. Listen to him live on Fox Sports 910-AM every Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 on Calling All Sports with Roc and Manuch. 

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Cardinals' Leki Fotu appreciates lonely life of playing nose tackle