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The New Orleans Saints did a tremendous job of limiting the impact a two-time Defensive Player of the Year can make in their Week 1 matchup with the Houston Texans. In Week 2, they’ll face another challenge from someone with similar credentials: Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald.
“No weaknesses,” said Saints quarterback Drew Brees during his Wednesday media availability. “He is an all the time player. He’s got such a high motor, so he is full go all the time. He is so multiple in the things that he can do, the moves that he can give you, the inside, the outside, the rip, the jump. I don’t even have names for all the moves that he can do to get to the quarterback. You cannot block him with one guy. He’s just that good a player. He’s such an impact player. He can change the game. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anybody like him. He’s just a phenomenal player.”
Saints head coach Sean Payton kept his preview brief, but it’s evident that he also appreciates the challenge that comes in slowing Donald down: “Well, he is extremely athletic and active. He’s very smart and he can get on an edge. All the things you look for in someone playing that three-technique position.”
The Saints have had good plans for slowing Donald down recently; between their two games against him last season, Donald was credited with hitting Brees seven times, but never sacking him. Donald also had three tackles for loss of yards between his two games against the Saints. Thanks to a strong offensive line and Brees’ own ability to navigate the pocket and get the ball out quickly, Donald’s influence was somewhat bottled up. Considering the led the NFL with 20.5 sacks and 25 tackles for loss (with 41 other quarterback hits), that’s the best you can hope for.
For his part, Donald is expecting another tough day in the office.
“We’ve been playing them every season,” Donald said during an interview. “We know what type of game it’s going to be. It’s usually a physical game. It’s a game with a lot of back-and-forth — usually a good game, a close game. That’s what we expect, we expect a dog fight.”
New Orleans rolled out a good plan for bottling up Watt in their first game this year; right tackle Ryan Ramczyk was trusted to be the primary blocker, receiving occasional help from tight ends on chipping blocks, and right guard Larry Warfrod lending a hand on double-team blocks. They’ve used a similar strategy against Donald in the past, but his different alignments — lining up between guards and centers, rather than up against tackles out on the edge — means the Saints will have to ask more of rookie center Erik McCoy.
Donald plans on trusting his coaches and learning from his past experience against the Saints; including their two games last season, they’ve played New Orleans four times in the last three years. “We’re excited about playing a good team like that. We kind of know what to expect from teams that we saw last year. We played them twice and they gave us different looks and tried to find ways to slow us down and do certain things. But that’s what we’ve got great coaches for, to watch that and for us as a team, put that together and go out there and execute it.”
