The Los Angeles Rams’ young defense fills an Aaron Donald-sized hole

LOS ANGELES — From the moment Aaron Donald retired in March 2024, those in the Los Angeles Rams organization have been clear.

The future Hall of Fame defensive tackle was irreplaceable.

“One of the one terms is being thrown around loosely,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “He is truly one of a kind.”

But when Anders decided he wanted to retire after 10 seasons and try to replace his production was at the top of the Rams’ offseason to-do list.

The team had taken a step toward figuring out life without Anders a year earlier when it drafted defensive tackle Kobie Turner and outside linebacker Byron Young in the third round.

While the Rams didn’t know exactly when Anders would retire, figuring out how to “play defense without someone who changes the math quite like him” has been on general manager Les Snead’s mind for a while.

“Three years ago, when you thought, ‘When Aaron retires, there’s not going to be another one of him. So we had to play defense differently,'” Snead said at the league meetings in March.

In April, the Rams used the No. 19 to draft outside linebacker Jared Verse and traded up the next day to no. 39 to draft his Florida State teammate, defensive tackle Braden Fiske. Along with defensive tackle Bobby Brown III and outside linebacker Michael Hoecht, the Rams’ defensive front has grown significantly since the start of the season.

The unit, which gave up 489 total yards in Week 2, has held opponents to fewer than 10 points in five or their last six games. The exception was the Rams’ Week 18 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, when key players on Los Angeles’ defense didn’t get their typical workload with the NFC West already in place.

The defense as a whole, without Donald, has gone from perhaps the team’s Achilles heel to a group that impressed in a 27-9 win over the Minnesota Vikings in the wild-card round on Monday, sacking quarterback Sam Darnold nine times to hold an NFL- victory. playoff record. The Rams’ next test comes in their divisional-round game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock), a team they lost to 37-20 in Week 12.

“It’s just a big credit to Les (Snead) and our front office for just identifying the right type of guys and really building it in the last two years through the draft,” first-year defensive coordinator Chris Shula said. “With BY (Young) and Kobie (Turner) obviously two years ago and then with Fiske and Verse last year. Just getting guys with the skills that we think fit.

“The No. 1 thing is impacting the passer in this league, and having a front that can do that is huge.”

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THE DEFENSE IS GROWING pains showed up early in the season. In Week 2, the Rams were blown out by the Arizona Cardinals, losing 41-10 and giving up 489 total yards, including 258 rushing. It was a game McVay called “incredibly humbling,” and said, “there’s nothing positive I can take away from today.”

“It stinks,” Verse said after the game. “They put up almost 500 yards of total offense against us. They were able to run the ball, they were able to pass the ball, and it’s just demoralizing when a team is able to do both. The biggest however, is that (it’s) our fault, it was a lack of execution on (the defense’s) part, myself included.”

The Rams’ bye in Week 5 was a turning point. After starting 1-4 with losses to the Detroit Lions, Cardinals, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles won nine of their next 11 games to win the NFC West.

It was around that bye week, Verse said, that a friendly competition began to erupt among the pass rushers. Whoever finished the regular season with the most sacks would get to keep their beard.

In Week 17 against the Cardinals, Fiske had the sack lead – “for about a quarter!” he said after the game — but Turner caught up to end the game with eight. In the regular season finale against the Seattle Seahawks, where the starters did not play their typical workload, Fiske had half a sack, giving him the team lead.

Fiske’s 8.5 sacks in the regular season led the NFL rookie class and Rams rookies combined for 13.5 sacks, the most in the NFL.

“They’re doing a heck of a job,” quarterback Matthew Stafford said after the Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals 13-9 in Week 17. “… I want to make more plays to make sure they don’t have to. just a lot like they did tonight, but I’m proud of them, it’s great to see where they were in training camp, where they are now.

Although the beard contest has seemingly been won by Fiske — “maybe I’ll see if Braden wants to extend it through the playoffs,” Turner said Monday night — the sacks kept coming against the Vikings.

Eight Rams players had at least half a sack, the most in a playoff game since individual sacks became an official statistic in 1982, according to ESPN Research. Turner led the way with two sacks, and Young and Neville Gallimore each had 1.5.

“I’m like, what the hell?” Verses said after the match. “I’m like, it’s a sack party. I’m not invited.”

Verse didn’t have a sack against the Vikings, but he did have a fumble recovery for a touchdown to give the Rams a 17-3 lead in the second quarter.

Verse was selected to the Pro Bowl, the Rams’ lone representative, and he said it “was really surreal to see how much happiness” his teammates had for him when it was announced at a team meeting.

“And it’s really thanks to them because they’ve helped push me every day,” Verse said. “If I don’t hit the standard we’ve set, they’re going to make me step up so I can push us all to a higher level.”

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In 2023 this offseason, the Rams made a drastic change to the way they approached team building. Instead of trading draft picks for star veteran players, they rebuilt a unit through the draft that had lost key contributors to the defense.

When Snead sat down with Anders to explain the approach, the defensive tackle resonated with the general manager.

“Just make sure they don’t care,” Donald told Snead, referring to the new faces.

That draft class included Turner, who has said many times how much he learned about football and leadership during the one season he played with Anders. And even though Anders is no longer in the building, the type of player he was referring to is what stood out to the front office and coaching staff about Verse and Fiske.

“The one thing that’s most prevalent about those two is that they’re our kind of guys,” outside linebackers coach Joe Coniglio said. “They came in here, they wanted to work, they want to get better. They have the aspirations to be really good, great players, and they continue to work every single day to accomplish that task.”

Although Verse and Fiske never played with Donald, Turner said Donald’s fingerprints are still all over the defense because the way he carried himself is “something that will definitely resonate.” Turner said because of the way Anders approached each day, whether it was the meeting room, practice or even a walkthrough, “you just don’t forget him.”

“Those guys came into the locker room and came into the facility and they showed that they were exactly the guys that I thought they were,” Turner said. “And they were guys that looked like what Aaron would have wanted, they were just people who cared and people who did things the right way and people who worked really hard to get what they wanted have.”

And on Monday night against the Vikings, the Rams’ defense had one of its best performances of the season, and they did it with the recently retired Anders in the stands.

“It’s simple,” Verse said. “We just had to show him that he was leaving it in good hands.”