Donald, Brockers

Agamemnon wrote:

Because he does the dirty work in taking up double teams, Brockers’ strong play doesn’t always show up in the box score. And the defensive tackle said last week he’s more than OK with that.

“I play the big man game, he plays the little man game,” Brockers said of his and Donald’s roles. “I have embraced my position and I think I can be the best nose tackle in this league.”

And Brockers showed just how far he’s progressed on Sunday, when he led the team with 13 tackles, according to the coaches’ film evaluation.

So happy that Brockers is getting some love.

He has been widely–even among some fans–disparaged by people looking for fireworks from the guy who does the grunt work to make fireworks possible in someone else!

Michael Brockers lets it go so he doesn’t get lost on Rams’ D-line

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/21442/michael-brockers-lets-it-go-so-he-doesnt-get-lost-on-rams-dominant-d-line

EARTH CITY, Mo. — As part of a defensive line tradition before every game, the St. Louis Rams have a conversation about which of them is going to step forward and set the tone for the day.

Those conversations often spawn a healthy competition among one of the league’s most talented position groups, pushing each member forward in an on-going race to the ball. As the resident nose tackle on a line that boasts ends Robert Quinn and Chris Long and Aaron Donald, Michael Brockers knows that the nature of his job will often mean he’s not going to win the race.

“We talk about who is going to eat today?” Brockers said. “There’s probably no food left at the end of the day when you have Rob and Aaron and Chris. I’m just trying to get the little scraps I can, man.”

Brockers feasted as much or more than his fellow linemates last week against Seattle. According to the coaches review of the film, he had 13 tackles, which is rare for someone playing Brockers’ position. None of those were more important than the fourth-and-1 stop he and Donald combined for on Seattle back Marshawn Lynch to cement the team’s overtime victory.

Before the play, Brockers lobbied defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to go back to a defensive scheme he used earlier in the game but Brockers didn’t play as well as he’d hoped. That Brockers and the Rams knew what Seattle was going to do is actually not the most important part of the play.

“The last play of the game spoke for itself,” Brockers said. “Early in the game I had a bad play on that same play. I wasn’t in my gap or something happened where I messed it up. I told coach, ‘You have got to trust me on the next one and next time you call that call I will be in the backfield and I will do my assignment,’ and it showed up on the last play of the game. I told him to call it and he came back to it and I did my job.”

That Brockers relentlessly pushed for Williams to go back to a play he didn’t handle properly the first time represented an important step forward in Brockers’ development. It’s easy to forget that when the Rams drafted Brockers in the first round of the 2012 NFL draft, he was only 21 years old.

By his own admission, Brockers has struggled with forgetting about the bad plays and moving on to the next snap when something goes wrong. Developing a short memory was a point of emphasis for him during the offseason.

“I think I just let it go,” Brockers said. “Usually I get in my own way. I’m very critical of myself so if I have a bad play, I’m stuck on that bad play for awhile. I just let it go and ran to the ball, tried to get as many tackles as possible.”

Having the competition with his fellow defensive linemen doesn’t hurt. Brockers is one game into his fourth NFL season and though the Rams have already picked up his fifth-year option for 2016, a big season would go a long way in solidifying his future with the franchise. For the record, both parties have expressed interest in keeping Brockers a Ram.

And though the nature of his position and the supernova that is Donald conspire to keep Brockers out of the spotlight, linebacker James Laurinaitis is quick to point out that Brockers is a valuable piece to making the defense work.

“(Donald) is special and I think people forget about (Brockers),” Laurinaitis said. “Mike has had a really good offseason overall. He came into OTAs with a phenomenal attitude, worked extremely hard this offseason, has taken practice seriously and you’ve seen his growth through camp. He’s motivated. I think he’s starting to understand that he can dominate guys when he wants to.”

Make no mistake, Brockers wants to do just that and if he can feast like his fellow line mates, all the better.

“I still have time to grow, that’s what’s crazy,” Brockers said. “It’s funny to say but I’m just now starting to believe in my technique, in my pass rush, not being so hard on myself that I get in my own way. This year is a big year for me. I can feel it. Playing with all these guys makes it easy and I’m just now coming into my own.”

Jeff Fisher: I’ve never seen a tackle dominate like Aaron Donald

Michael David Smith

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/category/rumor-mill/page/2/

Rams coach Jeff Fisher was an assistant coach on the 1985 Bears, and on the great Eagles defenses of the late 1980s. He knows a great defense when he sees it.

And Fisher says that when it comes to defensive dominance, he’s never seen anything like his own second-year defensive tackle, Aaron Donald.

“The way Aaron Donald played, I can’t remember seeing a tackle have an impact on a game the way Aaron Donald did in this game,” Fisher said on Mike & Mike.

Fisher noted that Donald blew up the Seahawks’ final fourth-and-1 play in overtime, but Fisher says it goes way beyond just that, and that Donald was having an outstanding game up to that point as well. Fisher even went so far as to mention Reggie White, perhaps the greatest defensive lineman ever to play the game, when talking about the way Donald affects opposing offenses.

Donald was the defensive rookie of the year last year and is off to a phenomenal start to his second season, and he looks like a brilliant draft choice by the Rams as the 13th overall pick in last year’s NFL draft. In fact, it may be time to ask what on earth those 12 teams that passed on Donald were thinking: In his final season at Pittsburgh Donald won every major award that a defensive lineman can win in college football (the Nagurski Trophy and Bednarik Award for best defensive player, the Outland Trophy for best lineman and the Lombardi Award for best lineman or linebacker), and then put on an amazing display of athleticism at the Scouting Combine. Some teams thought that at 6-foot-1 and 285 pounds he was too small to play defensive tackle in the NFL; those teams ought to re-assess how they evaluate talent.

Of course, the Rams were one of the 12 teams that passed on Donald before using him with their second first-round pick. If the Rams had known what kind of player he was, they wouldn’t have passed on him the first time. They’re lucky he was still available, because he’s turning into one of the best players in the NFL

Donald: I Still Don’t Feel Like I’ve Played My Best Football

Aaron Donald Press Conference – 9/18

Defensive lineman Aaron Donald talks about making plays and evaluates last Sunday’s season-opening win over the Seahawks.

http://www.stlouisrams.com/videos/videos/Aaron_Donald_Press_Conference_918/47d1d2fb-192c-4646-9ca9-40efc0af685e

InvaderRam wrote:

this is where it really gets fun, guys. to be able to watch these guys grow game by game. no idea where it’s going to go, but the potential there is enormous.

That was a good post.

A good optimist’s manifesto.