Rams Chris Shula Talks Life Without Aaron Donald

When Chris Shula became the Rams' new defensive coordinator, he had a lot of weight on his shoulders. Stepping into the shoes of his Super Bowl-winning predecessor, there are high expectations for DCs under Sean McVay. The last two McVay had became NFL head coaches, and his first, Wade Phillips, held Tom Brady to 13 points in Super Bowl LVIII.

Shula was also McVay's first internal hire for that position. Shula also had to carry the weight of sharing a last name with his legendary Grandfather, the most winningest head coach in NFL history Don Shula.

Pair all that with the retirement of NFL legend Aaron Donald, and it's a lot to deal with. Chris Shula sounded off about that experience with former Rams first-round pick Chris Long on Long's Green Light podcast.

“I think we probably underestimated just how different it was without him. You can line him up and dictate the turn every single time to go to where you are really studying protections and trying to find out the rules,” said Shula. “Now, we have some guys that have those expectations. Now, they [have] got to account for an edge guy. We do studies and that’s the biggest thing,”

It did seem Shula's defense was out of sorts for a good eight weeks to start the season. It also didn't help that the offense suffered a bunch of injuries that put more pressure on the defense, but the Rams were getting exposed.

They weren't getting to the quarterback enough, their coverage was getting torn to shreds, Kam Kinchens looked like a failed pick, the linebackers were getting heat from the media, it was all bad.

And then the turnaround happened. I'd say it was Kam Curl's fumble recovery for a touchdown against the Raiders, but it could have been holding the Vikings to 20 total points on Thursday Night Football after giving up 14 on the first two drives of the game.

The defense then doubled down with a sack-heavy, turnover-inducing performance at Seattle the following week.

Shula figured it out. Life after Aaron Donald.

Now he's one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL. He held the Rams last three opponents (outside the meaningless season finale) in the regular season to under ten points, helping the Rams with a broken offense win the NFC West.

Against Minnesota, after a natural disaster affected Los Angeles, moving the game to Arizona, his team held the Vikings to nine points in the Wild Card game, scoring a touchdown of their own via a Jared Verse fumble recovery.

While the Rams did lose against Philadelphia, his scheme worked. Jalen Hurts was held to 128 passing yards and if Braden Fiske didn't get hurt, perhaps the team could have curtailed Saquon Barkley better.

Shula has it figured out, and the Rams may be on the verge of their best defensive unit ever.

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