On a day where everyone is going to talk about Aaron Donald, let’s talk about the guy who helped him become a Ram! When they zig, we zag!



Mike Waufle was the defensive line coach for the Rams in 2014. The Rams had both the 2nd and 13th picks in the draft and Waufle knew the team had decided on taking a Tackle with the 2nd overall pick. He knew this but was excited at the thought of Donald falling to 13.



Waufle, a 6’4 man himself, didn’t want his fellow coaches to think of Donald as small, standing only at 6’1. So when he came in for his meeting, Waufle made sure to stand far from Donald so nobody had an extra reason to question his height.



During the meeting, there were Johnny Manziel's highlight tapes paused in the background and Donald felt as if the meeting was superficial. Neither he nor the Rams thought they were going to work out.



Waufle never wavered in his thought that Donald would be great. One day close to the draft he got up in front of everybody and went to the big board, he took the magnetic strip with Donald’s name on it, jumped as high as he could, and placed it well above every other name.



He made it clear that he believed that Donald would be the best player in the draft.



Aaron Donald somehow fell to 13, he was drafted by Rams, and the rest is history.



Thanks for everything 99!