How will the Rams use Aaron Donald? 'NFL Daily'
Gregg Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue discuss Aaron Donald coming out of retirement to play for the Rams and how the Rams could deploy Donald alongside Myles Garrett and the rest of the Rams defensive unit.
Video Transcript
The expectations are the thing that I, I'm more interested in from your perspective, Jordan, because when we last saw him, extremely effective player, one of the leaders in pass rush win rate, one of the best players at his position.
Hasn't won a Defensive Player of the Year, you know, since 2020.
Like, those three now are, are six plus years old.
What do you think about how they're going to use him role-wise, and what's a reasonable expectation after being two years away, and he's what?
35 years old now.
Yeah, I think it's gonna be situational and game by game, which is a double-sided meaning.
Because first of all, that should be very worrisome for opponents, because you're already having to try to game plan for one of the most difficult players on the planet to game plan for in Miles Garrett, and now you're not quite sure.
They're I think what the Rams are really wanting to do with this is making it sure, making sure to, not show any tendencies, and having a player who is at Aaron Donald's age, which is what?
35 right now, and to And also the fact that they're so deep along their defensive line.
You know, I've been saying for weeks that I think this defense is gonna really surprise people with how multiple it is, and how much it can rotate even on the field without subbing players out.
Peop- There's so many players in the front and the back that can play multiple positions, and can rotate all around each other and, and really, activate against a bunch of different types of personnels without needing to come off the field.
So if teams, which we think they will, try to go quick game on them or tempo in order to try to mitigate some of this pass rush that they'll see from Miles Garrett, et cetera, you are, you now have a counterpunch for that.
And that, that's pretty worrisome, I think, when you factor in you're not gonna really, really know what Aaron Donald's gonna do week to week.
It's a mind game for everybody else, because we are so, we got so used to, and we never really got used to, but we kinda got used to all the stories of these opposing coaches talking about how when you play Aaron Donald, that's actually the only player you're game planning around on defense.
For the Rams, that's how much of the week that it takes up in their meetings, and how much of the, the reinstallation of offensive line protections and, and blocks and slides and all these different things that you have to focus on.
And so now the fact that he is going to be used situationally and you don't, you won't be able to tendency predict week over week, that's a real problem, I think.
And I think it, it plays to the Rams' benefit, and I think they know that.
Which again- Right is one of the reasons why, among all of this other super team building thing, just the way that they're doing it is also the reason why the Rams have such a big target on their back this year.
