Teams are still keying in on Aaron Donald when they face the Los Angeles Rams, doubling him on the majority of his snaps. With the All-Pro interior defender continuing to be a focal point for opposing teams, he wants to see the Rams’ other excel more when he’s double-teamed, taking advantage of their one-on-one opportunities.
“Same old stuff. You just got to keep playing and try to find ways,” Donald said. “Guys around you just got to continue to just keep going and winning one-on-ones if they want to try to focus on one person. I’m just one guy, so you still got 10 other guys on the field so if they want to try to slow down one person, those other guys just got to step up. All I can do is just keep playing. Hopefully get my opportunities, take advantage of them, and go from there.”
According to ESPN, Donald is being doubled on 60% of snaps and he is still recording an 18% pass-rush win rate. The game-wrecking defensive lineman has tallied 20 combined tackles, five tackles for loss, and 2.5 sacks in the first five weeks.
Anytime Donald is on the field, there’s a good chance the other pass rushers on the Rams are going to see one-on-one matchups in the trenches. Outside of Donald, the Rams have just 5.5 sacks on the season, with rookie Byron Young accounting for two of those.
Donald iterated that the Rams’ entire defensive front needs to be better moving forward.
“I think guys play hard, play with a lot of effort so we got to continue to do that. As a front, as a pass-rush unit, we got to be better,” he said. “A little bit better getting out to the quarterback on one-on-ones, little bit more technique in pass rush situations and again, they want to slide the protection and continue to focus on one person, got a lot of opportunities out there with the one-on-ones that make the big play that we need. We just got to keep working on that and it’s going to come.”
Whenever Donald is on the field, teams are going to continue double-teaming him and sliding protections to prevent him from taking over games. While he’s capable of still dominating by himself, the other pass rushers undoubtedly need to start producing more when it comes to pressuring the quarterback.