Poke the bear

The young Rams in the defensive line room call Donald a “big brother” figure. If that's the case, though, the other guys have certainly embraced the “little brother” hallmark of trying to get under Donald's skin.

Rookie Desjuan Johnson, “Mr. Irrelevant” in April's draft, has been a prime instigator, often leaning across the laundry basket in front of Donald's locker to see his reaction to the latest jab. Donald usually fights back a grin as he concentrates on tying his goldtrimmed New Balances.

“Everybody likes to laugh, everybody likes to smile,” Johnson reasons. “As a young player, you still want to talk junk and push him to be the best version of himself — even though that's Aaron Donald, he don't need nobody to push him — but just knowing that you got somebody that got your back.”

This button-pushing hasn't been limited to Johnson. Practice squad member Cory Durden frequently talks about wanting to dunk on his veteran teammate at Donald's home basketball court.

“(Durden) said, `We gotta play basketball. I bet you got AD on the court, huh, right on the middle?' “Turner recounts. “AD is like, `Yeah.' He was like, `I'll drop 30 from the AD logo.' So everybody tries to get up under his skin a little bit, but it's all love, man.”

Asked about this dynamic, and Donald — typically stoic at press conferences — drops his head with a quick snort of laughter before recovering.

“That's what it's about. You want to come to work, you want to have a group of guys that you enjoy being around, you have fun being around, that works, that want to be good,” Donald says. “I think we got a bunch of guys in our room that are like that and then obviously, having different personalities and everybody clicking together and having fun with each other, that