Dissecting The Art Of Aaron Donald’s Pass Rush.

By Will Cinelli, The Scouting Academy

Each Thursday here on the FirstDown PlayBook Coaches Community website we will feature a breakdown of personnel and technique. This is provided by our friends over at The Scouting Academy who are our go to experts in this field!

Setting up counters in your pass rush plan is an art. Finding areas where you shine and then building off those is critical to success. Here you will see Aaron Donald leverage with his speed rush to set up an inside counter. His rushes earlier in the game (and overall success as a player) force the offensive guard to work quickly to gain width in his set, expanding the A gap.

More All 22 Pass Rush: TJ Watt

From there, Donald pins the offensive guard’s outside arm and then clubs the his inside arm while simultaneously getting his hips across. As he does this he works into the A gap and finishes by clearing his outside arm with the arm over. He pins the arm over on the backside of the offensive guard’s inside shoulder.

His technique and quickness take away the ability for the offensive guard to slam the A gap back shut. After that, Donald finishes the play with a TFL, but that isn’t teach tape, that is Donald being a difference maker!