Before Khary Wilder got upgraded to a five-star recruit, the last five-star defensive lineman to commit to the Ohio State football program was J.T. Tuimoloau. He committed in July of 2021, which was extremely late to sign with a program. Still, he showed flashes of greatness with the Buckeyes.
His performance against Penn State in 2022 was perhaps the greatest game of his life. In that game, he had six tackles, three tackles for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and two interceptions, including one for a touchdown. That was the pinnacle of his career with the Ohio State Buckeyes.
A strong finish to last season en route to a national championship helped Tuimoloau become a second-round pick with the Indianapolis Colts. His consistency has always been an issue, and that has carried over to the NFL because he's having problems seeing the field in Indy.
Former Ohio State football player J.T. Tuimoloau has been a healthy scratch in two of the first three NFL weeks
Tuimoloau was put on the bench for both Week 1 and Week 3, when the Colts played, despite being perfectly healthy. He only played a few snaps against the Broncos in Week 2, as well. Indianapolis is 3-0 this season, and they haven't gotten any contributions from him at all.
So why isn't Tuimoloau seeing the field? Is he that bad in practice? Or is he actually still suffering some issues from a knee injury he suffered in preseason? Either way, this is about the worst start that he could have had for his career. He should be on the field for a really good team.
Tuimoloau needs to work harder in practice to show the coaches that he is worthy of being on the field and contributing to wins. Right now, that's clearly not happening. The Buckeyes had issues with his consistency during his collegiate career, but his flashes overshadowed that.
The NFL is a different beast, and Tuimoloau is starting to learn that.