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Aaron Donald is the type of football legend whose name will live on forever, right there with the likes of Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White and the other all-time great defenders. He’s someone every young defensive lineman should strive to have the sort of impact Donald had, and that’s the bar the Jaguars are setting for Travon Walker.
The Jaguars signed Walker to a four-year, $110 million contract last week and prior to that deal coming together, head coach Liam Coen used Donald’s name as motivation for Jacksonville’s star defender.
"I had an almost two-hour meeting with him at the end of the season," Coen said at the annual league meeting. "Just what that looked like in terms of dominating. I was with Aaron Donald in L.A. and we literally had to take him out of practice in order for us to gain yards on offense. And so, if you want to get where you want to go and where we want you to go and where you can go, I need to be taking you out of practice so that we can operate on offense."
Donald was as disruptive and impactful as anyone in the NFL during his prime – which was basically his entire career – and needed to be taken off the field during practices because he was blowing plays up so quickly. Sean McVay has even joked that his holdouts in 2017 and 2018 helped the Rams offense in training camp because he wasn’t there to wreak havoc.
Walker would love to reach Donald’s level of dominance at some point in his career and knows it’s going to take a lot of hard work.
"Obviously, he's seen Donald,” Walker said after signing his extension. “He coached -- he was on the team with Aaron Donald. It just kind of helps put things in perspective for me to be able to just click into a different type of mindset from how I was going throughout the year, and I feel like it really dawned on me that it's just time to ramp things up, take it to the next level."
Walker was the first overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft but has been up and down during his four-year career thus far. He had 3.5 sacks as a rookie and in Year 4 last season, but sandwiched between those two seasons were years with 10 and 10.5 sacks.
The Georgia product has all the tools to become one of the best edge rushers in football but he’ll need to take his game to the next level after signing a $110 million deal.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Jaguars, Liam Coen using Aaron Donald as motivation for Travon Walker
Continue reading...
The Jaguars signed Walker to a four-year, $110 million contract last week and prior to that deal coming together, head coach Liam Coen used Donald’s name as motivation for Jacksonville’s star defender.
"I had an almost two-hour meeting with him at the end of the season," Coen said at the annual league meeting. "Just what that looked like in terms of dominating. I was with Aaron Donald in L.A. and we literally had to take him out of practice in order for us to gain yards on offense. And so, if you want to get where you want to go and where we want you to go and where you can go, I need to be taking you out of practice so that we can operate on offense."
Donald was as disruptive and impactful as anyone in the NFL during his prime – which was basically his entire career – and needed to be taken off the field during practices because he was blowing plays up so quickly. Sean McVay has even joked that his holdouts in 2017 and 2018 helped the Rams offense in training camp because he wasn’t there to wreak havoc.
Walker would love to reach Donald’s level of dominance at some point in his career and knows it’s going to take a lot of hard work.
"Obviously, he's seen Donald,” Walker said after signing his extension. “He coached -- he was on the team with Aaron Donald. It just kind of helps put things in perspective for me to be able to just click into a different type of mindset from how I was going throughout the year, and I feel like it really dawned on me that it's just time to ramp things up, take it to the next level."
Walker was the first overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft but has been up and down during his four-year career thus far. He had 3.5 sacks as a rookie and in Year 4 last season, but sandwiched between those two seasons were years with 10 and 10.5 sacks.
The Georgia product has all the tools to become one of the best edge rushers in football but he’ll need to take his game to the next level after signing a $110 million deal.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Jaguars, Liam Coen using Aaron Donald as motivation for Travon Walker
Continue reading...
