• Because he may be the single most-dominant player of the past decade, I don’t mind doubling down on Aaron Donald content (our takeaways led with him, too). And we’ll start by turning the clock back to 2014, when the undersized Pitt defensive tackle was, to some degree, a polarizing prospect among scouts.
Everyone knew he could play. From there, two questions remained. One was whether he’d be a scheme-specific player—needing to be in a system that would get him upfield, and not require him to take on blocks, given his lack of height (6’1"), weight (280 pounds) and length. Another was whether he’d be able to handle the down-to-down rigors of being an NFL defensive lineman.
That debate wasn’t limited to teams that were skeptical. It’s one, according to several people who were there, that was spirited in the Los Angeles Rams’ draft meetings.
Then-coach Jeff Fisher was one who liked Donald. In those meetings, he used a guy he coached, former Eagles star Jerome Brown, as an example of a shorter, lighter guy who became dominant at the position. Warren Sapp was another guy he raised to emphasize that height and length weren’t the end-all, be-all for defensive linemen.
But it was Ray Agnew, a former first-round defensive lineman who was getting his start in scouting after serving as director of player development and team chaplain, who emerged over that time as the team’s Aaron Donald evangelist. He, college scouting director Brad Holmes (now Lions GM) and senior scout Rich Snead had taken a liking to Donald, and were on Fisher’s side with pushback coming from other corners of the room.
The normally reserved Agnew, I’m told, literally slammed his hands on the table during a Donald debate, insisting that the Pitt prospect was fully capable of being a full-time player in any scheme. And because of his playing experience, and the respect everyone in the building had for Agnew, his emotion on Donald carried real weight.
When I asked Fisher about that debate, he told me, “Ray was so soft-spoken. And he’d come down and tell me, . I said, ”
Maybe no one knew just how good.
But Agnew, now the Lions’ assistant GM, had a better idea than most.
• From there, Donald’s second (and final) head coach Sean McVay had a pretty good idea of the future Hall of Famer’s talent when he took over the Rams in 2017. But, he’ll admit now there was no way he could know just how good Donald would get until he actually saw him day to day, and that’s the first thing McVay mentioned when I asked him what he thinks Donald has that no other player does.
“I think the number one trait he has is this mental toughness and this competitiveness internally, this intrinsic motivation,” McVay says. “I saw a documentary a few years ago. It’s called . It has a bunch of people that did a bunch of historical data and evidence on all these greats in a bunch of different sports arenas. They said there were two things that were common amongst all these people—there was a rage to master, and there was an ability to pick things up quickly in their domain.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a more driven player that stayed humble through the success, that had higher standards than he did of himself from a preparation standpoint, and then an ability to be accountable in his game. He’s so unique with his mental makeup, his upbringing. Then, he has this natural strength, leverage, explosiveness, get off. He has the most accurate hands I’ve ever seen.
“That’s the one thing that I think people don’t talk about enough is he never missed with his hands. He’d always get those inside positions. His ability to break down offensive linemen and understand the nuances of how their game shifts and alters through the different situations that arise during the course of a game, it’s unique. When you ask him about personnel evaluations, what he sees, what he picks up on, the guy is so smart in his thinking and is so invested in his craft. That consistency has just compounded over time.
“To have the mental makeup to do all those things that he did for our team and, individually, the accolades, but still continue to push himself with the humility and the care for his teammates, it’s unbelievable.”
