INDIANAPOLIS — Laiatu Latu is typically ready for just about anything.

The Colts rookie pass rusher wasn’t fazed by the fact that he spent all eight of his snaps in his NFL preseason debut going up against eight-year veteran Garett Bolles. The speed of the game didn’t surprise him.

But the Broncos did manage to hit Latu with something he never saw coming. When Latu took the field for his first snap in the NFL, Denver had a double team waiting for him. Broncos tight end Greg Dulcich, a friend from Latu’s UCLA days, lined up to chip Latu on a third-down rush.

Latu couldn’t believe it. When Denver was flagged for a false start, Latu figured the Broncos would back out of their plan.

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Dulcich chipped him again, and on top of that, the Broncos released a running back out of the backfield to Latu’s slide, sticking close to Bolles to limit Latu’s operational space.

“I feel like it’s a little bit of a badge of honor,” Latu said.

And probably a preview of what’s to come once the regular season begins. Latu has lived up to his first-round billing in training camp, regularly creating havoc in the backfield, and between the draft profile teams already have in their files and the rushes Latu put together against Bolles, it’s likely that teams will decide the rookie needs a little extra attention.

Latu was credited with one tackle in his eight snaps, but he also created a handful of pressures, repeatedly using his speed to get to the outside of Bolles, bearing down on the quarterback and forcing at least one errant throw, plus a sped-up throw from Jarrett Stidham that led to Kenny Moore II’s interception.

“We did see some good rushes from him,” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “We saw the same things we saw in practice. His speed, his bend, his pass rush moves, his ability to put a couple of combinations together.”

The presence of Bolles meant that Latu faced a tougher test than most rookies.

The kind of test he’ll face in the regular season. Normally, Latu would have spent a week preparing, studying Bolles to formulate a rush plan, but the Colts did not spend an inordinate amount of time game-planning for Denver.

The encouraging thing is Latu adjusted anyway.

“I feel like what I learned was certain o-linemen have different ways they play against certain rushers,” Latu said. “I could tell he would flash with his outside and punch with his inside, so there’s different ways I can knock his hands off, stuff like that.”

Latu did not feel overwhelmed.

Didn’t feel like a rookie at all. While he faced off against Bolles, who’s developed enough of a reputation that he’s playing on a four-year, $68 million deal, Latu wasn’t fazed.

The rookie felt comfortable.

“Hell yeah,” Latu said. “Me and (Bernhard Raimann) have battles every day.”

Latu’s maturity as a pass rusher has been evident since he arrived in Indianapolis.

Unlike a lot of rookies, Latu already knows his profile as a pass rusher. When he went to the offseason Sack Summit led by Von Miller, Maxx Crosby and Cameron Jordan, Latu did not come back with a bunch of moves he did not understand; he came back with a better understanding of how to do what he already does well, a realization that never hits some pass rushers.

He is famously hard to please.

“He is extremely competitive,” Bradley said. “He brings an energy to our team, to our unit. That same energy you guys feel when you visit with him. You can tell there’s a definite passion for the game, and it’s pretty cool. It doesn’t matter when he got drafted, how much money he’s making, he loves the game, and he plays accordingly.”

Latu won enough snaps against Bolles that he caught just about everybody’s attention, but he was frustrated that he never actually got his hands on one of Denver’s quarterbacks. Pressures are good, but Latu always wants the sack.

“I wanted to get a cleaner win and get there,” Latu said. “That’s frustrating, a little bit, in that way, but I felt like I was causing pressures.”

Latu’s preseason debut was just the first step in the next phase of his development.

The Colts are spending the next week and a half in competitive situations, taking on Arizona and Cincinnati in joint practices before playing the Cardinals and Bengals in preseason games.

Latu is going to get plenty of chances to go against starting-caliber tackles.

“This week will be good, because he’ll go against a 1, he’ll get a lot of playing time and he’ll take that next step, and realize, once we get to the regular season, how teams are game-planning for him, where he’s got to have counters and things like that,” Bradley said. “He’s right where we expected him to be.”

Ready for just about anything.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts first-rounder Laiatu Latu right at home in NFL preseason debut