As the 2014 NFL Draft crept closer four players rose to the top this Minnesota Vikings fan's wish list. I knew that Buffalo linebacker Khalil Mack was a pipe dream. There was no chance that he'd be available when the Vikings picked at #8. No chance! And he wasn't available. When he was still available after the Jacksonville Jaguars surprised many with the selection of quarterback Blake Bortles at #3 there was some brief hope but it wasn't meant to be. Mack was selected by the Oakland Raiders at #5. That left three players from that wish list:
Teddy Bridgewater
Anthony Barr
Aaron Donald
Bridgewater shouldn't have been available at #8 either but teams ran away from him due to a disappointing Pro Day. It's funny how so many seem to forget about actual football games during the silly days of the draft evaluation process. Not only was Bridgewater available for the Vikings at #8 he was still available at #32. That's when they made a trade with the Seattle Seahawks to come away with a first round bonanza of UCLA linebacker Anthony Barr and Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Two players from my list! I was pretty thrilled about that. It's still so early in their respective NFL careers but it sure looks like the Vikings found two franchise-changing football players in the 2014 NFL Draft. One on each side of the ball. There's a lot of excitement in Minnesota. Some of it's due to a sparkling new stadium set to open next year. Most of it's due to the additions made to the team in 2014. The drafting of Barr and Bridgewater and the hiring of Mike Zimmer. But this isn't about any of that. It isn't about Kahlil Mack either. This is about the other player on my wish list. This is about Aaron Donald.
When I first heard about Pitt defensive tackle Aaron Donald I was reminded of Minnesota Vikings Hall of Famer John Randle. When I finally saw Donald play I was even more reminded of Randle. The respective paths to the NFL of Randle and Donald are very different. Randle was undrafted out of itty-bitty Texas A&M-Kingsville in 1990. He tried out for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He probably got the tryout because his brother Ervin already played there. The Buccaneers didn't sign him because they thought that he was too small for the interior of the line at about 6'1" and 287-lbs. The Vikings picked him up during training camp. He made the team but the Vikings weren't too sure what they had in him. He was small, strong, and quick. He was playing at a time when football players on both sides of the line were getting bigger at a pretty rapid rate. He used what he had against the bigger guys and excelled with unrelenting effort. He made his first of several Pro Bowl and All-Pro teams in 1993. He was a wonder to watch and quickly became a fan favorite. Donald, listed at 6'1" and 285-lbs, is remarkably similar to Randle but his route to the NFL was a little easier perhaps because of Randle. Donald was selected by the St. Louis Rams with the 13th pick of the first round. He was expected to be an impact player. He had top-5 talent. He just wasn't picked there. Probably because of his size. There were questions. Could his strength and quickness be as effective in the NFL as it was in college? Could he hold up to the size and skill of NFL offensive linemen? Randle showed that players this size could succeed, even excel. The success of similarly size-challenged (at least vertically) Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Geno Atkins helped probably helped Donald's cause as well. Maybe some day NFL decision-makers will learn that size doesn't necessarily make the football player. The Rams found themselves an unbelievable defensive play-maker. He was the 2014 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year after a 9-sacke season. He has 2.5 sacks after two games this year. He joined a ridiculously talented defensive line in St. Louis. Donald filled out a line of four first-round picks. An opposing offense has a lot of worries when facing the Rams defense. After 18 games Donald might be an opposing offense's biggest worry. He gets off of the line so fast. He can get under and past the bigger offensive linemen before they can do anything about it. He spends a lot of time in opposing backfields. He's a beast.
It's still so early but a lot of teams will probably look back fondly on the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Four of the 32 players selected were tapped for the Pro Bowl for their play in their rookie seasons. Odell Beckham Jr., C.J. Mosley, and Zack Martin joined Donald in Arizona for the game. Kahlil Mack, Anthony Batt, Teddy Bridgewater, Sammy Watkins, Mike Evans, Taylor Lewan, Kyle Fuller, Ryan Shazier, Brandin Cooks, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Jason Verrett, and Kelvin Benjamin look like football players that might attend a few Pro Bowls of their own. If they aren't too busy preparing for a Super Bowl.
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