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At No. 24, Rams’ Aaron Donald is ‘everything that’s right’ — watching film with Sean McVay proves it
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — “I could talk to you for about two weeks straight about what makes this guy so special.”
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay stood in his office at the top of the team’s hotel tower, just before they opened their 2021 training camp. On a large screen at the front of the room, he turned on a compilation of cut-ups that he feels showcase why three-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald is the greatest football player currently playing, and certainly belongs within the top 25 of The Athletic’s all-time players.
“There is not one thing this guy doesn’t do well,” said McVay, bouncing up from his chair onto the balls of his feet, an energy drink left opened but untouched on his desk. “This guy is the most intrinsically motivated player I have ever been around, and he has the best instincts and feel. Some of the stuff that he does, I’m not even sure — he’s at the highest stage of learning, where it’s unconscious competence.”
In the summer, after hearing that Donald had been voted No. 24 in our all-time Top 100, I requested from McVay his notes on five plays — all five of which best demonstrate why he loves to coach Donald.
But McVay can show it better than he can tell it. And he wanted to put Donald up on the big screen. So Rams defensive line coach Eric Henderson created a 31-play Donald film study in his free time; too giddy to stick with just five plays as he dug deeper and deeper into the details of Donald. That’s the thing about Donald; he’s not just a walking highlight reel — he is truly a joy to coach, to hear McVay and Henderson talk (and to see the work they put in for this piece).
McVay has been coaching Donald since 2017, so has been a consistent presence even throughout the Rams’ yearly coordinator and assistant coach changes, team personnel and defensive scheme changes. And for McVay, Donald too has been a constant fixture, and perhaps the most important one — not just alongside him on the field, but firmly affixed in his vision ahead of him.
Donald is the standard set and the manifestation of McVay’s ultimate goal.
“I love this guy,” he said. “And this guy is as much motivation as anybody for why, if we don’t win a Super Bowl — if this guy doesn’t get one — then shame on me.”
McVay turned on the screen. The first clip was from the Rams’ Week 8 loss to Miami in 2020. The defense allowed the Dolphins’ offense just 145 total yards and eight first downs — a season-low. Donald had a sack, and forced a fumble.
But the clip McVay specifically picked happened on first-and-10, with 11:05 left in the third quarter, in which Donald sniffed out a running back screen.
“To recognize it’s a screen this quickly, to put his foot in the ground and redirect and then chase down this guy — this is instincts, this is effort, this is all the things that make him so special,” McVay said.
“Watch how quickly Aaron recognizes it, retrace (the) reads out of the stack and goes and makes a play on a really good athletic back. That’s like, the best 6-yard gain from a defensive player, and you’re not going to see stuff like that.”
McVay stood up excitedly as he flipped to the next clip. He walked around to the screen and gestured at former Patriots guard Joe Thuney — who is now with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I think so much of this, too, has to do with ‘Who are you beating?’” McVay said. “This is Joe Thuney at guard, who is definitely one of the best guards (in the league).”
McVay motioned to Rams director of public relations Artis Twyman, who sat to the side of his desk.
“And he makes this look like me and Artis are trying to block him.”
McVay toggled the remote control to refocus on the hand move Donald uses to gain leverage on Thuney.
“This is the thing, I think this is what is not talked about him enough — he never misses with his hands,” he said. “He’s got such good leverage, quickness and explosion — but like, his hand placement, he always wins. What you can’t even see from this is he’s taking his right arm and he’s trapped the outside wrist of Thuney to now pull himself through and now he’s just been able to easily beat him.”
As Donald got past Thuney, he closed around the outside of quarterback Cam Newton’s pocket and forced him to step up into it. Blocked players — in this case, outside linebacker Obo Okoronkwo — then received new leverage with which they could pressure Newton, because of Donald’s early win.
“This is where the best players make everyone around them better,” McVay said. “Obo is getting stoned on a straight rush where he’s playing off Aaron and getting that penetration up the field. Why does this look like Obo gets a sack? Because he has forced Cam Newton to get off his spot and climb up 3 yards, so now Obo can just retrace when he’s getting totally stuffed — because the tackle has no idea that the quarterback has to step up. This is such a credit to Aaron.
“There are so many parallels between defensive linemen winning and a receiver beating a bump corner. Just picture that this is Keenan Allen, Davante Adams going against an elite corner, and saying, ‘How would you want to work an edge to get to a certain spot on a route?’ Watch the way (Aaron) can get parallel (against Thuney), double up — that’s like, a great release for a receiver. And Aaron is wired to be able to do that as a defensive lineman.
“His motor is just so consistent. What I think is another thing, it’s the hands and it’s the ability to close. When he puts his foot in the ground and recognizes it, his ability to close that space between he and who he’s engaging is unbelievable. If you heard a knock from some people, they’d say, ‘Oh, he plays behind gaps’ and stuff like that. He does it, but knows it — and has the ability to make up for it. He’s got the ability to make up for it where he can say, ‘OK, I can stay square and beat a guy front side or continue to stay engaged.’ Or, if I feel this guy overcommit to try to cut me off in this A-gap, I’ll be able to play the B-gap and close that A-gap fast enough by being able to redirect and get around him.
“His closing speed and his hand placement is something that I think (puts) him on a totally different level than anybody else. It’s not even close. And those are things that I don’t think are talked about.”
Next, McVay pulled up two plays from the Rams’ Week 1 win against Dallas.
“This set — when you have the tight end closing it off in the back, a ‘gun-four’ set is what our guys would refer to it as — he knew that the main run they’d run was some sort of a pin-pull scheme. And there are a couple of things that Aaron legitimately would be able to tell you: formation recognition. He’d be able to tell you that the left guard is sitting back on his heels, so he’s going to have an idea that this is a possible pull (to recognize the pin-pull) based on formation and pre-snap. He hears calls, and stuff like that. It’s unbelievable.”
McVay jumped up from his chair again and pointed to the tight end on the screen.
“Watch what he does to this tight end. He knocks this tight end so far back that it picks off the left guard as a puller. Aaron Donald has, in essence, closed off the front side A-gap, B-gap and C-gap, so now, (defensive tackle) Sebastian Joseph-Day can gap-and-a-half and play the front side A and fall back to the backside A, because of what Aaron just did.”
I asked McVay if he just kind of laughs when he sees that happen in real time.
“It’s a joke,” he said, cackling. “He is unbelievable. As good as you think he is, he’s even better.”
The second clip from Week 1 featured a Donald moment that briefly went viral during the 2020 season — and is used often by fans on social media to illustrate how often Donald is double- and triple-teamed. In this case, it was the latter.
“It’s like a bowling ball that knocks over a bunch of pins,” McVay said. “Aaron, he’s referred to as the ‘penetrator,’ and you have two guys who are wrapping around (the outside of him). That means that usually, Aaron is the guy who is supposed to get the assist on this. When you’re in a two-man or a three-man movement, and you’re the ‘penetrator’ that enters through the line of scrimmage, you’re really an occupier to free other guys.
“Aaron is the penetrator and makes the play here because he gets so much penetration that he’s knocked the whole line over — then he’s able to retrace and get out of it. That, to me, is what’s so unique. The power and stuff like that, everybody can see that. But when you talk about the design and the intent of the specific movement, this is to free up (Michael) Brockers and Leonard Floyd. Aaron is supposed to be drawing the attention to get the assist, and he ends up still making the play without disrupting the integrity of this movement! That’s what is so amazing.”
McVay next pulled up back-to-back clips from the Rams’ Week 3 loss to Buffalo in 2020. The two-play sequence is from a goal-line series in the first quarter, in which Donald has a tackle for loss and helps force an incomplete pass (in between is a would-be touchdown that was nullified after referees ruled quarterback Josh Allen’s throw on second-and-1 incomplete).
“This is a really good example of what I’m talking about,” he said. “We’re on the goal line. He is responsible for the front side A-gap. But Aaron can tell you, knowing that these stances and when they run zone a (certain direction), that the center will probably just try to chop him down. This is where he’s able to go back door. Then you say, ‘Well, he lost the integrity of his A-gap?’”
Donald made the tackle on running back Devin Singletary, for no gain.
“Not Aaron Donald. No, he didn’t. If he had stayed front-side could he have made the play? Maybe, but this is where you tell him, ‘Hey, you’re a front side A-gap player — know, and know you know — and if you take this leap of faith you’d better be right.’ And this guy is. That, to me, is what’s so amazing.”
McVay pulled up the next clip.
“He’s a B-gap player here. But watch when he puts his right foot in the ground. He’s always got his weight distributed. His balance itself, too — he uses this backside cutoff of the left tackle to accelerate him into Allen. He’s on a totally different speed, interior-wise. He’s closer to the football and it’s unbelievable.”
McVay pulled up another play from the Miami game, in which Donald made a 5-yard tackle for loss on running back Malcolm Perry — who had lined up for the direct snap.
“He can feel the depth of this right guard and know that he’s pulling,” said McVay, pointing to Dolphins’ lineman Soloman Kindley. “He knows that the job of this center is to block back on him, because they’re pulling their right guard and their right tackle with this scheme. He knows, ‘All right, if I get up the field and I beat this center, I’m running to the ball and I’m beating this play.’ That’s the kind of stuff — ability and instincts combined into one. It’s ridiculous.”
McVay flipped to plays in rapid-fire sequence from a few different games, in which Donald is contorting his upper body to slip through blocks and eliminate “grab points” for opposing linemen — while keeping his feet pumping toward the direction of the play.
“We say, ‘Eliminate your surface level,’” McVay said. “He gets skinny. The same way that (receivers coach) Eric Yarber coaches a receiver to beat a defensive back, that’s the same way that (Eric Henderson) is coaching Aaron to win on a two-way go. He knows how to accelerate himself, work edges on people that just makes sense to him. It’s unbelievable.”
McVay toggled through a clip of Donald matched up against Saints guard Andrus Peat in the 2019 NFC Championship Game.
“(Peat) is arguably one of the heaviest, most stout guards in the NFL,” McVay said. “He knows that this is going to be a base block by the left guard. Watch him just rock him — what has he done? He’s playing the B-gap, but he’s taken Andrus Peat’s ass and closed up the A-gap, too. It’s a joke.
“He does it against the best players, too. That’s the thing that resonates with me.”
In a clip from 2020 that featured the Rams against the Cardinals in Week 17, McVay explained that Arizona attempted to off-set their front because the Rams wanted to get Donald into position as a three-technique opposite the running back.
“This is a really good job by Aaron Donald, and (Joseph-Day) and the linebackers communicating that when they move the back, we want Aaron to be in a shade position on the center and then Sebastian on a three-technique. … They know, Arizona wanted Aaron to be at the point of attack because this would mean a good opportunity for the guard to block down on him.”
<img src=”https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2021/08/14231100/Voila_Capture-2021-08-14_08-02-05_PM.pngBut Donald anticipated the snap count and capitalized on a late step from the guard, then wrapped up running back Chase Edmonds for a 3-yard loss.
“He makes pros look so bad — it’s hard to even explain,” McVay said. “I mean, he does this so frequently I can’t even tell you. It’s a joke …
“That’s just stuff, like … he’s the epitome of everything that’s right.”
