Latest / Best of the NFL Podcast Network / The Season with Peter Schrager: Rams GM Les Snead on Aaron Donald's Legacy

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The Season with Peter Schrager: Rams GM Les Snead on Aaron Donald's Legacy · Best of the NFL Podcast Network

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up Up, everybody, Welcome
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: to another episode of the Season with Peter Schreger. Our
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: last episode was from the Combine, where we were detailing
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: all the things that we thought might be coming out
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of Indianapolis, and now we're a week were removed from
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the free agency frenzy, and a lot of things have
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: crystallized as far as NFL roster moves and where teams
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: are going and what directions they might be going. In
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: quick note up top, you might have saw the news
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: about my morning show, Good Morning Football, a couple of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: weeks ago, moving from New York to LA I'm not
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: going to get into all of that and how that
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: went down and where we are now, and we'll see
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: because there's a lot of things everyone's got to figure out.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: But I will say in regards to the podcast, the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: plan is to keep on rolling with the podcast. Now.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Good Morning Football is going on hiatus March twenty ninth,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: and it won't be on air again until July twenty eighth,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I believe, But I plan on doing the season with
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Peter Schrager throughout drafts season, and it might actually free
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: up some opportunities to do even more with the podcast
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: in the short term. That means maybe more than one
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a week, maybe more mock drafts, and perhaps bringing on
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the best decision makers and best prospects in this draft
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and really getting to know them. So I am excited
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: about the opportunity to blow this podcast out and give
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: it all the attention it deserves, because I'll tell you
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: there's this symbiotic relationship between the morning show which has
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: help led me to this amazing part of my career
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: with the podcast and all the listeners that we've gotten
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: and all the YouTube feedback, and what a success this
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: podcast has been through I heeart and now through that
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: news of the show going dark is what they say
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: in our industry. Couple months, I could sit in the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: corner and wallow and try to figure out how we're
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: gonna make content, or we can lean into this podcast
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and do more with Aaron, and do more with Jason
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: and really blow it out and make the most out
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: of it. And thankfully, the iHeart folks have committed to
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: doing everything we possibly can to really go big in
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: draft season, and that's my plan. So We're not going
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: anywhere over here. Promise you that we're gonna keep on
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: giving you guys great content like the podcast we have today.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Our guest in just a bit is going to be
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Less Sneed, the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I've known Less for many years, going back to his
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: days in Atlanta. Less Than went to the Saint Louis Rams,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and in twenty fourteen, his third season with the Saint
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Louis Rams, he drafted a guy thirteenth overall named Aaron Donald.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: That thirteenth overall pick went on to be a first
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: team All Pro in eight of his ten NFL seasons,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: and announced his retirement on Friday of this past week.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: And Less and I are going to go really deep.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I want to know everything about Aaron Donald. I want
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to know everything about Aaron Donald the player, but also
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Aaron Donald the draft prospect, and what Less solved, because
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I don't have any problem in asking how that all
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: went down, because if you go back in that twenty
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: fourteen NFL draft, I'm gonna have real less on this.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: The first pick was to Davian Clowning to the Houston Texans.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: The second overall pick was the Saint Louis Rams, and
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: they didn't trade back, and they didn't make a move
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: to a maneuver and get Aaron Donald. They took Greg Robinson,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: an offensive tackle out of Auburn who didn't do much
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: in his NFL career and did not go on to
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: be an All World player. And that could be looked
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: at as an incredibly big swing and a miss from
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: that twenty fourteen NFL draft. And yet they had a
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: second first round pick, thirteenth overall, And right after Odell
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Beckham goes off the board to the Giants at twelve,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: there's Aaron Donald at thirteen, and Lesnee drafts somebody goes
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: on to be the greatest pick of Lesneed's career. We're
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: gonna ask less all about it. I want to ask
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: about his men, memories of young Aaron Donald, his memories
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: of the Super Bowl run, and I'll just pay some
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: respects to one of the greatest to ever do it,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and a guy that laid in an era where I
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: think so many players are so loud and so vocal,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: and so look at me, look at me. Aaron Donald
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: wasn't that guy. So it's amazing. Jason Kelcey is going
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: to have this amazing media career and has a Hall
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: of Fame career to himself and had a forty five
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: minute press conference. What it sounds like like Aaron Donald's
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: not even doing a retirement press conference. It's just going
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to go off into the sunset. And his little video
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: that he did on Friday is kind of a final
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: fair well and that's pretty fitting. So let's sneed a
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: guy who's known Aaron Donald as long as anybody in
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the NFL is going to come on as a guest
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: before we get to less. I wanted to really kind
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: of empty the bag on some things that I have
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: as far as a NFL free agency, and Aaron wang
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Kaufman is on here. Aaron's microphone is, of course opened.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon, I get a little ping on my phone
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: saying there's action happening in regards to Justin Fields. I
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: got it from a source. I said, all right, keep
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: me updated, and then before you know it, Schefter's out.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: The Thirty's like Justin Field has been traded to the Steelers.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: And I think the initial reaction is wow. And my
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: initial reaction was wow, and how are they going to
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: make this all work? With Russell Wilson because they just
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: acquired Russell Wilson, and I think now a day removed
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and two days removed and unfolding it all, I think
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: general manager Omar Khan and his first real big swings
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: as a general manager. It was pretty savvy here, and
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: yet I want to go through what that means financially.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: That's what you listen to this podcast for. It's a
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: little bit more elevated than the typical football stuff. I
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: think we have to go into what it means and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: why this was so interesting from a Pittsburgh front office
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: standpoint and how savvy he was. So you sign Russell Wilson,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: and when you do that, it's one point two million
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: dollars guaranteed that they have to give. That's the veteran minimum.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Thirty eight million dollars is being paid by the Denver Broncos.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: The Broncos are like, we pay thirty eight million dollars
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: for Russell just to go away and get him out
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: of the building and us to start anew and not
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: have that hovering over us. So they signed him for
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: one point two million and they say, not only are
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: you gonna get a chance to start, you're our number one,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: which was what was verbalized to Russ. Then they trade
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Kenny Pickett, and I thought there was multiple reports in
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the media that the reason they traded Kenny Pickett was
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: a because Kenny Pickett wasn't thrilled about the Russell Wilson move.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: But then be this little part that I thought was
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: unnecessary and unfair to Kenny Pickett. Multi reporters was like
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: he didn't handle Mason Rudolph being the guy at the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: end of the season. Well, I don't know if that
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: was the case. And I would talk to Omar Con
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: about that and some sources in Pittsburgh and be like,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: are we really going down that road? Because to me,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Con actually had three moves in place. It was one
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: bring in Russ's. Two move Picket for something, and they
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: moved Picket to Philadelphia where he'll be a reliable backup
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: to Jail and Hurt. And if Jalen goes down, he
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: can still serve the role as a former first round
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: pick and a first round prospect. Fine, but you had
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: to get rid of Picket if you were going to
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: bring in fields. So it's these three different kind of
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: moves in one fell swoop. Now the beauty of it
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: is you trade Picket and you get Justin Fields. You
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: get him for what I think is a ham sandwich here,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: a sixth round pick that you know moves to a
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: fourth if he plays a ton of time. A sixth
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: round pick for a guy that not only comes in
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: as a potential challenge to Russell Wilson, but a guy
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: that you can get a look at for an entire
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: year and then decide whether he's your quarterback of the future.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: He's going into the final year of his contract. You
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: imagine they're not going to pick up the option necessarily,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: so it's going to be a one year deal here
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: for Justin Fields. It's going to get into this thing
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: with Pittsburgh, and it's like, all right, Mike Tomlin has
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: a full calendar year to see if this guy's the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: dude or not. And if he's not, well, then wash
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: our hands. We'll be good. We'll draft somebody else whatever,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: or we re up Russell Wilson at a real number
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: based on the fact he's only making one point two
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: for this year and there might be a desire to
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: extend in for more. This is a trial run for
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: both guys, and if you're Pittsburgh, you were going into
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the season with Kenny Pickett, which is a giant question mark,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and unknown Mason Rudolph, who had a nice little finish,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: but you kind of know what Mason Rudolf is. You
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: already got rid of Trubisky, and now you look at
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: it and you're like, we got Russell Wilson for one
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: point two million dollars and you've got Justin Field still
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: on his rookie contract, which is real low, and you're
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: doing this at such a budget cost, and both of
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: these guys are going to be hungry and looking to
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: prove something. If you want to go one layer even further,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Arthur Smith, the new offensive coordinator, is still being paid
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: by Tennessee, so you're not even paying your offensive coordinator
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: big bucks. From a fiscal standpoint, this is as savvy
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: a move as you could imagine to overhaul an offense. Now,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: they just need to get a wide receiver. I don't
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: think they're done. I think they might get a veteran
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: and wide receiver, or they might draft one in the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: first round. But like when you trade Deontay Johnson, you
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: need that other wide receiver, especially if you're going in
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: with a veteran quarterback like Russ and you've got Arthur
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Smith and then now you got Justin Fields. Okay, that's
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the Steeler side of it, the far side of it.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I'm torn. So Ian Rappaport reports that four different teams
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: were interested in Justin Fields, and everyone did Justin Fields right.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: They got into a place I said he wanted to go,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: which was Pittsburgh. Great. That all is great, and Ian's
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: reporting a spot on what were those four teams offering.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine in a business as cut third as
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the NFL. Ryan Poles was offered a second or a
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: third round pick, or even a fourth round pick and said,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: you know what, No, I'm going to take the sixth
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: round pick instead, because I want to do what's right
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: for Justin Fields. Here, every pick matters, and I am
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: blown away. I'm gobsmacked that Justin Fields couldn't net a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: third round pick based on the money that these teams
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: spent and another backup options, Jacoby Brissett's gonna make eight
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: million dollars. You don't, You wouldn't. Rather, if you're the Patriots,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: bring on Justin Fields, or at least have both of
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: those guys and then maybe work it that way and
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: then draft the rookie or whatever you want to do.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: The Giants gave Drew Locke pretty good backup quarterback money.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: You'd rather Drew Lock than Justin Fields for a third
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: round pick, Gardner mindshow's a fine pro. The Raiders didn't
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: want to take a roll the dice on Justin Fields
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: for a third round pick. I am telling you, I
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: would be shocked if the Bears turned down a third
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: round or fourth round pick for Justin Fields because they
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: wanted to just do right by him and get him
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: to a place that he wanted to go. And then
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: instead got a sixth round pick, which was conditional. Interesting deal.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: And yet in the end the Bears they move on,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and they are now all in on Kleb Williams and
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: they don't have to deal with those headlines and they
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: don't have to deal with that drama, and in a way,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: they closed the chapter on Justin Fields, and they do
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: so their hands are clean. They're all right. They're gonna
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: have a rookie quarterback behind a really good offensive line
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: with two number one wide receivers in Keenan Allen. And
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: now of course they have more Dj Moore from last
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: year's trade. And I like their two tight ends. I
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: like Cole Combat and I like Gerald Everett who's been there.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: And they have a new offensive coordinator in Shane Weldron.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: So the Bears, the compensation is head scratching. But if
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: you want to say, from a good karma thing, and
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: they got justin Field from where he preferred, right, But
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I have surprise, And maybe it was the timing and
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: there the seats were all filled, but to only get
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: a six round pick for a guy that showed what
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: justin Field showed, I am a bit surprised that is
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: on that tree. I want to go to something I
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: said the first day of free agency. I said the
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Giants one day one of free agency, and I got
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: great pushback on that. The Giants let two veteran leaders
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: take one, Barkley and Xavier McKinney walk out the door,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: and they instead went and they traded for a guy
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: like Brian Burns, who's probably gonna make what those guys
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: would have made combined this year if they had brought
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: them both back. It resigned him to a huge extension.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Then they just kind of filled in the blanks on
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: offensive line, bringing in Iluminor, who's a local guy who
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: has been thrilled to be here. And then of course
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: John Runyon's son, John Runyon Junior done running in the second.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure what he goes by, but he's never
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: missed a start in his NFL career. And then a
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: quiet move at the end of Day one was they
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: brought in Devin Motor Singletary, who was with Houston last year,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: had a nice season and it was with Buffalo for
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: three years before that. Motor Singletary has been a starting
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: running back of running back one on four consecutive different
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: playoff teams and doesn't drop the ball, doesn't turn the
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: ball over. And I think what's most interesting about him
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: is that look at what he does, and he's been
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: more durable than Saquon over the years as far as
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: being in the lineup. Now, he's not Saquon Barkley. You
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: can tell by the compensations he's not. But it's not
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: a bad option if you're going to spend all that
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: money on Brian Burns. So how could I say to
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: the winners, Brian Burn's a twenty five year old top
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: tier defensive end. Those guys do not just show up
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: on free agency. You have to break the bank any way.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: To get one, and they got them for a couple
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: of draft picks. I felt like they fleeced the Carolina
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Panthers in that deal. And to me, when you're building
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: a roster, running back in safety and twenty twenty four
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: are not two of the priority positions, they're just not.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: You find safeties around the league at a veteran cost
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: that makes sense, and you say, okay that unless you're
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: talking about once in a lifetime guy or a Ronnie
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Lot or a or an Ed read like. I don't
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: know what the thought is on a safety being the
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: highest paid player on your team. And I'm not sure
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Xavier mckinne expected that. But twenty four years old, good player.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: But I don't have any qualms of the team letting
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: a running back in a safety leave if they want
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: to get paid elsewhere for more, which they both did.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: If you're going to bring in a defensive end who's
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: twenty five years old, hungry wants to be there and
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: said in his press conference he was downright giddy to
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: be a New York Giant. My last point will be
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: NFL Draft related. Coming out of the combine, I'll tell
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: you two things. Two big takeaways might be the best
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: and deepest offensive line draft we've had since I've started
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: covering the draft, and that was around two thousand and five.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: So you're telling me, in twenty years, one of the
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: best offensive line drafts we have seen. It might be
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the deepest and best wide receiver draft we have seen
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: since I don't know ninety six. This is not hyperbole, guys.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: This is the drafts that they are. And it's also
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: why you didn't see the wide receiver market, you know,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: go nuts with the exception of Calvin Ridley maybe, but
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: like there wasn't these crazy deals and it's might have
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: been a little slow. We're going to really lean into draft.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: We've got great quarterbacks in this draft, or at least
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: great quarterback prospects. We've got really good, really good offensive linemen,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: including it the tackle positions, which are probably the most
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: prominent outside of quarterback on an offense right now. And
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: then the wide receiver class is so deep, and we
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: can go through the order. Whether you're in a Dovenesday fan,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: whether you're a Harrison fan, whether you're I'm Alakue Neighbors fan,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: or if you're like me who likes Thomas out of
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: LSU or likes at a night Mitchell out of the Texas.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: It's a really cool deep class and we'll get into
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: all that in the coming weeks. But keep that in
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: mind as your team is roster building and maybe you
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: feel like there's some holes on your roster. Really good
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: draft class offensive tackle and wide receiver. Now time for
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: our guests. I'll get to them with a great, great
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: lead up in a second, but I just want to say,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Aaron Donald retires on a Friday, start doing all my
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: texts and collecting information. Saturday and Sunday, I go on
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Good Morning Football, I explain the salary cap ramifications a bit,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and then as I finish Good Morning Football at ten
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: am Eastern, I shoot Less Need a text and say, hey,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: would you be willing to talk about Aaron Donald this
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: week at some point on the podcast? And his response
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: was when and where you name it? Anything for that dude.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: It tells you the amount of respect Less Sneed has
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: for Aaron Donald. He's our guest. Less of the brilliant,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: brilliant football mind and I can't wait to just wax
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: the poetic and one of the greatest players to ever
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: play our game with no further ado, one of the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: greatest executives in the league, and I would say also
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: one of the savvyest roster builders and all around good
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: guys and someone I've become pretty close with over the
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: years and has been a dear friend in many moments
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: for me. He's the GM of the Rams since twenty twelve,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and he has been in that role Aaron Donald's entire career.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Mister lesned Welcome to the season with Peter Scheger.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Us interest and Peter for the first time, when you
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: said been in the roles in Aaron's entire season, I
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: got chilled. So, yeah, I know we're going to talk
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: a lot about Aaron Donald, but that was one of
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: the first moments of okay chills that Wow, maybe it
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: is a right. I walked in Starbucks this morning and
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: the Barisa there really cool. Her name's Jackie and she's
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: a major Rams fan and she doesn't work on Friday's.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Maybe she does, but I go in early in the morning.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: But first thing she said, I'm just so sad. I'm like,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: and she's never sad, She's always happy. I'm like, what
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: do you And she wasn't sad now singing I was like,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: what are you talking about? What happened. Well, somebody should
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: have told me, Aaron Donald, what's going to retire? I said, oh,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: but you know what I mean? She was And then
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: the other two young baristas who probably go to probably
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: students at pepher done not really let's call it football people,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, man, did he have one heck
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: of a career.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: So yeah, think about it. We're gonna go through that
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: with you because I want to everything in the origin
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: story when you first laid eyes on all that. But
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I just said it on Good Morning Football Today. Ten
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: years in the NFL, eight time first team All Pro
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: in the only two years he wasn't in All Pro
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: was his rookie season, which is so rare to see
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: an All Pro rookie season, and the twenty twenty two
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: campaign we're abdy to shut it down for a little
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: bit because of injury. I mean, are we talking about
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: one of the greatest NFL careers ever?
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: He's definitely I will go definitely one of those like
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: there's gonna be and there's we can debate all day
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: long and analytics can spin it up and try to
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: come up with a one, but if there's a pot
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: of players that you're going to talk about being like
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: one of the greatest. He's in that pot. However many
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: there there are, you know, I mean, he's definitely one
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: of those. He's in that pot of players, in that
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: bucket of players to try to figure out where you
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: rank them and sort them.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: But as a human being, I've got to know them
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: just a little bit. And that's why Ferrika, they're all
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and it's like my interaction with them have always been positive,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: big love of all that stuff. But you guys live
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: and breathe it every day. And I said, you got
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: there twenty twelve. He gets drafted soon thereafter. I mean,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: you've known this man for more than a decade. The
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: human who what don't we know of Aaron Donald who
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't live on social media and isn't looking to be
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: in a TikTok video every single day? Like, what don't
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: we know that you might know being with him all
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: this time.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. And I had ten things I
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: wanted to get across in this podcast. I had a
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: bonus eleventh that would be a very podcast. We go,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: we do a top ten list and break it down.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: So I'm gonna but we'll get back to him. I
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: want to make sure I hit him, but own that one.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: If I on the surface level, I'll try to go
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: to we have this somewhat probably just full saying in
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: the building that while let's call it the player that
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: when you watch own film and you go, wow, this
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: guy is really really talented, and then goes to the combine.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: And sometimes you can have a really good football player
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: that doesn't do the jumps and the drill and all that,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: but they go to the combine and blow that out too.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: And then and again, I don't know whether this guy's
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: at the back or not, but the Jets would be.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: But they're also basically treat football like their Rudy a
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: first ballot Hall of Famer. Again, so you get maybe
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: you get where I'm going. So the end of the
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: and the one thing I was going to say is
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: about Aaron, which is great for football because air is
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: an alpha on a football team. But at the end
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: of the day, the collective has to be competent and
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: the fulfillment comes from the collective's success, right, And the
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: thing I remember most about Aaron is this, let's call
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: it his entire career. Let's go to twenty eighteen, losing
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: a super bowl and then up until we finally want
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: it is. I do know this. There was there was
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: a void inside of him that it burned fiercely but quietly,
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: but it was very contagious and you know, and you
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: had this this It was one of those things. It
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: was like he didn't have to say it because he's
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: a very quiet person. He didn't have to say it.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: But it's like, okay, what can we do to make
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: sure this human being right fulfills that void. Now, if
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: we were able to do that right as a front office,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: a coaching staff, ramps, we were all gonna right, we
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: were all going to get to wear a ring. But
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: it was almost like that man deserves he wants that
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: so so bad. So that would be one thing I think,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: think artist one man, you know artists. Of course, our
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: VP of UH Communications Public Relations PR little distraught that
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Aaron didn't have a press comfort right the Jason Keltsy
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: moment yep. And I was a lot of us in
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: the build were like, let me come on, Aaron Donalds
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: similar to Barry Centers. He's not flying to London mm hm.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: But you know that's just not him and at some
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: point he will probably get on some platform or have
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: a press conference and and and discuss, you know, his
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: career in football. But it just seems so that that's
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: just who Aaron is. My wife, Kerra, who you were
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: just talking to, would definitely would definitely want me to
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: bring up uh, his family, h his kids. Uh. When
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: he first got to Saint Louis, he had his first daughter,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: you know, his new you know with Erica. It's just
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: he's that kind of he's like, he's that father now
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: that right is laying on the carpet somewhere, playing with
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: his kids. And there's four things. How do you mix
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: that up? And that's a little bit who Aaron Donald is.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I get emotional because when you say that, you know
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: happens in twenty eighteen. And then it's in this quiet
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: burning and here we are in the media and we're
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: talking about Stafford finally gets a chance and Odell finally
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: gets a chance, and here's Jalen Ramsey and all along
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: it's the guy that's been there since pretty much day one.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: And it's no really, the lifeblood of that team was
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: number ninety nine in the middle. Who's not the flashy
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: guy and it isn't the one that's causing headlines. It's
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: just the guy that goes out there and dominates every
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: single day.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's and then in between the rudy part I
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: brought up.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: I think about that because I did a nice I
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: saw when she wrote in The Athletic about it, how
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: he's always had this chip on his shoulder. But less
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I was at the Senior Ball that year, and I
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: did my mock draft that year and I eventually got
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Donald and the teens, But at the Senior ball, I
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: look back when I wrote I had Aaron Donald going
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: twenty first overall to like Arizona, and I said, unbelievable
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: week at the Senior Bowl. Dominated on every single drive.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: But is he too small to play in today's NFL.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: That's the question that's going to loom around him. And
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I feel like that never came up then ten years
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: of football, we never said Aaron Donald's just not big
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: enough to play in the NFL. So egg on my face.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: And you know, to you who drafted.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: I've mentioned that Aaron. And it's interesting and I get
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: it right in terms of shapes and sizes, and you
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: go to use analytics and data, he would be on
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: the shorter, smaller side of defensive limblan, So he's on
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: the left hand part of that. Bill Kirk. When you
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: bring it up to Aaron Donald, he always considered that
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: a strength. And by that he said, I usually played
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: against taller offensive lineman. So I was born with average
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: and now it was up to me to take advantage
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: of right, the blessing I was gifted with by being
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: shorter and smaller than everyone else. So he he his
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: whole our paradigm is Wow, is he going to be
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: able to overcome this disadvantage handicap? Yeah, and he was like,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: wait a minute, this is an advantage. I would hate
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: to be big and tall. I could never disturb the
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: game like I do if I was taller or bigger.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: So it's fascinating when you you chat with him about that.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: What do you remember that Senior Bowl though, I mean,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and that he was unbelievable.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. I think some of our guys on
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: the hall were. When he did retire on Broady, there
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: was a someone, right, social media can be good or bad,
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: and you know we can discuss that, right, whether it's
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: good for your mental health or not. But sometimes it's
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: very creative. But someone had cut up and tweeted out,
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: what have your Instagram? I'm not sure which platform was on,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: but his reps at the Senior Bowl right, so, and
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: but that was a very dominating Senior Bowl. No one
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: could blocking Maybe Zach, if you go back and look
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: at the offensive line, there a lot of those players
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: from that Senior Bowl on that offensive line played a
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: lot of years in the NFL, Zach Martin being one
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: of them. I mean, in today's world, I don't think
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Zach Martin or Aaron Donald even go to the Senior Bowl.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: But at that time they did. I can remember at
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: the combine talking to every one of the offensive linemen
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: at that Senior Bowl, Zach Martin included, and they were like,
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: that's that's an alien. That's the single greatest football There's
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: no way you can block that human being. And a
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: lot of those guys, you know, some of them are
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: still playing, some of them had really really good careers.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: But yeah, it's amazing because that combine he goes and kicks.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: But and let me get to the draft. You guys
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: had the second overall pick. He took Greg Robinson, the
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: big athletic tackle out of all burn And then we
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: go through it and It's like Khalil Maco was five
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: and Sammy Watkins goes to the Bills and Mike Evans.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: You know what's interesting, Well, the only time we'll get
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: off Aaron Donald is someone who worked with us. He
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: is now, he's still a consultant with us. His name
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: is J. W. Jordan's. It's a long time with the
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Colts with Bill Napoleon, and in that draft is our
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: whole goal. His kind of goal was let's be the
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Baltimore Ravens and draft two Hall of famers Ogden and
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Lewis right. But I was telling someone the other day, wow,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: did we have that up? Because we did it with
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Aaron Donald. But if you look at those players that
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: were in and around the top ten.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: It takes a lot of humility for you to say
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: that closed.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Throwing a dart and nailed the Hall of Famer. So yeah, so.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: It's actually a really interesting draft. I went back, So
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Clowney went one. He was everyone's you guys took and
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: we're still playing, right. Clowney was awesome this year. Clowney
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: had thirty had his most career sacks, I think this year.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: And then you get Bortles and Sammy Watkins who are
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: out of football but had fine careers. And then you
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: go through guys like Khalil Mack, Jake Matthews, Mike Evans.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Then you get the Justin Gilbert Pick, then Anthony Barr
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: who had a nice career, Eric Ebron had a nice career,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Taylor lawan great career.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: We're missing obj in there somewhere.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Odell is after Taylor Lwan to the Giants at twelve.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: At thirteen, you guys get Aaron Donald. So yes, you
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: could have potentially had Khalil Mack and Aaron Donald. You
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: could have potentially had Jake Matthews or Zach Martin and
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Aaron Donald. Of course we can go in million different ways,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: but you get Aaron Donald at thirteen. When you drew
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: the board up, did you know like your in your
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: heart of heart's like, okay, we want Aaron Donald. Is
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: that one of those where the board to spell that
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: way and it's like best available player?
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: It is interesting. I can't say that from the beginning
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: we felt like that Aaron Donald was a beautiful, complimentary
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: piece to our defense and at that time coach Fisher
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Jeff being a defensive coach we had at that time
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Chris Long and Robert Quinn. We had drafted Michael Brockers,
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: who was also in the D line. But Michael Michael
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: was a very good run player, definitely affected the past game.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: He's tall along. But at the end of the day,
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: when you played Chris Long, you played Robert Quinn, a
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: lot of qbs could step up right. They could Chris
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: and them could could do their thing. QB could step
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: up still make things happen. So there was that that
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: moment I think and maybe some of my sociology of
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: growing up that are spending a lot of years in
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Atlanta playing Warren sapp where you were like, holy cow,
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: if you could if we could have someone who could
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: right disturb from the middle, what is that QB gonna
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: do in some of those known pasts. So he was
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: definitely someone that we targeted and felt like would be
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: right a beautiful symbiotic piece for that that defensive line,
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: and and the rest was history. Even with that with
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: that crew, even though we might not have had as
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: much team's success with those three, but boy, we were
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: a Ferocians defense for you. I remember sometimes the Saints
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: and they were really good back Coach Peyton there, it
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: was almost like they just said, Hey, we're just gonna
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: get in twenty one personnel and hand it to the
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: fullback and sure that Drew Brees lives to see the
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: rest of them.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Mike Kearney get the ball and just go up the gut. Yeah,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: something like that. That was what they did, just because you're,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: you know, fearful of what's going to be coming of
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: you from those Rams guys. He's a rookie, you draft him.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I remember he wasn't in Radio City, and I have
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: a specific story about ty Barrell, the actor, being in
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Radio City and being told you're not going to do
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the Rams first pick, but you're gonna be on stage
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: and give the jersey to the guy their second pick.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: But Aaron Donald wasn't there, so Tiberrell just never got
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: to walk the stage. And I love that story, and
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, it's so funny that you make the
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: trip and all that he wasn't there, but he comes
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: to here to what were your first initial reactions those
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: first few days. Is when he shows up in Saint
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Louis and here's our new prize piece of this defensive line.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Here's here's what I can sum it up by saying,
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: this and and let's this isn't the first few days,
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: this isn't necessarily the first year, second training camp August
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: after his rookie year, and so this would be initial.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: This is just Aaron dolland who he is basically, who
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: he is in the building, who he is off the field.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: He's one of those guys that would be on Friday night,
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: you may come in at eight pm and he would
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: still he had a routine where he would do sauna
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: and go. He would be there on Friday night watching
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: film an opponent maybe till eight Friday night in training
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: and or in the season. So the training camp story
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: is this Chris Long, Will Hayes and just coming off
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: the field one day at random August and just said, Hey,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: all we're going to tell you is this is the
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: RAMS should just make Aaron Donald the highest played player
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: of football right now. He deserves it. I know you
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: didn't know the sound season. Yeah, Chris Long kind of
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: had a clue that I know you can't do it,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: but you should do it. Like if you're ever just
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: going to break the rules and do it, he's the
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: one do it for him.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Is he one of those guys that you would see
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: stuff in practice that just everyone just kind of looks
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: at each other and gasps and says, what are we
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: watching here?
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Well, the best practice story, we could go home. The
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: best thing that ever happened to Sean in his first
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: year is he was holding out because in OTAs with
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: no pads zone, you could not block it. He would
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: he just disturbed. You couldn't even he was in the backfield.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Every bole, I mean, you couldn't block and you had to.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Once you get pads on, people can hold and grab
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: the maybe. So I would say, Sean, you're if you
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: would if you would have not held out, you would
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: have lost your stinger, your dapper. You probably wouldn't have
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: been able to call a play. You just felt like
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: we couldn't even block anyone. That's that's kind of how
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: That's kind of who that human was. And I forget
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: the question and where I was going. I had a
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: really good story, but that.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: One training camp story, I said, a practice Yeah, But the.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Best football story was it was probably an Ota, probably
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: probably a college free agent offensive linemen getting a little
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: bit of a scuffle, okay, and Aaron just grabbed his
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: face mask and with a flick of her wrist popped
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: the face mask off the helmet and then threw it
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: back at the guy like it threw it. But the
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: point being is this is this is all within the
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: last This is since we've been in the like, there's
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: a lot of technology that goes into those helmets. Like
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: you buy an NFL helmet right now, all the viewers, however,
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: many people are watching this, listen to this, Go order
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: an authentic NFL helmet and then set your timer and
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: see who can get the face mask off that helmet
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: as fast as possible. He got that face mask off
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: the helmet in one flip of a wrist, which is
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: probably but the cool things he kind of threw it
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: right back to him.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Go put this back together, screw it in yourself.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: That's the freakish human thing that he definitely could do.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. And then you can see the off
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: season videos of him jumping out of pools from a
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: standing bara jup like the athlete, forget the person, forget
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: the work ethic, forget the stuff the athlete itself. It's
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: alien stuff. Am I right?
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's it. I think I'm I mentioned it.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: It was as we talked about going back. I can
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: remember a little bit. Initially. I remember with Kevin denmoll
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: and he came in. We were in Saint Louis and
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: our office was right next to each other, and we're
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: what Aaron Donald happened to be on film watching him
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: and Kevin Kevin if you know Kevin like right, ADHD
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: whatever it is, curious mind. He can only watch so
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: many football plays, like you know, we can't really watch
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: ten in a row. It's a little boring per se too,
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: and it's too smart for football. But were, however many
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: plays we did ten fifteen twins, Like, man, that's a
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: heck of a highlight film. And I'm like, no, Kevin,
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: that's just a that's just a Saturday Pittsburgh against NC
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: State and every play he is in the backfield. So,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: as you mentioned, he dominated the Senior Bowl. But I
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: can remember obviously blue about the combine. But the one
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: thing that I do remember going in and sitting and
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: mentioned in the Jeff was his short shuttle and three
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: cones were basically at defensive back levels. We had a
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: big had a big dB at the time, uh Tremaine Johnson, who.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Was his closest right to ten, but.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: He had better three short shuttle Than and he was
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: starting for us to end up having a nic career,
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: got paid by the Jackets. I can remember uh sitting
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: at uh Man. What's the safe house in Indy?
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, st Elmos.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we hadn't gone to Indians so long. I forgot
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: about saying that.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: So embarrassing up there, I basically have a second home
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: there with all the combined time there because.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: We used to spend the day after the comb when
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: everybody left, we'd spend my night there kind of organizing
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: our faults. And I remember sitting it was probably Brad Holmes,
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: myself probably were office at a table and Warren Sap
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: was sitting next to us, and Warren and my wife
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: Kara Tight. I've gotten an old Warren a little bit,
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: but I can remember Warren just basically going sneak. If
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: you don't draft Aaron Donald, you're basically the dumbest human being.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, hello, But.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: That's where we're going back to. This guy could really
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: really play football good, but went to the combine and
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: did some freakish things. So what you would see on
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: the football there is Wow, there's a freak there for sure.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: All right, NFL Aaron Donald the super Bowl will run
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: the first one on the second one. What stands out
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: from on the field in those big moments and Aaron
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Donald doing his thing.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: I think the thing that that stands out the most
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: is if you talk about we mentioned earlier, right that
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: that void that burned, And then it came down to
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: what Sean talks about, situational matter, but being great when
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: when great is required, and and and then in Jordan's
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Rodrique's article on Friday when he retired, you forget about it. Right,
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: We've all seen, even my friends will send me the
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: clips of right that have come out with Sean.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: On that fourth down, Aaron's going to make a play
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: up three, Aaron Donald will make a play. And he
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: does it, and Sean says to everyone, I told you
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: he'd make a play.
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: But and Jordans it's called it's called stimulated the memory
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: of going And if you watch it on film. On
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: the third and one, uh, the Bengals run the ball
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: and Aaron Donald basically sticks one arm out and drags.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure it was mixing. Maybe it was mixing a.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: P run if I'm not mistaken.
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: On fourth down, but maybe it was p R. I
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: forget long story short. Both those backs are big with
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: one arm basically being double teamed, grabbed the guy and
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: stop the human from getting a yard. If they get
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: that yard, they got another set of four downs. They've
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: had a kicker who was very hot. So you just
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: think about again, this is all this human played football
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: for was to wear the ring. And in those two
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: it came down to a third and one in the
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: four feet. A lot of people might go, oh man,
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: it's one yard. He's probably looking at it like never
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: asking that. You know what good it's they need one,
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: they're not getting one. They're not getting one on fourth.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: That's that's him. There's a lot of highlights you can
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: but again, the moment, the situation that play those two plays, right.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: I don't memory. Okay, So we have access to all
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: the NFL films and all the game tape, and I've
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: got an amazing producer on Good Morning Football guy named
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Steve Corn and I was like, can you go back
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: and watch there's a game that you guys played against
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Tampa where there was rain delay because of lightning twenty
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: and I specifically remember Aaron Donald lining up at outside linebacker.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Is this a figment of my imaginate. We went back.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: I couldn't find a playing the show. But like that,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: I think he played like two different series that outside
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: linebacker in a three four alignment. Am I crazier? Did
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: that happens?
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that happened. I can't. I don't necessarily
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: remember that.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: I couldn't find it.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: I remember the long delay in Tampa. But yes, I
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: know there were definitely times when different coordinators would try
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: to match up Aaron versus you know.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: Think about that.
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: I find a little bit of a weaker link on
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: the oil.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Are there any defensive tackles in the history of the
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: sport who would move out to olb? Oh?
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: This one's he's a free he's a streak. I remember
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: when I mentioned to Jeff that, hey, this guy can
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: you know, basically has three comb short shuttles at BB levels.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: He says, what do you what do you want to
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: do playing with Nickel? You know, maybe maybe come on
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: third down.
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: I showed the I showed the two Yeah, let's go.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: I showed the two plays today. There was a fumble
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: recovery against the Seahawks in twenty twenty one, maybe where
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: he tosses the dude on the sideline where he gets
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: the ball in his hands and there's another fumble recovery
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: he has earlier in his career where he's get the
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: ball in his hands in the runner And I said,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: if I have one great regret about Aaron Donald's career,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: we never saw him in that, in that short yardage
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: running back role, but holy crap, can he just do
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: that too?
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: Yes? Uh, my wife care I've mentioned a few times,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: you know, we know or she's always wondered, why didn't
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: y'all play Aaron Donald at running back on the goal
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: on I'm like, well mentioned it to Shan. He says,
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: you know, we don't have a goal on offense. Okay,
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: we don't have a goal. But I'm like, so obviously
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: with our ties at Texas now and my step son
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: herd Son playing at Texas in the Big twelve Championship,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: they got big Sweat a touchdown. Then maybe in one
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: of the final four games they got Bira Murphy. So curious,
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: See that's what Aaron Donald could do.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: It was crazy when would get the ball in his
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: hands though, because he immediately both times and he's both
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: these long fumble recoveries, he takes a second and he
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: like looks at the field like he's Marshall Falk Dude.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: He's like, I'm gonna die, goes where to go? And
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: he's got nice footwork, and it's like, oh my god,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: this guy could have done that too.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: Missed the boat, the fridge, fridge, William and Perry, let's
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: go bring him back.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Let's go in the locker room with younger guys. I
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: get the sense he was a real guiding light. And
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: that's not a story that's been written a million times,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: but when you see Kobe Turner and Brian Young play
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: like they've played this season, I have to imagine Aaron
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: Donald was a very, very big influence on both of
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: those guys.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: We's fascinating. I think all rookies, especially at that age gap,
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: right Aaron going in his tenure, they're going into his
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: rook their rookie years. I mean, they've grown up watching
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: those highlights we've been discussing, so there is an element
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: of like, all, like, this is my teammate now.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: And then I think what's what's very very overwhelming at
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: times will be the moment they realize holy cow. They
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: go to the practice field and maybe they're somewhat early
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: and Aaron's been out there already and is sweaty, and okay,
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: that's Aaron Donald. Maybe this is. But then it's the
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: next day, and it's the next day, the next day,
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: and it's the next day. So at the end of
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: the day, there was not like Aaron doesn't need a
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: T shirt, he doesn't need a sign. It's more like, hey,
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: this is the standards being lived, and it can be
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: somewhat stressful, overwhelming. Aaron's one of those guys that, Hey,
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: on a on a Friday, he's gonna he's gonna want
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: to go in the weight room and work out like
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: it's a Tuesday in February or Tuesday in March, when
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: there's no football going on, you know. So that's the
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: new thing is that. I think it's we said a
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: little bit it was cool about post super Bowl post
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: let's call it super Bowl hangover coming into this year
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: and really sitting down on there and saying, Okay, we're
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: gonna need to go young less experience. Have a lot
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: of players on their rookie contracts and this this, this quote,
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: this sign is in the you know, it's it's ingrained
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: Dennis now, and it's it's a standard for probably every position. Now,
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: when we go to draft someone is he just said, Hey,
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: I'll partner with anyone, just make sure they care. Mm hmm,
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: sure they care. And if you get you're a rookie
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: and you care. Aaron Donalds one of those types like,
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: I'm not necessarily going to get to know your name
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: day one or two. I'll figure out whether I want
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: to learn your name once you show that you care.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: And then at that point, uh, you're you know, tell
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: you man, you're in, but you better show you care.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: You better not tell him you care.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: I wrote that down lest I love that, I'll partner
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: with anyone, just make sure they care itselfless. But it's
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: also you draft the guy, you make sure he's made
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: of the right stuff, because you have to be made
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: it the right stuff to even be on my level.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: I'll paraphrase this. Even when we were hiring Sean and
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: we were going through the coaching change and you're you're
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: chatting with Aaron about what would you like to see
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: a new coach, and Aaron wasn't someone who's gonna be nuanced.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: I'd like to see this and this. He said, Hey,
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: seems like that's y'all's job just make sure they're really
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: good and make sure they get us where we want
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: to go, and you know where we want to go.
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: And you're like, Okay, I get it, Like I'm a
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: I'm a Hall of Fame defensive lineman. Seems like you
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: guys are the ones that need to try to figure
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: out who to hire as a coach, just to make
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: sure the guys really good.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: Albert Breer wrote about it, and I talked to McVeigh
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: on Friday about it. You guys kind of knew this
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: was the final ride going into this season.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: And Sean said a quote that I got goosebumps on.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: He said that Aaron told him with his family situation
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: and with the Super Bowl ring and after that Detroit
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: loss in the playoffs where he left it all in
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: the field. The term was I'm full. I'm good, Like
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: I'm full coach, I'm full. You guys kind of knew,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: and yet what I so respect from your building. And
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: I've had Kevin Demboff as a podcast guest, and I've
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: hosted a podcast with Sean and you and I go
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: back so long, and you've been on this. It didn't
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: make its way outside the building, and you guys kind
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: of kept that in house. I think that's pretty cool.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: There has to be some sort of pride in Hey,
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: we're a family, let's let's keep it within us. So
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: it's on airon to.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: I think it has to do with the respect Aaron.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: We know, football ecosystems, even even when people I don't
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: want to call it leak, but sometimes leaks occur by
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: right people in football liked.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah about change information football.
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: It could be like right in indeed, when you're all
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: duty per se and something gets said and next thing
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: you know, it travels. And I think with with air
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: and the respect that he had in our building, you
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: were good. It was just just like everything right. You Hey,
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: Aaron's gonna get to retire when he wants to retire.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: That's and you know, you don't really need to have
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: any meetings and go, hey, make sure remember no one
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: talks about Aaron. It's it's really kind of he's kind
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: of one of those people. Okay, Aaron's gonna he wants
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: to do it this way, we're gonna allow him to
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: do it. So yeah, you're you're you're exactly right. Really
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: really cool to see that come to fruition. Now. I
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: did tell Aaron uh I called him and because I
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: knew I was doing the when we didn't go to
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: the combine where we're gonna sit with a local media
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, Aaron, you're making this really really hard.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: He's gonna ask me about you, and I said, Aaron,
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: here's what I can tell you. I have no problem
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: just doing a bold face love for you, have no
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: but just want you to know you making it really
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: really hard.
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: I will lie for you, but it's not going to
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: be easy on that point. There was like a very
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: quiet roster move on Tuesday of the week that I
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: feel like people didn't pick up on, like you guys kind.
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: Of restructors is probably one of the let's call it,
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: highlights of his career to be able to engineer that
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: so few others.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Friday explain it for explain it for the listening usually
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: gets that whole transcript from someone and he just reports
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: on the minutia of the transaction wire. And yet this
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: one Aaron Donald restructure kind of falls within which wide
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: Receiver three is signing with some team and free agent
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: Frenzy explain the little maneuver you guys did and.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: I can't explain that maneuver. That's we got to bring
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: Tony on the podcast. You did a heck of a
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: job doing it on on football.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: I'm trying. I'm reading about like.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: But like you said, you summed it up right. It
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: was a salary cap mechanism that was kind of always
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: somewhat planned be able to give him, you know, the
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: the bonus that he had deserved. We'd always talked about
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: this being a two year thing and and whether he'd
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: have played or not this year you would have had
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: to figure out year three. So something was coming. Uh.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: But nice work, and now there's a little bore. Now
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: there's a little room to not only make a move,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: but you guys can kind of do your defense at a
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: post Aaron Donald roll without the pressures of oh my god,
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: we're paying him thirty nine million this year and we've
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: got this this albatross around us for a guy out
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: of this team. It was pretty great.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think the mantra in our building now
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: because I think I said it a little bit to
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: match Aaron's very right concise way of going about his business.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: But and I've said, hey that it really is true.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: There's well there will never be another Aaron Donald. So
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: are the journey's not okay? We got to go find
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: our next Aaron Donald. Like that, that is not happening.
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: There's not another one on the planet. So guess what,
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: Let's go find good defensive players and begin the next chapter.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: But we're not looking for the next Aaron Donald. He
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: does doesn't exist.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna rap with two quick ones. One I
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: said on the show. He can go coach, he can
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: go back to Pittsburgh, he can go into wherever he
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: wants to go and live a life like you said,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: cuddling with kids on the couch. I I through about
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: something that I've gotten a lot of negative pushback, not
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: on Aaron but on me, saying, well, you clearly don't
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: know Aaron Donald. But I said, after all these years
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: in Los Angeles and his reputation is such an incredibly
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: beloved player. He's done, done everything, always were right, and
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: with his physique and his build, and with Hollywood now
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: banking on superheroes and action stars and there's no more
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: romantic comedies and small budget films, I would not be
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: shocked to see Aaron Donald in a movie a La
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: John Cena or the rock am I off my rocker
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: in that Aaron Donald could be a Hollywood action hero.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: I think he definitely has that potential, right and if
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: I were, I haven't seen it yet, but I saw
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: the documentary, uh, and I'd love to watch it. Arnold Schwarzenegger,
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: I haven't hear it seems like that right, bodybuilder turned terminator, heck,
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: governor whatever. But point being he went from a bodybuilder
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: to terminator to write action figure megastar. Seems like Aaron
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: has that, so that'd big. I start with the documentary.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: I know, I know the Rocks been in our building
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: filming things in him and Aaron working out so that
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: there's definitely it's a relationship and then you know, now
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: it's just you know, figure out. Pat McAfee said something
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: the other day and I'm like, you know, he probably
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: knows that world better than I do, but he basically
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: he probably I think the WMA that's probably something that's
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: that is that probably helps you become an act because
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: it is acting. But you take these and you learn
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: how to play a character right and snap in the character.
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: So maybe wrestling first in but in this world of YouTube,
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: Pat mcley truly said he could probably go in the
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: weight room, do a fee once a week and put
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: it on YouTube and it would get all these views
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: and he would just get paid for those views. I
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: have never had a YouTube video go viral other than
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: probably the cold strange one by.
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: Accident, which wasn't what you guys wanted to go.
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: By anything for it. But the point being is I
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: don't know that world, but it does seem like, okay,
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: you can maybe maybe start with the YouTube feet of
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: the week in the weight room, Aaron Donald ripped in
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: a face mask off, it goes viral and then we
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: go from there. But he definitely has potential that in
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: his career. I mean, if Merlin Olson can do it
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: right from my defensive line, La ram defensive line, and
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: Aaron Donald can do it.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: There's a history got Merlin Olson and then I think
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: of Fred Dryer Rams legend going on to be hunter.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: There's that a history. Here. My last one for you,
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: and it's Aaron Donald related. You've had this incredible NFL career,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: this decorated life, charting your time in college to Atlanta
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: to Saint Louis to LA When you look back on it,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: I know it's very reflective and I don't tend to
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: take a step back when you're in the midst of
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: free agency and draft planning. Do you think Aaron Donald's
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: the greatest professional feat that you've had as far as
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: player selections and assessing talent coming out of the college ranks.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: I think that's easy. Yes, I think someone. I think
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: one of I think my kids asked me this weekend,
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: are you going in five years or you going to
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: the Hall of Fame? And you know me a little bit.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: My kids know me. At the end of the day,
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: I'm an introvert, and you know I would rather not.
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: I'm just as good escaping to so cal and join
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: the day and not partaking in. Oh, let's go to
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: this party. Let's go to the Hall of Fame and
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: go to this party. If I go to the Hall
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: of Fame, I don't want to go to the party.
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: Cara may dragged me to a party, but I'm getting
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: drugged to the party, you know what I mean. So,
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: but at the end, I'm like, oh, yeah, I'll be
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: there for that one for sure.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable. What a football life less. I'm gonna have you
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: on again and we're going to talk things like Stafford
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: and you know Kevin Dotson and Jonathan Jackson what we're
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: building on the offensive line, but I thought it would
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: be only appropriate to go all Aaron Donald on this sucker,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: and my gosh, we went forty five minutes, and I
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: feel like we could have done forty five minutes more.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Any closing words on the Aaron Donald era in Saint
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: Louis and LA. For listeners at home, we.
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: Throw around the word rare, unique, often sometimes too much,
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: but he's definitely Uh, he's definitely rare. And what's fascinating
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: is is to think where he is now. It just
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: seems like in hindsight that was easy. But going back
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: to he was, he didn't come out as an underclassman.
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: He came out as a senior, went to the Senior Bowl.
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: He's undersize. I can remember probably post junior year, Aaron
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: Donald's probably shows up on a national NFS list. Be
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: interesting what their grade was. We didn't have these right
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: hey screaming he's going to be a first ballot Hall
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: of Fame gray, but people were aware this Aaron valady
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: is he to be? And I remember Billy john So
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: Billy Johnson's uh An area scout force. Now we had
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: just Herding. His dad's a long time defensive line coach.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: He had he had just come from Tulane as a
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: long snapper and he wanted to get in scouting, so
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: he's a scouting assistant twenty and we kind of had
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: these guys that we had peg that would be okay,
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: these guys are kind of guys we should try to
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: figure out. Again, they're not oh, let's they're not Jadavian
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: Clowney where it's gonna be a first rounder since he's
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: in ninth grade type player. But it was like, hey,
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: this guy, we got him at a kind of a
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: middle of the late round draft pick, but y'all might
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: need to watch this guy more like he he looks
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: like he's better again, he's trying to articulate in a
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: way that I know, Look, I'm just a long snapper.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: From the look at his eyes though, are guys they're
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: talking second third round here?
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know what giving, but somebody needs to
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: watch this guy, and you think about how it all started.
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: Kind of that's kind of Aaron Donald in a nutshell,
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: probably always underwhelmed from a stature standpoint, but every time
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: he stepped on a football field in a football building anywhere.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: He made a rare impact that organization, on that team,
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: in that community.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: Beautiful Lestening, thank you. This was awesome and what a
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: tribute to Aaron Donald, one of the greatest we've ever seen.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: I so appreciate you less. You took time out of
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: the busiest season of the busiest time of your year.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: This is peak off season GM mode, and you took
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: forty five minutes with me to chat about one of
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: the greatest players.
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: That it would have only been for you in the
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: subject Aaron Bong.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: Let's dude, thank you. I appreciate you so much and
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: good luck the rest of the off season.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: Enjoyed it.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: I think that was quite a tribute right eron. I
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: feel like that's what we want. We want the guy
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: who drafted him to go deep into the memory bank
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: and to just wax poetic. And I thought Lesnie was fantastic.
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: And it's great too, especially like on the eve of
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: this year's draft to hear them say, yeah, the guy
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: we took it too. You know, we didn't hit on
• 59:30
  Speaker 4: that one and the one we took a twelve that
• 59:33
  Speaker 4: was a Hall of famer. I mean it shows you
• 59:35
  Speaker 4: how mysterious some of the prospects are in the draft process,
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: and yeah, I mean I love I mean obviously, you know,
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: having the same name as Aaron Donald means it was
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: great to hear so many amazing things about him as
• 59:49
  Speaker 4: a person and a player. I remember watching him, you know,
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: that Super Bowl. I remember being in LA for Radio
• 59:57
  Speaker 4: row and then going to watch Super Bowl with some
• 59:59
  Speaker 4: friends further south in California and just watching Aaron Donald
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: in that game, and that was It's incredible.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: So it's amazing. The term ball of butcher knives is
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: sometimes thrown around. That's kind of how he plays, like
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: just with it seems like it's reckless, abandoned, but it's
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: all so smooth and choreographed. He's so special. I personally
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: am gonna miss watching him. He's one of the only
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: players in NFL history that's not a quarterback that I
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: can kind of follow while watching the game, and I
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: opt to do that. It's hard with the way the
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: camera angles are at NFL games, you can't really watch
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: a guy's route. If you really love wide receiver playing like,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: you're not staring at Julian Edelman's footwork, You're looking at
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Brady and you're following the ball with Aaron Donald because
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: he's in the defensive line. You could just focus in
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: a ninety nine and it's almost like you can use
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: your own eyes as your own camera because it's at
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage and what he does or did
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: is so fantastic. That was cool. What about the the
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: concept he brought a wrestler to action star to Schwarzenegger prototyline.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if he's got that big
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: personality to be a wrestler, but we also that would
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: say as a FOOTBA player, he might be different as
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: a professional wrestler or as a movie star.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, and you just said Ball of butcher Knives.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 4: There was that video maybe three years ago. I think
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 4: that like him practicing with like the knives and you know,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 4: that is the most action movie stunt kind of looking
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: thing ever. Like that would be what Captain America is
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 4: doing in a movie scene. Like of course, after watching that,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 4: Aaron Donald could one hundred percent, I think, be someone
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 4: that you see and you know, maybe he's in like
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 4: a football movie first or something, and then he's in
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: I don't know if they're still making expendables or you know,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: Fast and the Furious or something like that. I think
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 4: I could see that for sure totally.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Uh, let's wrap it here. We'll probably do just one
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: this week and then next week I feel like might
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: do one, might not, and then we'll tap into draft
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: if we start with April, Like I'm thinking, I'm gonna
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: get a collection of guys that we wrote, and it
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: might be low hanging fruit, but I feel like people
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: want this, Like I might just do a bunch of
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: mock trons, I think, but just do a bunch of
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: mock drafts and make this a mock draft podcasts and
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: we could do other personal interviews and get and stuff.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: But like, I have enough people on my phone that
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: I trust that I think have good information, that know
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: the draft inside and out that we could turn this
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: into like a draft bonanza. I'm really bummed we don't
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: have Good Morning Football the month of April. Like that's
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: my favorite time of year. It's when I I just
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: we just go ramp at which for Haft rumors, it's
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: a shame, But it's okay because we have this outlet
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: and I'll make the most of it. And I promise
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: you and everyone who's listening that will make the most
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: of a rather different situation than we anticipated, so we'll
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: go from there. Aaron, thank you, it's great to be
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: back on the mic. To our dear friend Chason English,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: to all the folks in LA, to less sneed the
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: general manager of the Los Angeles Rams for on short
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: Nottus jumping on because you said, went and where to
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: talk about Aaron Donald And we found him when and
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: whare about an hour later and he did that to
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: everybody else listening, Keep on listening more than ever. We're
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: going to need your support. I'm not on TV every
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: day starting March twenty ninth, so let's really lean into
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: this and let's blow this out and hopefully tell your
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: friends and we'll keep on rocking with the Season with
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: Peter Schreger until next week. Guys, Thank you for listening.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.