Donald could be 'extremely limited' in Australia
Mike Florio and Chris Simms evaluate Aaron Donald's timeline for getting into true "football shape" as the season looms, pondering how much he'll play if he suits up for the Rams' opener in Australia.
Video Transcript
The Aaron Donald stuff though is funny, all the stuff circulating, I feel like, on social media once again.
You know, there I'm seeing old highlights of, of him verse Pit- I mean, at, back at Pitt.
I'm seeing a video the other day, right, again- eh, DK Metcalf.
You know, they ask Aaron Donald, they go, "Hey, do you think you can bench more than DK Metcalf?"
And he goes, "Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah."
And you know, they kind of make fun of Aaron Donald and go, "Oh, he hesitated a little.
He hesitated."
And I guess they ask DK Metcalf what he benched before that, and then so they go, "All right, so what do you bench, Aaron Donald?"
And he goes, "Well, a little above 500."
And they all went, "What?
500?
500 pounds?
You bench more than 500 pounds?"
And you know, DK Metcalf was at, like, 350, but i- he is a freak of nature, to the point that he really is.
Short arms.
Short arms for Aaron Donald.
Yeah.
Easier to bench 500 pounds- Yeah when you got short arms.
Yeah, right.
He's got shorter arms than DK Metcalf.
That, that reminds me of the old Warren Sapp.
Warren Sapp's got long arms, and he got dinged for the number of times he didn't bench press 225 pounds.
It was a low number, and his response was, "They don't put a weight bench out on a football field."
Hey.
So, um- That's, that's true.
There's no doubt about it.
He was strong as hell.
He'd throw people around everywhere.
Aaron Donald- short arms or strong arms, Aaron Donald, or long arms, excuse me, Aaron Donald, there's no denying his abilities.
He practiced on Sunday.
Didn't practice on Monday.
Sean McVay yesterday addressed the issue of ramping up Donald's practice work in advance of the start of the season.
Here's what McVay said.
You know what's great about Aaron, is he wants to earn everything that he gets, Nate.
And so, you know, he and I talked about that yesterday, and we've been kind of talking about it, you know, because what he does have is great appreciation for the guys that are in here that have really done a great job over the last few years.
And so, that is to be determined, you know?
And I think a lot of it is contingent upon, how does he feel?
You know, we haven't even done 11-on-11 football with him yet, so I think the first steps are, let's getting him into some of those settings, see what that really looks like, and then, you know, he'll kind of help lead and guide us in terms of what that looks like to maximize him in addition to the other guys in that room.
McVay's become press conference sunglasses guy lately.
Have you noticed that?
Yeah, yeah.
He's got a little of that, like, you know, what's that, Chips or Hawaii Five-O a little vibe there lately, like wearing those, those police officer, glasses there lately.
I d- I have noticed that.
So, regardless, and far more importantly than that, they're trying to get him ready.
They're trying to factor in the fact that he hasn't played in two years.
He's 35 years old.
They've, they've had a plan in place.
From the moment that they first recognized the possibility that he would return, stirred by the trade for Miles Garrett, they put a plan together as to what it would take.
And they have history.
2017, 2018, they had to get him ready on a truncated basis because he had held out.
So here we go.
And you know, it dawned on me the other day, he showed up August 31, 2018, played September 10.
We talked about this.
Showed up Augurth- August 30 this time around.
They play September 10 again.
So you know, he's gonna be on, he's gonna be off, he's gonna be working, he's not gonna be working.
They're trying to get him ready to go out there and be able to take however many snaps they have in mind for him if he plays in Australia in just eight days from now.
Yeah.
Yeah, I, I sit here after that right there, and then, you know, not hearing he didn't practice or do anything yesterday, where I just go, "Okay, I, I'd like to reevaluate how many snaps I think he'll play."
Now I, now I'm, I'm at a point where I'm like, I think it's third downs.
If he, if he plays, it's only third downs.
And I think I'm at a point where I'm like, I'm not sure he'll play at all in this first one.
We're, we're, we're a week out as of today.
Or, or, or eight days out, excuse me, for their game.
Eight days out.
He hasn't played 11-on-11 football.
So if, if Aaron Donald is out there in Australia, yes, I think it's gonna be extremely limited, third down packages only.
And I think there's a possibility that maybe he doesn't play at all and, and just gets himself, you know, in football shape here.
Here's Sean McVay from yesterday on whether Aaron Donald will travel and play against the 49ers when they start the season in Melbourne in just, as Chris said, eight days.
Well, I wouldn't rule anything out yet.
You know, I think, I think, I think sometimes when you put, you know, unnecessary kind of parameters or guidelines on something, it can skew things.
But what I think is really good for us is if he's able to go, great.
If not, that's kind of how we've been operating as is, and guys have done an excellent job of being able to do some really cool stuff in the meantime.
And so if he's not ready and that's not s- what, what's best for him and for the team, absolutely wouldn't have him, play in Australia unnecessarily.
Yeah, look, they, they want him there.
They want him on the field ASAP.
And the fact that they're not going until next Wednesday gives them, if they wait until next Wednesday or whenever it is, they haven't announced it yet, but I think they're, they're gonna let us know soon that they're gonna be going late, later than anyone expects is what Sean McVay said recently.
That gives them a little more time before they have to put him on a plane.
Because if I'm Aaron Donald and I'm not gonna be playing that game, I don't wanna sit in that fricking plane all the way over and all the way back.
I don't want my body clock to get missed, messed up by being in Australia for a game I'm not gonna play in.
But- Yeah, true that I still think he will play.
And I think they're There- there's a point where you're playing head games with the 49ers too.
We can't, we can't overlook that reality.
We don't want them, if you're the Rams, we don't want them to know whether they're gonna see Aaron Donald, and we don't want them to know- No how often they're gonna have to deal with Aaron Donald until they're dealing with Aaron Donald.
No.
The, the, you know, th- this alone, and you're right, you gotta keep that, you know, card there available just because it, it, it's gonna annoy Shanahan and his game planning a little bit in certain situations, and he's gonna have to think about the Aaron Donald element and go, "Wait, you know, man, he might be in here.
He might be next to Miles Garrett on a third down, and we gotta make sure we got a protection the right way or we're gonna have no chance to protect the quarterback here."
So they're gonna make the 49ers and Shanahan game plan for it and have that contingency plan for him.
And that, that's what I would do too.
That's a, a good thing to do to annoy Shanahan and company to, to deal with those X's and O's.
Who's the guy that they're gonna have?
The rookie, the interior offensive lineman?
Is it Willie Carver or Carver Willis?
I believe- Carver S- Carver Willis that is exactly.
A man who has not been in my kitchen.
From Washington.
Carver Willis, yeah, he will be the one who gets the baptism by blast furnace if Aaron Donald is lining up across from him.
So let's make Carver Willis worry over the next eight days as to whether it's gonna be number 99 or whether it's gonna be one of the various Rams captains lined up across from him on first game of the season
