A Look Back at Aaron Donald's Dominating 2021 Playoff Run

Aaron Donald announced his retirement on Friday. He’ll go down in history as arguably the greatest defensive tackle of all time. In honor of his career, we figured it would be a good idea to go back through his performance in the 2021 playoffs on the way to the Rams’ Super Bowl LVI victory:

Donald was an animal during that postseason, generating 3.5 sacks and countless pressures in 4 games.

He also commanded a level of attention that set up advantageous 1-on-1’s across the rest of L.A.’s defensive line.

Below you can see the assortment of fronts that defensive coordinator (and now Falcons head coach) Raheem Morris used to put offenses in a bind that postseason.

On this first play against the Buccaneers in the Divisional Round, for instance, Morris used alignment and late movement to get Von Miller (on the left) and Donald (on the right) matched up 1-on-1 inside against the left and right guards. This would end up being a 5-man rush with the nose occupying the center and the other 4 pass rushers all aligned outside of either tackle at the snap:

Guards are generally not as trained, skilled, or comfortable as tackles at handling pass rushers in space and when coming from distance. So the tactic of getting both Miller and Donald matched up on guards with their pass rushes coming from outside of the tackles was an effective one (and we saw it frequently that postseason).

On this next play, Morris put Miller and Donald to the same side. However, the alignment of the nose tackle got Tampa’s line to slide in the opposite direction, giving Miller and Donald 1-on-1’s. This time, Donald beat the left guard for the sack: