AD

He was a great draft pick.

But to me the steal of their draft was E.J. Gaines. To get that guy in the 6th round was incredible.

This was pretty good draft for the team.

Donald, Gaines and Mason have been outstanding.

Robinson is coming along.

No complaints.

Every freaking week, that guy makes my jaw drop.

And this from a guy who watched tap on Suh and thought he’d be the next Sapp.

Now, I still think Suh had the slightly better tape coming out of college, is bigger and stronger and does things that still defy explanation for me.

That said, I think NO OTHER DT who’s come out since Sapp… that includes Suh, McCoy (who I was 100% wrong about. I said he was a total bust coming out, so if I get credit for calling hits, I should take credit for my misses as well and McCoy is easily my biggest miss), Geno Atkins… NO OTHER has come out and IMPROVED at the RATE that Aaron Donald has.

Aaron Donald from his first game where he didn’t start to the Raider game is almost an entirely different player. He looks like he’s got 3 seasons in the league at this point. Almost… His vector at this point looks to be at LEAST All-Pro if not All-Decade. It’s just that damn good.

I thought I wouldn’t see another DT half as good as Suh for another Decade. I think Aaron Donald has the capacity to be better as an all around DT (there are aspects to his game that Suh is still better) and that’s just outstanding…

http://ramblinfan.com/2014/12/08/quick-thoughts-st-louis-rams-win-washington-redskins/

According to Pro Football Focus, Aaron Donald is the No.2 overall graded defensive lineman in the league this season, trailing only likely Defensive Player of the Year, J.J. Watt.

absolutely love this year’s draft. i wouldn’t trade robinson or donald for anybody else in this year’s draft. and this was one heckuva draft!

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by InvaderRam.

Donald making run at defensive rookie of the year

By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/donald-making-run-at-defensive-rookie-of-the-year/article_3f95449b-f49c-5916-bd6d-d1f053b55b8e.html

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.”

from Defensive rookie of the year candidates

By Marty Callinan, ESPN Stats & Information

http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/100173/defensive-rookie-of-the-year-candidates

Rams DT Aaron Donald leads an impressive group of Defensive Rookie of the Year candidates. As the NFL season closes in on the end of the regular season, ESPN Stats & Info looks at some of the leading candidates for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

DT Aaron Donald, Rams

Forget about Defensive Rookie of the Year for a minute. Donald has been one of the best defensive tackles in all of football this season.

Donald has 8.0 sacks while lined up as an interior pass rusher, trailing only Gerald McCoy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the most in the NFL this season (8.5) and Ndamukong Suh for the most by a rookie in the last seven seasons (10.0 in 2010).

Opponents have a Total QBR of 44 against the Rams in 388 dropbacks with Donald on the field. That would rank fourth in the NFL. The Rams have allowed a Total QBR of 74 in 147 dropbacks with Donald off the field, which would rank 31st.

Signature play: With just less than two minutes remaining in a Week 14 matchup against the Washington Redskins, Donald lined up as the left defensive tackle against right guard Chris Chester. Donald pushed Chester straight back eight yards as if the veteran weren’t even there and sacked Robert Griffin III.

bnw wrote:

Remember when AD stood for Austin Davis?

lol

Boy, I don’t know why they didn’t plug him in immediately as the longsnapper.

Mayock’s Slant: Aaron Donald tackles to the top

Mike Mayock takes a look at St. Louis Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald’s rookie season to see why he has been so explosive.

http://www.stlouisrams.com/videos/videos/Mayocks-Slant-Aaron-Donald-tackles-to-the-top/f35fb603-6698-4a0a-be5f-b70947a13763

nittany ram wrote:

Is Quinn still the best player on this defense?

—

wv wrote:

Yes.
w
v

—

I would answer it this way.

Is Quinn the Rams best defensive player?

Yes.

Is Donald the Rams best defensive player?

Yes.

So what does all this mean about Brockers? He isn’t really our future nose tackle is he?

from off the net

—

aeneas1

Aaron Donald

the gang at pff has donald ranked first among all defensive tackles with a score of 32.4 through week 15 – the 32.4 would be the 8th highest year-end score pff has ever given a dt since it set up shop in 2007. also, fwiw, 6 of the 7 defensive tackles that finished the season ranked first on pff’s scorecard made the pro bowl the same year, while 5 of the 7 have been given all pro nods at some point in their career.

one of the things that jumps out the most when looking at donald’s pff profile is his consistent play from game to game – it’s not uncommon to find players with good pff scores that have booked bad games, but their strong play in other games masks their bad outings when looking at their overall score. but that’s not the case with donald, he’s played well all year, he’s been the model of solid play and consistency.

in fact donald only played 43% of the snaps defended in games 1-4. but from game 5 on he’s been the primary defensive tackle, the guy with the most snaps.you have to wonder if donald would have been given the chance to play as much as he has since game 4 had carrington not been slowed with a bad knee and inactive for game 5.