Donald

Aaron Donald discusses what it’s like to play for ‘genius’ Sean McVay

Cameron DaSilva

Aaron Donald discusses what it's like to play for 'genius' Sean McVay

Sean McVay is widely viewed as one of the best coaches in the NFL despite only being 33 years old. He’s already won two division titles in two years and has led the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl, ranking second in the league in scoring and yards since 2017.

An offensive wizard, McVay has been pegged as a genius by those inside and outside the confines of the Rams’ facility. Aaron Donald is unsurprisingly one of the people who views McVay that way, saying he knows everything about football.

“He’s a genius. When it comes to football, that man knows everything you need to know about football. He’s a genius,” Donald said on SB Nation Radio. “He’s definitely the type of coach you want to go out there and battle for. I love Coach to death.”

McVay is more than just a bright offensive mind. He’s created a culture in Los Angeles that’s predicated on accountability and putting the team first. It’s helped the Rams land free agents such as Eric Weddle, Ndamukong Suh and Clay Matthews in the last couple of years.

Donald has built a close relationship with McVay, saying the coach was one of the reasons he wanted to stay in L.A. long-term when he was going through his holdout.

“When I was going through the contract situation, I sat down with him and told him face-to-face, ‘This is where I want to be. As long as you’re the head coach, I want to be a part of this.’ I knew he built something special and I wanted to be a part of building that with him,” Donald added. “He’s definitely a coach you want to play for, you want to grind for, you want to win for. When you’ve got a coach with the mindset to want to be great himself and never being satisfied, that just pushes you.”

After reaching the Super Bowl last season, the Rams have their sights set on getting back to the big game. They’re taking it one day at a time right now, but the ultimate goal is to be the last team standing in February.

Donald says he has room for improvement and is going to work hard to help the Rams get back to the Super Bowl next season. Having McVay at the helm makes that scenario all the more likely.

Birthday work with @Coach_Henny 😤@AaronDonald97 | #LARams pic.twitter.com/BwWEKTOWvG

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) May 23, 2019

Andrew Siciliano@AndrewSiciliano
Aaron Donald turns 28 today with…

2x DPOY
5x Pro Bowl
4x All-Pro
DROY
59.5 career sacks

Staying sharp: Sack artist Donald fueled by Super Bowl loss

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2019/05/24/staying-sharp-sack-artist-donald-fueled-by-super-bowl-loss/39511901/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatodaycomnfl-topstories

To stay a cut above the competition, Aaron Donald again trained this offseason by dodging knives.

Fake blades, of course. But the results from the reaction exercises have certainly been real.

The two-time reigning AP defensive player of the year for the Los Angeles Rams is always searching for out-of-the-box ways to take his game to another level. The sting of a 13-3 Super Bowl loss to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in February helps him stay sharp, too. That’s one reason the defensive tackle attended organized team activities this spring for the first time since 2016, even as other veterans passed on the workouts.

Anything to earn that ring.

“The main goal is to be the No. 1 team standing and call yourself a champion,” said Donald, who skipped workouts the last two springs while dealing with contract negotiations before signing a $135 million, six-year extension last August. “So I’m just working, trying to get myself better and continue to improve my game.”

Donald is coming off a season in which he recorded 20½ sacks.

So yes, Donald has given thoughts to former New York Giants standout Michael Strahan’s 22½-sack season in 2001, which is the NFL record since it became an official stat in 1982.

And no, he doesn’t chase after it.

“If you would’ve asked me five years ago if I would have an opportunity to have 23 sacks in one season, I would’ve laughed at you and said, ‘That’s impossible,'” Donald said in a phone interview as the player known for his quick bursts to the QB embraces National Runners’ Month at DICK’S Sporting Goods. “You would like to accomplish something like that, but in the mix of doing your job and helping your team win you play at a high level. So all that’s going to come about on its own. Because the more you think about it, the less success you have.

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“Go out there and play and let the game come to you, and good things come from that. It’s worked for me so far.”

All he’s done is become a nightmare assignment in the middle since the Rams drafted him with a first-round pick in 2014 out of the University of Pittsburgh. Donald, who turned 28 on Thursday, is listed at 6-foot-1, 280 pounds — not the usual measurements for a dominating inside presence.

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And yet dominating is what he’s been against the run and chasing QBs. With his speed, strength and athleticism, he’s become the NFL prototype.

“You open up doors for the next guy, who opens up doors for the next,” Donald explained. “You do your job and do it at a high level and keep working and do what you’re supposed to do, everybody has an opportunity to do great things. Just got to have that mindset and that will to want to do it.”

Over the offseason, he again used the fake knives to help him improve his agility. His trainer would lunge at him with a blade in each hand and Donald knocked it away — just like he would the arms of an opposing offensive lineman.

“Trying to work on my hand speed and reaction,” Donald said. “I go through different things in my training to think outside the box. Think of things that can help me. Just trying to outwork myself every year to be better.”

Next up, distance running. Well, maybe.

Although his training is built around short distances, he’s contemplating a 5-kilometer (3.1 mile) race down the road, especially after meeting a group of kids as part of Girls on the Run, an organization that teaches young girls life skills through running activities. Donald surprised them at a DICK’S Sporting Goods store in the Los Angeles area and helped them line up new running gear.

Donald even went for a little jog with the kids.

“Just trying to keep up with the girls,” said Donald, who recently made a seven-figure donation to the University of Pittsburgh’s Football Championship Fund. “I have 10-yard bursts in me. That (5K race) would be tough. Got to have a lot of stamina and training. I’ll probably get it done.”

An endeavor for later.

These days, it’s all about leading the Rams back to the Super Bowl. They lost a defensive showdown with the Patriots in a game in which Donald had five tackles and one quarterback hit. He showed up at the offseason workouts, relishing the chance to develop even more cohesion with teammates.

“Being there and working with these guys, pushing these guys and getting these guys ready, it’s only going to make us better,” Donald said. “We’re pushing each other, because we want to do something special this year.”

They said he was too small… Then @AaronDonald97 went to the @seniorbowl and dominated EVERYONE. (2014) @RamsNFL pic.twitter.com/VtF0OeSJT3

— NFL Throwback (@nflthrowback) May 23, 2019

Aaron Donald: “There are a lot of things I can clean up and fix.”

Myles Simmons

https://www.therams.com/news/aaron-donald-there-are-a-lot-of-things-i-can-clean-up-and-fix

Defensive tackle Aaron Donald is the kind of self-motivated player coaches must love.

This is a man coming off earning his second-consecutive AP Defensive Player of the Year award, having recorded a single-season franchise record 20.5 sacks in 2018. He also signed a lucrative six-year contract extension last August, keeping him with Los Angeles through the 2024 season.

But none of that has appeared to diminish Donald’s motivation, as he enters the sixth year of his already storied career.

He’s been participating in OTAs for the first time since 2016 — back before he remained absent from two straight offseason programs as his representation and the organization negotiated the extension. And he’s enjoying being at the facility every day this time of year, saying he thinks it’s important.

“I think you need to be here with the guys, and just build that relationship — just learning each other, being around each other, pushing each other,” Donald said on Tuesday. “So this is a big party that I definitely did miss, and [I’m] happy I’m here now working with these guys.”

“[J]ust having him here in this building, and what a breath of fresh air it is just to see how he constantly works,” head coach Sean McVay said. “When you’ve got a guy that’s the reigning two-time Defensive Player of the Year and is motivated to get better and better, never lets the complacency set in, it’s just really easy just to say, ‘That’s what it looks like.’ And he’s kind of the epitome of what it looks like right now, and we’re certainly glad to have him around.”

Because there’s no opponent, this is a time of self-improvement — one of Donald’s specialties. After fellow D-lineman Michael Brockers noted this last week, Donald said himself that he’s been encouraging his position mates to get in extra workouts throughout the offseason program.

More than that, though, Donald has enjoyed the tutelage he’s received from new defensive line coach Eric Henderson — better known around the facility as “coach Henny.” And that’s because, just as Donald often says, Henderson feels like there’s a lot Donald can improve upon as a player.

“I’ve been loving coach ‘Henny,’ that’s one of the main parts why I want to be here — to work with the guys, and also work with him,” Donald said. “He’s working a lot of different drills that I feel like can help me get better, improve my game. He’s pushing me. Like I said, he broke down stuff on me, showed me things that I need to correct in my game.

“So having him here, having him coach me with the different drills we’re out there doing, things that I needed to work on, that I needed to improve — I’m just excited to keep working with him.”

It almost seems odd to hear Donald say there’s really that much he can improve after the season he just had. But if there’s anyone who can keep that motivation to not just stay great, but be better in 2019 — it’s A.D.

The fellas putting in work at @VonMiller’s Pass Rush Summit! 💪

📸: @Broncos pic.twitter.com/nWCYUjj7na

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) June 1, 2019

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Even the defensive player of the year is here adding tools to his toolbox 👀@AaronDonald97 @RamsNFL @nfl #PassRush pic.twitter.com/YyywHFMY8g

— D-Ware (@DeMarcusWare) June 1, 2019

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Yooooo @TheRamsWire, Aaron Donald is getting tips from @DeMarcusWare at @VonMiller’s Pass Rush Summit. 👀

Scary that Donald could get even better. pic.twitter.com/sXr5vGNtiO

— Broncos Wire (@TheBroncosWire) June 2, 2019

Why does @AaronDonald97 work out so much? 😂💪

Hear what 9️⃣9️⃣ had to say after the final day #LARams OTAs! pic.twitter.com/6uu078bzMb

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) June 7, 2019

from PFF50: The NFL’s 50 best players entering the 2019 season

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-pff50-the-nfls-50-best-players-entering-the-2019-season

…

#1 DI AARON DONALD, LOS ANGELES RAMS

Donald has single-handedly rewritten the PFF record books. He’s led his position in overall grade and pass-rush grade in every year after his rookie campaign in 2014. And he still ranked second in overall grade and third pass-rush grade as a first-year player five years ago. Four of the five best single-season pass-rush win rates in the PFF era (2006-18) belong to Donald.

From PFF’s Austin Gayle:

“We ran out of superlatives for Donald after last season, and now we’re running out of records. He’s now won PFF’s Defensive Player of the Year in three of the last four years – soon enough we’ll run out of awards, too.”

THIS is a GREAT breakdown. Must watch stuff.

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NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger breaks down why Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald is the greatest interior defensive lineman of all time.

vid link: https://sports.yahoo.com/why-los-angeles-rams-defensive-224147908.html

Justin Pugh: Aaron Donald's lack of size catches you off guard https://t.co/gQiBMaBQKb

— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) June 25, 2019

Ex-NFL standout Chris Long on Aaron Donald: ‘He’s the best football player in the world’

https://triblive.com/sports/ex-nfl-standout-chris-long-on-aaron-donald-hes-the-best-football-player-in-the-world/

Chris Long said he knew in summer 2014, before Aaron Donald played one snap with the then-St. Louis Rams, that the former Pitt standout would be as good as he is.

“I would like to credit myself with being the first person know he was going to be amazing,” Long said with a smile during Part 4 of this week’s “Huddle Up with Gus” podcast. “We used to joke his rookie camp that he was going to be in the Hall of Fame, but I kind of wasn’t joking.”

Long, son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long, played his first eight seasons with the Rams, including 2014 and ‘15 — Donald’s first two seasons in the NFL. Long was drafted second overall in the 2008 NFL Draft out of Virginia and retired in May with 70 career sacks and 15 forced fumbles.

He called Donald “the best football player in the world, in my opinion.”

“I’ve never seen anybody work so hard, who had so much talent and play so violent and play with such tenacity,” he said. “This guy would fight you on the field at the drop of a hat, and I respect that about him, and outworks everybody.

“I would be the last person in the film room usually at the end of camp, and I would go in there and watch tape once everybody was at home. I started going in there an opening the door and turning the lights on to find my pen or notebook, and he was in there every night.”

Long said Donald and others who played at Pitt have an “edge.”

“From Avonte Maddox to Aaron to any of the guys I played with from Pitt, honestly, in their own ways, they have a great edge to them, a good confidence, a good edge, very confident right off the bat, pro ready,” he said. “And not to recruit for Pitt, but these guys are consistently great pros.”

Long said Donald, a Penn Hills graduate, takes a lot of pride in his roots.

“He’s a guy who doesn’t forget where he comes from,” he said.

Donald recently made a seven-figure donation to Pitt, the largest by a football letterman to the program.

.@AaronDonald97’s been wreaking havoc since his @phqbclub days 😳 pic.twitter.com/LE614G4jVd

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) July 5, 2019

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Aaron Donald's high school highlight reel looks eerily similar to his NFL tape (via @dlinevids1) https://t.co/Z93LPt2KhK

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) July 5, 2019

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Figures https://t.co/w6Jk4ABfjX

— John Johnson III (@iamjohnthethird) July 6, 2019