Perennial All-Pro defensive end Aaron Donald retired after last season, but his impact on the Rams' defensive line persisted.

"He left with an ingrained work ethic and a spirit in our room that we were only going to do things a certain way," assistant defensive line coach AC Carter told TheRams.com.

That meant approaching every action on and off the field with a fierce drive to succeed. Whether it was seemingly trivial day-to-day responsibilities, body maintenance, film study or various practice repetitions, the Rams' defensive line "trained to the standard" that Donald set, Carter said.

In individual drills, walk-throughs and team practice, the coaching staff emphasized operating at full speed into contact. Donald did it constantly, and the Rams' young front collectively benefitted from that expectation both physically and mentally during a season that saw a young unit navigate a restructure of the scheme up front.

In the first year of head coach Sean McVay's tenure without Donald, the defensive line was forced to become more multiple, demanding versatility and relentlessness from their players. The process of achieving that started with the personnel they brought in and extended by way of new leadership and camaraderie built throughout the 2024 season.

"We train to the standard," Carter said. "Our standard's run to the ball, our standard's trying to affect the quarterback, our standard's always trying (to fill) a gap and a half, our standard's always being physical at the point of contact, our standard's being relentless, our standard's always being a sack monster, our standard's always leading from the front, no matter if you've got a 'C' on your chest or not."

Those are nonnegotiables in the Rams' defensive line room. So, when general manager Les Snead and others started looking for players to fill the void left by Donald, those are some of the attributes they sought out.

Finding Rams that fit the standard

With Donald, the Rams always knew where the offensive line would direct their protection, and he almost exclusively rushed from a three technique. That generated consistent opportunities for others in specific roles.

Without that staple, L.A. needed to adapt their strategy. They coveted players possessing the mental and physical dedication to rush the passer as a unit from a variety of looks, and do it for the men beside them. They found those qualities in two players from Florida State: Outside linebacker Jared Verse defensive end Braden Fiske.

"Preferably you would not settle," Snead said. "... If you don't have both, maybe let them go to another ecosystem. That's the discipline part of it.

"The easy part with those two is you could turn on any game (from) Florida State and those two are probably jumping off the tape. Take mom, dad and God-given physical qualities out of it. There's an element of it that seems like those two care a little more than a lot of other people on the field based on the energy, the urgency and the tenacity they're playing with."

The process of choosing players is complicated, but Rams first-year defensive line coach/run game coordinator Giff Smith told theRams.com that the evaluations of Verse and Fiske were easy.

Snead and the front office gave coaches a list of players they were looking at in the draft. McVay and Snead seek "ultra competitive" people, Smith said, who place winning above all else and don't present any off-field issues. If a player doesn't fit that mold, they won't make the list. Coaches then evaluated on-field traits and ranked players accordingly, after which the front office compiled a consensus.

A diverse group of defensive linemen including Verse, Fiske, outside linebacker Brennan Jackson and defensive end Tyler Davis were drafted, and nose tackle Neville Gallimore was brought in as a free agent signing. They joined second-year stars, outside linebacker Byron Young and defensive end/team captain Kobie Turner, along with nose tackle Bobby Brown III, who was also on his rookie contract, and outside linebacker Michael Hoecht, who returned after signing a one-year restricted free agent tender last offseason.

Despite a major reshuffling, Los Angeles' starting defensive linemen all had successful seasons, as seen below (stats include regular season and playoffs via Next Gen Stats).

Then came the hard part, implementing a new scheme with almost entirely first- and second-year players.

"You think you know what it's going to be without Aaron Donald, but when it actually comes to fruition you're saying, 'Damn, this is a lot different,'" McVay said, "meaning this guy is even better than I thought. You thought you valued him, but he's even better."

There were certain tactics that teams wouldn't dare run against Donald, so it wasn't just the rookies who were being onboarded. Everyone had to learn new responsibilities in a scheme that required them to be comfortable at various spots on the line. It took time, but the unit eventually produced at an elite level, especially for as young as they were.

"When you're a young group, you really want to take the time to really go through every little detail of each call," Smith said. "You can't assume they're eight-year pros, that they've done that stunt multiple times, that they know the coaching points. And I think the more knowledge they can gain on what everybody else is doing and also to know where their help is, that's where I thought we just continued to grow throughout the year."

Leading from the front

Carter always emphasized that "leaders lead from the front, (they) pull, they don't push." He, Smith and Turner all did that in their own ways after an underwhelming start to the season. Everything Carter did was "relationship-driven," because players make the wheels turn.

"You've got to feel and know that you are (a leader)," Carter said. "... There was never going to be a day or a situation where I wasn't going to be ready to go for them. So they knew I was going to come in at a certain temperature every day to try to reach our goals that we set for ourselves."

The players, specifically Turner, followed suit.

Turner trained with Krav Maga instructor Al “Poodie” Carson in the offseason, who went viral years ago for using fake knives in his work with Donald. This summer, Carson said he started to see leadership traits that Donald prized in Turner.

"When Aaron stood up and walked onto the field, everybody else followed. And he never said, 'let's go,'" Carson said before the season started. "Everybody knew who the alpha dog was. What I'm seeing right now is Kobie Turner is becoming that alpha dog."

Turner's evolution as a leader emerged more publicly in the Week 10 loss to Miami. On the sideline, Verse was dwelling on his mistakes, specifically a missed sack that led to a third-and-long conversion.

Turner said he talked to Verse a few times, helping him right his mindset and move forward. Most times, Verse already knew what he'd done wrong when Turner approached him, but it was important for the captain to check in and to reinforce the standard so they would all be on the same page next time.

"Kobie… (began to) understand that we're going to move off the way he worked and off the way he vibed," Carter said. "And I took that upon myself also with coach Giff (Smith) to help lead that and to give him the confidence that we're going to move how you move."

"I put a lot on Kobie when I came in and Kobie needed to be the leader," added Smith. "And that's tough, just your second year in the league. And I really think he grew tremendously as the year went on, being the leader of the group."

Smith described himself as a "demanding" coach, but he requires just as much from himself as he does his players. After the Week 12 loss to the Eagles, when running back Saquon Barkley rushed for 255 yards, Smith said "it's not that they got dominated, I got dominated." That was his way of leading from the front.

After that loss, the front truly bought into the unity aspect of their jobs. Trust and mutual knowledge of each others' responsibilities came to the forefront, and the production followed.

A tale of three seasons

L.A. started off the regular season with five games of at least 126 rushing yards allowed and an average of 4.8 yards per carry. Their opponents had the third-best rushing success rate over that span (49.7%) and an NFL-best 157.6 rushing yards per game, via nflverse data. The front was missing tackles and not maintaining gap integrity. They just weren't on the same page yet.

Then, the bye week came along in Week 6, so Carter and Smith went looking for answers. This was their first step toward becoming the overwhelming unit that torched playoff teams in January.

Carter said they became more intentional with their work, emphasizing reactionary drills to increase processing speed and real-time communication, all while reinforcing game plans in simple ways.

"We created the motto you could say, 'it starts with us and finish(es) with us' and that's the mentality that we took in," Carter said. "... We just wanted to affect the whole team and that was a passion of ours to do that to help continue to encourage what our culture already was, but to make it show up on the grass even more."

They pushed Turner to have more player meetings and added time pre- and post-practice for the entire unit to study more looks and strategies.

The results were immediate. Over the next six weeks, L.A. had the sixth-lowest rushing success rate allowed (36.9%), a massive improvement from the first five weeks. Success is achieved on every play with expected points added, which estimates how many points a play is expected to add or subtract to a team's total based on context like field position, time and other factors. Their 45% quarterback pressure rate was also an upswing from their pre-bye performance.

However, that stretch finished with the Week 12 loss to the Eagles that featured Barkley's big game. The team was doing "extra," as Verse put it, attempting to offset an offensive line that outmatched them physically. Defensive linemen were jumping out of gaps and trying to play hero ball, but in reality, mucking up the front's gap integrity and giving the most dangerous downhill rusher in the sport gaping holes to burst through.

The issues were glaring on film that week, and that motivated the front to "buy into each other (and) rush four as one," Smith said. They truly started to trust to the scheme and know not only their own roles, but everyone else's. That was the next turning point.

Over the next five weeks, prior to an inconsequential Week 18 game, L.A. allowed 99.4 rushing yards per game, tied for the fifth-fewest in the NFL. They also had a top 10 success rate allowed over that stretch, despite playing against two of the league's best rushing quarterbacks (who are prone to high success rates) in Josh Allen and Kyler Murray.

"As time goes on, they learn by the communication within the game, it gives them more opportunities to make plays," Smith said. "… When they can (communicate) with a wink or a nod or a hand signal, that's when, as a coach you go, 'all right, now they're figuring it out.'"

That came to fruition fully in the playoffs, where the defensive line showed its connected capabilities. L.A. tied the NFL record for most sacks in a playoff game with nine in a blowout of the Vikings in the Wild Card round. They added seven more in the Divisional Round loss to the Eagles, giving them the most through a team's first two postseason games in NFL history.

Despite another 200-yard performance from Barkley, both Carter and Smith said the defensive line did their jobs, as they produced the best defensive rushing success rate of the Divisional Round.

The Rams didn't allow the physicality and experience of the Eagles' elite offensive line to dictate their actions. Unlike the Week 12 matchup, the Rams' young front took control and set the tone for the entire defense, enacting the motto they set for themselves earlier in the season. The Eagles just broke off three big runs that accounted for 65% of their rushing yards.

"Knowing even though structurally that they were bigger than us, that didn't faze us because of the confidence in the play style that we were playing with," Carter said. "We were going to dictate the terms of the game… for the most part, they did a great job of that. And for me to cut on that film and to see those young guys out there going against some healthy veterans who've been doing it a while was pretty impressive to me."

Heading into Sunday's Super Bowl LIX, L.A. ranks fourth in the NFL in pressure rate (37.1%) and sack rate (7.8%). They became the version of the front that everyone in the Rams' organization imagined it could be when they added those key pieces at the start of the season. Everybody ate, doing it for and with the men beside them, just as Donald intended.

"They trusted each other, and that trust was... earned by the way we led as coaches, but also the trust of (their) communication on the field," Carter said. "The trust of who was really (keyed) into their stuff, which everybody was.

"That was the most impressive thing for me, that everybody went about their work and their business the right way. And that's why they were connected, because it didn't matter who had the shine, we all just wanted to win."