Aaron Donald strikes fear in even the most seasoned and talented veterans, so for a rookie, he’s especially terrifying. It’s not that he’s the biggest player on the field, but 99% of the time, he’s the scariest.
As a rookie in OTAs, Puka Nacua quickly learned just how scary Donald is.
During an interview with Chris Long on the Green Light podcast, Nacua told the story of a hilarious (and fear-inducing) encounter he had with Donald in the weight room while working out in OTAs. Nacua accidentally got in Donald’s way not just once, but twice, which you don’t want to do as a rookie.
After being told to move twice, Nacua ran out of the weight room and pretended he had to use the bathroom, saying he was “filled with so much fear.”
“I have a funny story,” he began. “We had 40 rookies during OTAs and stuff. I see AD over there, he’s got the lifting coach with him, Coach Lovett, he’s just working out by himself. He’s probably been there – we had the conditioning test then we had to come do the rookie test, but he’s been lifting this whole time so it’s like two hours we’re in there and he’s been in there. He’s got the 180s by the dumbbell rack, doing rows with the 180. I don’t see him, I have my back (turned), I’m doing the massage gun on my shoulder, about to get ready for the workout. And all I hear is, ‘Move.’ And I’m like, I drop the Theragun, jump, and I turn around and it’s AD. I move, but I guess I don’t move out the way enough because I just turned around and start doing the gun on the other side and he said, ‘Move again.’ All right. I ran out the weight room. I ran out the weight room, I acted like I had to use the bathroom. I was filled with so much fear.”
Nacua is a well-known rookie now after putting together a historic season in 2023, but back in OTAs, he was just a fifth-rounder trying to make the team, so you can imagine how scary it was to get in the way of Donald during a workout.
Watch Nacua tell the story in the video below.