Alex Gallardo/Associated Press
ATLANTA — The Rams selected defensive tackle Aaron Donald with their second first-round pick in 2014, No. 13 over all, which means that 11 other teams, after assembling draft boards and consulting scouts and analyzing a trilogy’s worth of film of his demolishing offensive linemen, decided against taking a player whose dominance has since redefined his position.
“I think,” said Mike Waufle, the Rams’ defensive line coach at the time, “people were scared of his size.”
Donald is 6-foot-1 and, coming out of the University of Pittsburgh, was listed at 285 pounds. That is enormous in human terms, but smallish for a defensive tackle, whose function in a 3-4 defense is to blot out the sun.