Donald making run at defensive rookie of the year

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As Rams defensive line coach Mike Waufle tells the story, you had to see it to believe it when watching tape of Aaron Donald in college and at the Senior Bowl.

“I was sitting there at the scouting combine with (general manager) Les Snead and coach (Jeff) Fisher,” Waufle recalled. “We’re all sitting there together, and we’re going through the interview’’ with Donald.

“The first thing I asked him was: ‘Who taught you technique?’” Waufle said. “I was curious.”

And impressed.

NFL players spend countless hours working on technique, learning how to use their hands to fend off blockers or set them up. But Donald came out of the University of Pittsburgh looking like he’d played in the NFL for several seasons.

His technique came courtesy of Demond Gibson, Donald’s high school coach in Pittsburgh.

Donald already had much of the rest of the skill set required to succeed in the NFL: the strength, leverage and, of course, his quick first step.

“He’s extremely quick. He has one of the fastest 10-yard (dash) times that I’ve ever timed,” Waufle said.

Waufle’s always on the floor at the NFL scouting combine in February running the defensive line drills.

Donald’s 40-yard dash time itself was an eye-opening 4.68 seconds, the fifth-highest time of any defensive lineman at the 2014 combine, ends included.

The first 10 yards of that 40 is what caused Waufle to do a double take.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. This is unbelievable,’” Waufle recalled. “He has that initial quickness that people have a hard time with. He’s got natural leverage. He’s extremely strong.”


All of that helps explain why Donald has made the transition from college to the NFL without a blink. And why he has to be considered a leading contender for the league’s defensive rookie of the year award.

“No question,” Waufle said. “I mean, he’s one of the better defensive tackles in the league, period, regardless of anything.”

The numbers back that up. With two games to play this season, Donald has eight sacks, more than any rookie defensive player regardless of position. Among rookies, the next-highest total entering Sunday’s games was San Francisco’s Aaron Lynch — with five. And he didn’t have any sacks in the 49ers’ loss to Seattle.


OPPOSITION TAKING NOTICE

Donald’s total already is the highest for a Rams defensive tackle since D’Marco Farr had 8½ sacks in the 1999 Super Bowl championship season. Four years earlier, in 1995, Farr had the highest sack total for a Rams defensive tackle during the team’s 20 seasons in St. Louis — 11½.

Donald also has a team-high 16 tackles for loss, and ranks third in quarterback pressures on the squad with 25. His 64 tackles is second among Rams defensive linemen to William Hayes’ 70.

With that kind of production, there isn’t a head coach, offensive coordinator or offensive line coach on the Rams’ schedule who doesn’t know all about Donald.

“He’s just a relentless rusher,” Washington coach Jay Gruden said prior to the Rams’ 24-0 victory over the Redskins on Dec. 7. “Man, he gets straight penetration, uses his hands extremely well in the pass, and really holds up in the run game.

“I think the concern of him coming out was maybe he wouldn’t hold up in the running game on double-teams and all of that, but he does a good job in the run game also. Very disruptive player, and that’s what you want from your three-technique.

“Everybody wants to talk about (Robert) Quinn and how good he is, and deservedly so. But Donald has a lot to do with that pass rush, also.”

Gruden said he was hoping Donald would somehow fall to Washington in the second round of the draft last May.

No such luck. The Rams took him at No. 13 overall.

Last Tuesday on a conference call with St. Louis reporters, Arizona coach Bruce Arians was asked what concerns him about Donald.

“Ha, ha. Everything,” Arians replied. “I like everything about him, and all of it concerns me. He’s a high-motor, very talented young guy that I was really sad to see go the Rams, ‘cause we’ve got to play him twice every year.”

Keep in mind, Donald has put up the numbers he has even though he was a rotation player for the first four games of the season, playing a fair amount but still playing behind starters Michael Brockers and Kendall Langford.

But in Game 5, the Rams’ 31-17 Monday night loss to San Francisco, Donald made his first NFL start (ahead of Langford) and has been starting ever since.

Entering this week’s home finale against the New York Giants, Donald has been on the field for 607 defensive plays. That’s second only to Quinn’s 694 plays among the Rams’ nine defensive linemen.


SMOOTH TRANSITION

Some observers wondered how the undersized Donald (6 feet 1, 285 pounds) would hold up over the course of a long NFL season. But he has shown no signs of hitting the rookie wall.

“Just the normal things, but just like any other football player,” the low-key Donald said when asked about any aches or pains. “I feel good. The season’s gone by pretty fast.”

This is a man who loves to compete and loves playing football. So much so, that showing up to Rams Park every day doesn’t seem like a job to him.

“Not at all,” he said. “Any time you get to do something you love doing with great guys — always cracking jokes with each other, having fun — it makes the day go a lot faster.”

The transition has been about as smooth as possible from college to the NFL. Of course, it helps when your technique is so good that your D-line coach instructs you simply to “keep doing what you’re doing” when you arrive.

That approach has worked well enough to put Donald in position to become the Rams’ first NFL defensive rookie of the year since linebacker Isiah Robertson in 1971. Even the modest Donald admits —for just a second or two — that’s something for which to shoot.

“That’d be an amazing accomplishment,” he said. “But right now I’ve got more games left. Right now I’m just worried about the season. After these games are over, then that’s when I’ll start worrying about that.”
 

RamFan503

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I gotta say that Jrry was the first person I saw even talk about Donald. I had no idea who he was. Even after checking out tape on him, I thought - meh - too small for the position at this level. The more the year went on, I started warming to him. I still don't know that I would have taken him. SO glad I'm not our GM.
 

bluecollarram

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This young man was my favorite pick in the draft. He has such an outstanding mix of talents that any team could choose him and be correct. Had he gone to a 3-4 team people would probably say he will be a great DE in their system. I heard some say "too small, he won't be able to hold up" well if he were a typical DT I may agree. Aaron Donald is not typical. Like other top prospects in school teams planned for him but his play still stood out, he may not have made the stop but regularly disrupted so many plays that the OC's game plan only partially worked.
Just look at the number of plays he has made this year where he didn't touch the ball carrier, but his explosion into the backfield "blew up" the entire play. What I hear is he loves to study film, with a couple years worth of experience OMG. Bottom line this young man is a football player. If, somehow, he doesn't win DROY that would suck. IMO though he will be All Pro enough times that the rookie award will just become a small trophy on his mantle. If the "voters" decide to go with a LB again because their numbers "justify" the award then so be it, but any body that watches him play can see he is way more than stats. And his stats are great.
 

PowayRamFan

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He may be my favorite Ram at this point, has greatness written all over him. Not very often you feel this way about a player...
 

jap

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As I stated before, Aaron is a turbo-charged version of D'Marco Farr. All the things D'Marco used to do---quick penetrations that busted offensive plays before they got started, high number of sacks from the tackle position, dropping players for losses behind the original LOS---Aaron seems to do 2-3 times as much.

What the hell will this Horns DL look like with a healthy Chris Long, Aaron, the Incredible Brock, and The Mighty Quinn going at it for 16 games next year?

The Rams DL of Lamar Lundy, Rosey Grier, Merlin Olsen, and Deacon Jones (1963--1966) was called by no less an astute observer than Dick Butkus, "the most dominant line in football history." Although they were not the first to carry the moniker, the Fearsome Foursome (that distinction belonged to the 1957 New York Giants DL), they were without question the most famous by far. Will the 2015 Rams DL draw favorable comparisons to Butkus' choice for "the most dominant line in football history"?
 

Corbin

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I love him for not only his greatness on the field but his very humble approach to things soaking up everything like a sponge. What better place to do that than the talent an coaching in STL? He reminds me a lot of a Reggie White type of player, humble and quite, not to flashy but will wreck your entire offense if you let him. I think if he gets another 2 sacks the rest of the year and continues to play the way he has he is a lock for rookie DPOY maybe even a Pro Bowl.
 

Alan

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"Gruden said he was hoping Donald would somehow fall to Washington in the second round of the draft last May."
I can't believe he really said this. Even for just BSing this is really stupid.
 

Jumava1968

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This young man will be a fixture on our DL for years.He has the potential to be elite in this league and he's off to a great start.
 

Thordaddy

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Donald already had much of the rest of the skill set required to succeed in the NFL: the strength, leverage and, of course, his quick first step.

“He’s extremely quick. He has one of the fastest 10-yard (dash) times that I’ve ever timed,” Waufle said.


This is why I say:
Fish should give him a look as a short yardage back especially in goal line situations. BECAUSE he is short he can run behind his pads easily and in the I he will be running pretty well the 10 yard dash to get through the hole delivering nearly a third more ft. pounds of power than Stacy at the point of contact and if they decide to run off tackle or even outside his 40 time is only .04 slower than Stacy's high 40 time at the combine.
We got inside the 10 and stalled on two drives last Thursday and settled for FG's , had they been TD's is there any doubt we'd have beaten the Cards ?
 

Athos

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Donald already had much of the rest of the skill set required to succeed in the NFL: the strength, leverage and, of course, his quick first step.

“He’s extremely quick. He has one of the fastest 10-yard (dash) times that I’ve ever timed,” Waufle said.

This is why I say:
Fish should give him a look as a short yardage back especially in goal line situations. BECAUSE he is short he can run behind his pads easily and in the I he will be running pretty well the 10 yard dash to get through the hole delivering nearly a third more ft. pounds of power than Stacy at the point of contact and if they decide to run off tackle or even outside his 40 time is only .04 slower than Stacy's high 40 time at the combine.
We got inside the 10 and stalled on two drives last Thursday and settled for FG's , had they been TD's is there any doubt we'd have beaten the Cards ?

Heck, Big Shelly has been used for TDs for the Jets and Watt for the Texans.

Who'd want to see Donald plowing through the line at them on offense?
 

fearsomefour

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Jrry gets the credit from me as well.
I wasn't aware of Donald either. After watching some film of him I bought in. I was thinking a D'Marco Farr kind of player....turns out he is more of a Warren Sapp dominator. I was surprised we for him at #13 but I am sure glad we did.
 

Boffo97

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I do wonder if Manziel's bad performance last night finally stuck the fork in the discussion of "Yeah, Donald's good, but we should have taken Manziel..."
 

junkman

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For the fans of PFF and other stats, Donald's DROY competition is pretty much down to Chris Borland and Khalil Mack.
  • Donald's +2.0 against Arizona puts him at +32.4 on the year in 626 snaps, leading ALL DT/NTs by a nice margin (McCoy at +28.7, Suh at +27.7). 2nd best of the rookies is Justin Ellis at -2.3. Donald's 33 stops leads DT/NTs. His first official signature stat is his 8 sacks (to go along with 5 hits and 25 hurries). He only has 4 missed tackles on the year. Amazingly, his "stops" (33) is just two shy of the sum of his tackles (27) and sacks (8). That is, when Donald makes a tackle, you can pretty much figure that it's an offensive failure. Donald is not getting driven 5 yards off the ball and making his tackles on RBs as they are running by, getting dragged for 3 yards. He's getting behind the LOS, finding his prey, and dragging them down for losses. Using a more official stat, Donald's TFLs of 18 *** is in a 3 way tie for 3rd in the league (along with Suh and Kerrigan) behind JJ Watt and Justin Houston.
  • Khalil Mack's +2.0 at Kansas City puts him at 34.5 on the year on 921 snaps, 2nd overall among 3-4 OLBs to Justin Houston at +43.4. 2nd best rookie 3-4 OLB is Aaron Lynch at +7.7. PFF credits Mack with 3 sacks, 8 QB hits, 35 (!) QB hurries to go along with 55 tackles, 43 of which PFF graded as "stops". He does have 11 missed tackles. He also has 15 TFLs.
  • Chris Borland's dark house candidacy is fading with an unremarkable +0.3 against Seattle, taking about half the team's snaps before leaving the game with an ankle injury. He's now at +19.8 on the year on 487 snaps, 3rd among ILBs. His signature stat is his 82 tackles, where PFF graded 54 of them as "stops". He has 8 missed tackles on the year. He does have 12 TFLs. He only has 1 QB sack on the year.
My best guess, Donald's signature stats - 8 sacks (leads all rookies) and 18 TFLs - will carry Donald to the DROY award. The fact that he's doing this from the DT/NT positions which usually don't get this kind of high impact production is especially impressive. It'll also help Donald that there is a new perception of the Rams D as a whole, that it is scary and emerging e.g. 2 consecutive shutouts, 3 games with no TDs. You can also point to a general turnaround, that the Rams D improved significantly when Donald took his place in the starting lineup and his snap counts increased around game 5.

Hurting Donald, he plays for the Rams e.g. compared to Borland for the 49ers. Yes, that's a factor.

~~~~

** Side note, PFF rates EJ Gains as the top rookie CB of guys who've taken at least half of the team's snaps, with a +4.6 on the year. Expand the list to guys who've only taken 25% of the snaps and he drops to third. But impressive performance on the year by Gaines, nonetheless.

*** http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/player-tackles-for-loss/2014/
 

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Hurting Donald, he plays for the Rams e.g. compared to Borland for the 49ers. Yes, that's a factor.
Getting two more sacks will all but seal it. After all, Suh got DROY playing for the Lions.
 

junkman

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Getting two more sacks will all but seal it. After all, Suh got DROY playing for the Lions.

Suh had 11 sacks his rookie year, which goes to show how the AP (at least back in 2010) really liked their public signature stats. Interestingly, his PFF grade was only -0.7, which suggests that he was all about the sacks / splash plays. -9.3 on run defense to offset his +9.4 on pass rush.
 

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Suh had 11 sacks his rookie year, which goes to show how the AP (at least back in 2010) really liked their public signature stats. Interestingly, his PFF grade was only -0.7, which suggests that he was all about the sacks / splash plays. -9.3 on run defense to offset his +9.4 on pass rush.
Yep. And unfortunately, it's splash and flash that gets you the hardware.
And are you sure it was 11? I count 10 at multiple sites.
 

Blue and Gold

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Suh had 11 sacks his rookie year, which goes to show how the AP (at least back in 2010) really liked their public signature stats. Interestingly, his PFF grade was only -0.7, which suggests that he was all about the sacks / splash plays. -9.3 on run defense to offset his +9.4 on pass rush.
Suh had issues with getting fooled and did until this year. He was easily traped because he got penetration and they'd trap him and run to his gap. Also, he drew a LOT of double teams and he'd get turned, not stay square. I don't subscribe to PFF grades, but i wated nearly every down for Suh in 2010-2012. Not so much last year or this. But he was a liability versus run his first few years but a great, consistent pass rusher, regardless of sacks.
 

junkman

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Yep. And unfortunately, it's splash and flash that gets you the hardware.
And are you sure it was 11? I count 10 at multiple sites.

I was just using the PFF sack totals which do vary slightly from the official totals, I've never bothered to figure out why.

But if the official total is 10, that's what I'd go with. To your point, 2 more sacks takes Donald officially to 10... done deal I'd say. That is, unless Mack totally goes off in the last 2 games.