CLEVELAND — Cleveland Browns center JC Tretter has heard just enough about how good Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald is on game day.
Despite Donald’s ability to wreck a game with his pocket-collapsing movements stemming from a unique blend of power and speed, the Browns are embracing the challenge of facing one of the NFL’s best defensive players when the two teams meet on Sunday Night Football at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland tonight.
“We are all professional football players,” Tretter said earlier this week. “Obviously, he is a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and he is great player, but we are also professional football players, as well.
“I do not think we look at it like we are playing God reincarnate. We are playing a very talented football player and we are going to have to bring our best to the table, but we are not going into it thinking that we are looking down the barrel of a gun going up against him. We are going to have to do our job and block him, but we are going into it ready for the challenge.”
Despite having only two tackles through the first two weeks of the 2019 season, Donald is one of the highest paid and most productive defenders in the NFL, and has a penchant for getting into the backfield and disrupting opposing offenses.
In five-plus seasons with the Rams, Donald has recorded 59.5 sacks, including a league-best 20.5 during the 2018 season.
“Explosive, powerful, but super quick and great with his hands,” Tretter said. “He is a great player. You have the five-tool baseball player or whatever it is. He is that for defensive linemen. He has everything you look for.”
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Listed at 6-1 and 280 pounds, Donald was considered small when he was auditioning for the NFL at the 2014 Senior Bowl, but despite the doubts, he has registered at least eight sacks in each of his first five professional seasons.
Donald has three single-season double-digit sack totals to his name (2015, 2017-2018), including a career-best 20.5 last year.
“He is a great player,” Tretter said. “It will be a good test for us. We will have a plan for him, but everyone is going to have to have their one-on-one matchups that they are going to have to win. You can’t find a way to double team a guy all of the time, so we have to be good with our fundamentals and good with our technique and win one-on-one battles. That is just part of it. He is a great player, so it will be a great test for all of us.
“He mostly plays a three-technique. He will play out at defensive end in certain packages and he will play over the nose in certain packages. There is a good chance each of us will have a shot at him and have an opportunity to go one-on-one against him at some point in the game. All of us need to be ready to bring our A game.”