October 01, 2026
Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports
Do the Eagles still have the right formula to keep Rams DT Aaron Donald from spoiling their game plan Sunday?
The Eagles are dodging somewhat of a bullet Sunday against the Rams. Edge rusher Myles Garrett, perhaps the best overall player in the game, is still sidelined on injured reserve for the Rams.
But the game will also be the third this season for another future Hall of Fame lineman, defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who came out of a two-year retirement after the Rams traded for both Pro Bowl CB Trent McDuffie and then Garrett this offseason, giving the Rams a "super team" vibe that Donald couldn't resist becoming part of to chase his second Super Bowl ring.
Donald wasn't ready physically by the season opener but played his first 33 snaps Week 2 against the Giants and then 35 more last Sunday against Denver. So far, he only has 1 QB hit and a small, by his standard, 4.8 percent pressure rate. He also dealt with back soreness this week that kept him out of some practice.
But there's evidence that he hasn't lost the unique blend of raw power, elite get-off, leverage, hand technique and agility that made him a 10-time Pro Bowler, eight-time All-Pro, and a unicorn at just 6-foot-1.
Even on his first snap of the season, he drove back Giants right guard Francis Mauigoa and all 335 pounds of the 10th overall pick nearly into Jaxson Dart's lap.
He almost had another win against Mauigoa, if not for some friendly fire:
The vicious inside swim was somewhat negated by his own teammate, DT Braden Fiske, and Giants C John Michael Schmitz both colliding with him on a Fiske inside stunt.
The Eagles have played against Donald five times in his career and have been tremendously successful at keeping him from wrecking their game plan, which is easier said than done but was also helped by them typically fielding an elite offensive line when they've played the Rams.
There are only two NFL teams that Donald doesn't have a sack against, and the Eagles are one. But the Birds are the only team Donald has played against at least three times without logging at least one sack. In his career, he is just 1-4 against them and 0-2 in the Nick Sirianni era.
Three different Eagles head coaches have faced Donald, who entered the league in 2014 as the 13th overall pick. But the one constant was offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, who presided over his group for every one of those five matchups.
Sunday's game will be the first time Donald will face the Eagles without Stoutland on the sideline and with new Eagles position coach Chris Kuper in charge of the blocking scheme.
Stoutland was the commander in charge of creating the run blocking and pass protection schemes that prevented Donald from corrupting the game plan; the schemes often involved slide protections and getting multiple bodies and multiple hands on Donald nearly every snap, and the offensive staff generally designed pass plays that featured quick game, RPOs, misdirections, bootlegs and other calls intended to either get the ball out quickly or get the quarterback on the move before Donald could.
This game from Week 5 of 2023 is one of my favorite examples of their usage of multiple blockers against Donald, along with QB movement:
They probably didn't figure to triple-team him prior to the snap, but the Rams only rushed three, so with nobody to block, LG Landon Dickerson looked for work and found that he could assist with the double team already on Donald.
Even with that, Hurts still slid to his left to get further away.
That's respect.
Here's another good example of the Eagles forming a "human wall" to safeguard Hurts from Donald, a single block that becomes a double team, then becomes a triple team:
This one is worth freezing at 0:01. Dickerson got the initial punch on Donald, but C Jason Kelce sort of pretended as if he would help with a double team on the nose tackle but never actually took his eyes off Donald and immediately rotated over to help Dickerson.
The slide protection from the left side of the line meant that Donald would have to get past Dickerson, Kelce and the traffic jam of the left guard blocking the nose to even get close to Hurts – who was only throwing a swing pass from a three-step drop out of shotgun.
The Eagles might not feel the need to double-team Donald this time, or even design a game plan centered around his every move. Donald has always lined up in multiple spots, like Titans DT Jeffery Simmons did in Week 2 against the Eagles, so it's impossible to assign one specific lineman or blocking scheme to him anyway.
The Eagles could also look at their current offensive line, with Cam Jurgens playing out of position at left guard and reserve Drew Kendall starting at center, and think they need plenty of schematic help against Donald, especially as the 35-year-old continues to ramp up and regenerate his strength and conditioning.
The Rams are much deeper in their defensive front, with linemen Fiske, Kobie Turner, and Byron Young all capable of beating 1-on-1s if teams decide to double-team Donald. The three have more than 50 combined sacks.
That was the beauty of the Garrett trade; the league's two-time Defensive Player of the Year would either draw most of the double-teams and let Donald and the rest thrive on 1-on-1s, or opponents would double-team Donald and leave Garrett – the most fierce edge rushing force in the league, who last year set the NFL single-season record for sacks (23) – and the others to win against single blocks.
Given the issues the Eagles are already having up front, it'll be tough to trust that any one of their interior linemen can handle Donald alone, even if he's only 65 to 70 percent of what he once was.
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