Dante Scarnecchia may be the greatest offensive line coach in NFL history, having coached in the league for 36 years. But when he walked into his positional meeting room before the Patriots played the Rams in Super Bowl LIII, there was still a detectable curiosity as to the elephant in the room: How on Earth was he going to plan for Aaron Donald?
That season, Donald had 20.5 sacks and 41 quarterback hits as an interior defensive lineman and won his second consecutive Defensive Player of the Year Award. Donald was also doing comically extraordinary things such as hurling 300-pound grown men into the backfield with enough velocity to knock over a nearby quarterback as if we were duckpin bowling on a regular basis.
“You can see it on their faces,” said Scarnecchia, about his Patriots offensive line stopping Donald in the Super Bowl. “O.K., what are we going to do here? How are we going to get this done?”
