LOS ANGELES -- From the moment Aaron Donald retired in March 2024, those in the Los Angeles Rams organization have been clear.
The future Hall of Fame defensive tackle was irreplaceable.
"The 'one of one' term gets thrown around loosely," Rams head coach Sean McVay said. "He's really one of one."
But when Donald decided he would retire after 10 seasons, trying to replace his production was at the top of the Rams' offseason to-do list.
The team had taken a step toward figuring out life without Donald a year earlier when it drafted defensive tackle Kobie Turner and outside linebacker Byron Young in the third round.
Though the Rams didn't know exactly when Donald would retire, figuring out how to "play defense without someone who changes the math quite like him" has been on general manager Les Snead's mind for a while.
"Three years ago, when you were like, 'When Aaron retires, there's not going to be another one of him. So, we were going to have to play defense differently,'" Snead said at the league meetings in March.
In April, the Rams used the No. 19 pick to draft outside linebacker Jared Verse and traded up the next day to No. 39 to draft his Florida State teammate, defensive tackle Braden Fiske. Along with defensive tackle Bobby Brown III and outside linebacker Michael Hoecht, the Rams' defensive front has grown significantly since the start of the season.
The unit that gave up 489 total yards in Week 2 has held opponents to fewer than 10 points in five or their past six games. The exception was the Rams' Week 18 loss to the Seattle Seahawks when key players on Los Angeles' defense did not get their typical workload with the NFC West already clinched.
The defense as a whole, sans Donald, has gone from perhaps the team's Achilles heel to a group that impressed in a 27-9 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in the wild-card round Monday, sacking quarterback Sam Darnold nine times to tie an NFL playoff record. The Rams' next test will come in their divisional round matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock), a team they lost to 37-20 in Week 12.
"It's just a huge credit to Les [Snead] and our front office of just ID'ing the right type of guys and really building it in the last two years through the draft," first-year defensive coordinator Chris Shula said. "With B.Y. [Young] and Kobie [Turner] obviously two years ago and then with Fiske and Verse last year. Just getting guys with the skill set that we think fits.
"The No. 1 thing is affecting the passer in this league and having a front that can do that is huge."
THE DEFENSE'S GROWING pains showed early in the season. In Week 2, the Rams were blown out by the Arizona Cardinals, losing 41-10 and giving up those 489 total yards, including 258 rushing. It was a game McVay called "incredibly humbling," saying, "there is not anything positive that I can take away from today."
"It sucks," Verse said after the game. "They put up almost 500 yards of total offense on us. They were able to run the ball, they were able to pass the ball and that's just demoralizing when a team is able to do both. The biggest thing though is that [it's] our fault. It was a lack of execution on [the defense's] part, myself included."
The Rams' bye in Week 5 was a turning point. After starting 1-4 with losses to the Detroit Lions, Cardinals, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles won nine of their next 11 games to win the NFC West.
It was around that bye week, Verse said, that a friendly competition started brewing among the pass rushers. Whomever finished the regular season with the most sacks would get to keep his beard.
In Week 17 against the Cardinals, Fiske had the sack lead -- "for about a quarter!" he said after the game -- but Turner caught up to end the game knotted at eight. In the regular-season finale against the Seattle Seahawks in which starters did not play their typical workload, Fiske had half a sack, which gave him the team lead.
Fiske's 8.5 regular-season sacks led the NFL's rookie class and Rams rookies combined for 13.5 sacks, which is the most in the NFL.
"They're doing a hell of a job," quarterback Matthew Stafford said after the Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals 13-9 in Week 17. "... I want to make more plays to make sure they don't have to do as much as they did tonight, but I'm proud of them. It's awesome to watch where they were in training camp to where they are now. "
Although the beard competition has seemingly been won by Fiske -- "maybe I can see if Braden will extend it through the playoffs," Turner said Monday night -- the sacks kept coming against the Vikings.
Eight Rams players had at least half a sack, which is the most in a playoff game since individual sacks became an official statistic in 1982, according to ESPN Research. Turner led the way with two sacks and Young and Neville Gallimore each had 1.5.
"I'm like, what the hell?" Verse said after the game. "I'm like, it's a sack party. I am not invited."
Verse did not have a sack against the Vikings, but he did have a fumble recovery for a touchdown to give the Rams a 17-3 lead in the second quarter.
Verse was selected to the Pro Bowl, the Rams' lone representative, and he said it "was really surreal to see how much happiness" his teammates had for him when it was announced in a team meeting.
"And it's really thanks to them because they've helped push me every day," Verse said. "If I'm not hitting the standard that we have set, they're going to make me elevate so I can push us all to a higher level."
DURING THE 2023 offseason, the Rams made a drastic change to the way they approached team building. Instead of trading draft picks for star veteran players, they retooled a unit through the draft that had lost key contributors on defense.
When Snead sat down with Donald to explain the approach, the defensive tackle's response resonated with the general manager.
"Just make sure they care," Donald told Snead, referring to the new faces.
That draft class included Turner, who has said many times how much he learned about football and leadership during the one season he played with Donald. And although Donald is no longer in the building, the type of player he was referring to is what stood out to the front office and coaching staff about Verse and Fiske.
"The one thing that's most prevalent about those two is that they're our kind of guys," outside linebackers coach Joe Coniglio said. "They came in here, they wanted to work, they want to get better. They have the aspirations to be really good, great players, and they continue to work every single day to achieve that task."
Though Verse and Fiske never played with Donald, Turner said Donald's fingerprints are still all over the defense because the way he carried himself is "something that'll definitely echo." Turner said because of the way Donald approached every day, whether it was the meeting room, practice or even a walkthrough, "you just don't forget him."
"Those guys got in the locker room and got in the facility, and they showed that they were the exact guys that I thought they were," Turner said. "And they were guys similar to what Aaron would've wanted, that were just people who cared and people who went about things the right way and people who really worked hard to get what they wanted."
And Monday night against the Vikings, the Rams' defense had one of its best performances of the season, and they did it with the newly retired Donald in the stands.
"It's simple," Verse said. "We just had to show him he left it in good hands."
