PFF on Donald…the praise continues

One reason the L.A. Rams are 3-1? They have the best player in the NFL.

Mike Renner

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2016/10/04/one-reason-the-l-a-rams-are-3-1-they-have-the-best-player-in-the-nfl/?tid=pm_sports_pop_b

Within a matter of hours following their season debut on Monday Night Football, the Los Angeles Rams were the laughing stock of the NFL. In prime time they failed to score a single point on offense and surrendered 28 to a Blaine Gabbert-led San Francisco 49ers team. Meanwhile their No. 1 overall pick and supposed future of the franchise, Jared Goff, looked on from the sideline in street clothes.

What’s happened since though has been nearly unexplainable. The Rams have rattled off three straight wins, two coming against divisional rivals Seattle and Arizona who both made the playoffs a season ago. For a head coach that’s been lampooned in the national media for being unable to evolve, the irony is that the Rams owe their current win streak to a shift in coaching philosophy.

That, and the benefit of employing the best player in the entire NFL: Defensive tackle Aaron Donald.

Let’s take a look at the two biggest factors behind the Rams’ surprising 3-1 start, and how the two fit so well together.

A shift in scheme

Instead of inventing new coverage principles, Fisher and company turned back the clock to a tried-and-true defensive scheme from the 1970s.

When Lovie Smith was fired from his head coaching position with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after last season, many thought it signaled the death of the Tampa-2 defense, a scheme in which two safeties are responsible for the two deep zones with the cornerbacks and linebackers responsible for five underneath zones. The truth is that the coverage scheme as a philosophy was already all but abandoned. Tampa Bay was running cover-1 more often than the scheme with the city’s namesake in 2015 as the Tampa-2 accounted for only 29 percent of their coverage – still a much higher rate than anyone else in the league though. The defense that rose to fame when Tony Dungy was hired to the same position 20 years prior was now a coverage employed almost exclusively on third-and-long and end-of-game situations.

That is until Jeff Fisher and defensive coordinator Greg Williams altered their game plans after their Week 1 beatdown. Over the last three games, the Rams have dialed the Tampa-2 on 37.4 percent of their coverage snaps (outside of goal line situations) – the highest rate in the NFL and easily the Rams’ most employed scheme. It would be one thing if the Rams were a middle-of-the-road defense, but the results with it are eye opening. In those three games opposing quarterbacks have attempted 51 passes against the Rams Cover-2 resulting in only 31 completions, 266 yards, zero touchdowns, and two interceptions to show for it. That’s a quarterback rating of 58.1 against the likes Russell Wilson, Jameis Winston and Carson Palmer.

The Tampa-2 fell out of favor because it puts a lot of stress on the coverage abilities of linebackers — responsible for a wide expanse in the middle of the field — against a number of increasingly swift slot receivers and tight ends. Those players in the modern era can cover ground much faster than their predecessors. But this is not much of a problem for the Rams, however. In fact, it’s a perfect fit given their rangy linebacker duo of Alec Ogletree and Mark Barron can only be a good thing. It also alleviates the burden on the secondary after losing cornerback Janoris Jenkins and safety Rodney McLeod in the offseason.

Outside of the coverage aspect, there is still one last thing the defense requires to run properly: a dominant defensive line against both the run and pass. Against the run, keeping both safeties deep means there’s one fewer man in the box and the middle linebacker can’t play nearly as downhill because of his deep coverage responsibilities against play action. Against the pass the Tampa-2 requires defenders to drop to a spot instead of matching up with receivers, making the defense susceptible to spacing issues when certain route combinations pull defenders to the edges of their zones. To counteract this, receivers are jammed at the line of scrimmage to slow down that pulling effect, but the defensive line still needs to be getting home and forcing the ball out quickly, as big holes in the zone will eventually be created.

And that’s where the NFL’s best player comes in.

Donald’s dominance

Lucky enough for the Rams they currently have the single most adept player in the NFL at rushing the passer and stopping the run. And with J.J. Watt out for the season it really isn’t close. The kind of impact defensive tackle Aaron Donald is having snap-to-snap from his spot exclusively between the tackles is unlike anything we’ve ever seen. When I talked about the Rams’ need to force the ball out quickly, it’s Donald who has done just that. He may only have two sacks, but he’s on pace for 100 total pressures on the season and has been unblockable in one-on-one situations. In 10 years of data, Watt’s 2014 season is the only one that’s cracked 100 pressures (119).

The biggest concerns about Donald coming out of college were if he’d be able to hold up against the run with his small stature (6-foot-1, 285 pounds) in the NFL. Those concerns have been proven dead wrong at this point. Even at sub-300 pounds, Donald could likely be one of the best nose tackles in the NFL if he wanted to be and he routinely plays there with 58 of his 232 snaps coming over the center this season. Through four games he’s made a stop on 14.5 percent of his snaps, the third highest rate in the NFL. As mentioned before, stopping the run with the safeties removed from the box is a difficult task for most teams in the NFL. So far, on the 29 carries against the Rams this year where that’s been the case, opposing offenses are averaging only 3.28 yards per carry.

On paper, the Rams defense got worse over the course of the last offseason. On the field, that hasn’t been the case. For that, Los Angeles has coaching and Aaron Donald to thank.

Donald vid referred to in the last article (the Rosenthal).

http://www.nfl.com/videos/los-angeles-rams/0ap3000000724805/A-quarter-in-the-life-of-Aaron-Donald

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-practicereport/Practice-Report-118-Defense-Looking-for-More-Takeaways/aafa40e5-3b41-4a09-92bb-6ee986bcfbee

Simmons

HOW GOOD IS DONALD?

Defensive tackle Aaron Donald registered another stellar performance in Sunday’s game, recording 2.0 sacks and three tackles for loss. It’s the kind of performance Donald has put up week after week, which is why he’s part of the conversation of being perhaps the best defensive player in the league — regardless of position.

“I’d vote for him. There are a lot of good defensive players in the league right now,” Fisher said. “Obviously, I’m a lot closer to him than anybody else is, but when you watch the things that he does, it’s really remarkable. We’ll see what happens, he needs to finish strong the second half of the year.”

“He’s definitely getting better every year that he’s been in the league,” Ogletree said. “He was doing some of the same stuff he’s doing now as a rookie, but he’s understanding a lot more [how offenses] want to block him. I feel like his first couple of years, he was playing off pure talent and making plays. But now, he’s becoming more mentally into the game, and understanding a lot of stuff.”

According to the Rams’ internal stats, Donald leads the team with 5.0 sacks, 25 quarterback pressures, and 15 quarterback hits. All of those numbers are fairly outrageous for an interior player halfway through the season.

“The best way I can describe is just consistent week after week after week,” Fisher said. “The tackles for losses and the pressure that he’s putting on the passer, the hits on the quarterbacks — they’re just consistent week after week. It’s amazing to see him play at that level every single play — come out, catch his breath, go back in and make another play.”

And from what Ogletree described, playing with Donald in front of you is probably just as fun as you’d think it is.

“It helps me out a lot because I know they have to worry about him so much, and if they don’t get a hand on him, he’s going to pretty much destroy the play before anybody else,” Ogletree said. “So it helps me out a lot just being able to work off him and also do my job, too.”

Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams: Aaron Donald ‘does things I cannot coach’

JACK WANG

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/donald-735217-rams-defensive.html

THOUSAND OAKS – Geno Atkins. Gerald McCoy. John Randle.

Those are just three of the players Aaron Donald was compared to before and during his rookie season – a trifecta that has combined for 15 Pro Bowls. Halfway through his third season, it’s clear that the Rams’ star defensive tackle could end his career as the best of the bench.

Which is why defensive coordinator Gregg Williams never took the bait. In 2014, the media pestered him for comparisons; he declined. In 2015, he did so again. On Friday, he explained that he had done so to allow Donald – now arguably the best player in the NFL – to chart a path for himself.

“He is his own guy, and he does things I cannot coach,” Williams said. “I can help, maybe speed up a decision, but he has instincts that are rare.

“Not only does he have athletic ability and strength, height and weight and things, but he has instincts that you don’t come around very much. He’s been playing very well, especially as emphasis on offensive protections and emphasis in blocking schemes are going towards him, he’s still being able to find a way to beat it.”

Donald’s impact on the game wasn’t fully captured through the first three weeks of the season, when he went without a sack despite generating constant pressure on the pocket. That’s changed since the start of October. He broke the drought with 1.5 sacks in a road win over the Cardinals, a total he matched again through his next two outings.

Last Sunday, the Rams lost despite his brilliance. Against the Panthers, Donald notched two sacks, both of which could’ve made a difference if the offense had been more capable. His first – on third-and-9 at the Rams’ 30 – dropped quarterback Cam Newton back 10 yards, knocking Carolina out of field-goal range. The second, early in the fourth quarter, forced the Panthers to settle for three points – and likely would’ve caused a fumble on almost anyone other than Newton.

“Just consistent week after week after week,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said of Donald. “The tackles for losses and the pressure that he’s putting on the passer, the hits on the quarterbacks, they’re just consistent week after week. It’s amazing to see him play at that level every single play – come out, catch his breath, go back in and make another play.”

Donald began his career by becoming the Defensive Rookie of the Year and making back-to-back Pro Bowls. At 25 years old, can he officially claim the title of being the league’s top defensive player?

The absence of injured Texans star J.J. Watt, who claimed the award in three of the past four seasons, helps Donald’s chances. But also in the race with the Rams’ defensive lineman are such players as Broncos linebacker Von Miller – who has 9.5 sacks – and Kansas City cornerback Marcus Peters, who has a league-high five interceptions.

“I’d vote for him,” Fisher said of Donald. “There are a lot of good defensive players in the league right now. Obviously, I’m a lot closer to him than anybody else is, but when you watch the things that he does, it’s really remarkable. We’ll see what happens.”