WHEN BRAD HOLMES went to scout Aaron Donald at the University of Pittsburgh, he was given a tip from Panthers defensive coordinator Matt House.
Show up to practice 30 minutes early.
Holmes, then the St. Louis Rams’ director of college scouting, thought House asked him to arrive before the start of practice because he was planning to give him more background on Donald.
Instead, he arrived at the Pitt practice bubble to see the group of specialists and ball boys. And Donald.
“He’s just sitting down on the pop-up dummy, taped up, ready to go, and he’s got this twitch in his leg, where’s everybody at?” Holmes, now the Detroit Lions general manager, said. “You could see it coming out of him like, ‘I’ve been waiting for this all day.’
“So I saw the coach when practice started. He goes, ‘Hey, did you come out early?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Did you see it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ And that’s all I needed to see. And that’s when I knew he had elite, special football character. And he was the same person throughout his career. He was always the first one out at practice. That’s just who he was.”
But even as Holmes wrote his notes that day, he knew he’d be facing an uphill battle with the Rams’ coaching staff because of Donald’s size. He knew he’d have to “defend that.” During his senior year at Pitt, Donald was listed at 6 feet, 285 pounds. At the time, Holmes said, the Rams “really liked bigger guys.”
Perhaps because of the skepticism about Donald’s size, the future first-ballot Hall of Famer slipped down to the No. 13 pick 10 years ago. He quashed every doubt about his size in the 10 seasons before he retired in March 2024.
Donald was the 2014 Defensive Rookie of the Year, three-time Defensive Player of the Year, an eight-time first-team All-Pro, and a 10-time Pro Bowl selection. He left the NFL on his own terms, saying he felt complete and satisfied with what he was able to accomplish during his career.
And while Holmes couldn’t have known he was watching a player who would end up one of the best defensive players to ever play, it didn’t take long for him to get confirmation Donald would be the right pick for the Rams.
“I’m writing my notes,” Holmes said. “I’m like, ‘there’s nothing wrong with this player. There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s a damn good player.'”
MIKE WAUFLE KNEW what he was doing. During Donald’s top 30 visit in 2014, the Rams’ defensive line coach knew some in the organization were concerned about the defensive tackle’s size.
So in what he called “a veteran moment” with Donald in tow, Waufle barged into the meeting room where Rams decision-makers were studying game film of quarterback Johnny Manziel.
“I remember, it was [head coach Jeff Fisher] and [general manager] Les [Snead], everybody in there like a draft meeting … Coach Wauf like, ‘This is Aaron Donald, this is the kid that’s gonna be here,'” Donald recounted in an interview with his wife Erica after he announced his retirement. “And I was like, ‘How you doing?’
“It was super awkward. But, you know, that was my introduction to everybody.”
Waufle was so convinced — and wanted to make sure the others in the room felt the same way — that he took Donald’s magnetic name tag and stuck it all the way at the top of the draft board, above all defensive linemen.
“I threw it up there and it stuck,” Waufle said. “And it was [defensive end Jadeveon] Clowney and a lot of people. And I…
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