AD’s addition to pass rush has been ‘seamless’...

Aaron Donald's addition to Rams pass rush has been 'seamless'

Cameron DaSilva

[theramswire.usatoday.com]

The Los Angeles Rams welcomed back a familiar face to practice over the weekend after signing Aaron Donald to a six-year, $135 million extension – the largest contract for a defensive player before Khalil Mack leapfrogged him. Donald took the field on Friday with his teammates for the first time, getting acclimated to the defense once again.

Pairing him with Ndamukong Suh was something the Rams couldn’t wait to do all offseason, hoping to terrorize opposing quarterbacks with relentless pressure up the middle. The team got their first look at that duo in the first couple of practices and to the surprise of no one, it’s working out well.


Suh went as far as to say Donald’s addition has been seamless.

Ndamukong Suh on playing with Aaron Donald: "It’s good to get a vibe for everybody and how they rush and just playing together, which in my opinion right now, it seems to be seamless. But we won’t really find out until at the end of day when we start playing against other teams."

— Gary Klein (@LATimesklein) September 3, 2018

Sean McVay will obviously be watching Donald closely as he wreaks havoc on the offense, but the Defensive Player of the Year probably won’t hit his stride for another few days. After all, he missed every preseason game and training camp practice, while also skipping work during the spring.

He still needs to get into football shape, but he’ll be good to go for Week 1 against the Raiders. Even in the early stages of his return, Donald has impressed McVay and looked strong.



“Yeah, he looked good and today really represented some carded work. So, you go back and watch the film and some things specific to the game plan that we’ll expect to run against these guys on Monday night,” McVay said on Sunday. “Then, the other day really just represented a chance for him to get out here. We had some passing situations – we didn’t have any real pads on, but you see the movement, you see the twitch.

“I think it’ll be great to be able to get him a few days’ worth of work, especially with some pads on and being able to fit blocks in the run game, use some of his pass-rush moves or some of the things that we might do to complement working in unison – whether it be with some interior guys who are outside guys based on what we’re doing. So, it was good to get him back out here.”

While everyone is happy to see No. 99 back on the practice field, Jared Goff and Todd Gurley probably aren’t looking forward to facing him every day moving forward. He and Suh have the ability to absolutely destroy game plans and blow up plays before they can even get started, which doesn’t exactly help the offense.

Still, McVay is excited to have Donald back in the mix.

Just getting him back out here moving around. He’ll be the first to tell you, just feeling how you’re fitting blocks and some of the pass rush moves and things like that,” he said. “That’s why it’s great to get him in here for a couple weeks’ worth of work. Really, about five days, six days total. He’ll just get better and better one day at a time.”