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Jim Thomas
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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.”
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
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.”
