Rams Rookie Shaun Dolac Is A Heat Seeking Missile | Film Review

Rams Rookie Shaun Dolac Is A Heat Seeking Missile | Film Review

All right, welcome back to another one of our film reviews. Today we are talking Los Angeles Rams rookie linebacker Shawn Dolak. Dolak got his first taste of big-time action and he did a heck of a job for this Rams linebacking group. We’ll break down everything he did so well and why he has a bright future in Los Angeles. As always, in the comment section below, give us any feedback you might have. If you’re a fan of these film reviews and want to help support us so we can do more of them, consider becoming a member of our channel. There’s a link in the description box below that will take you right there. But without further ado, let’s jump right into the film. All right, let’s open up with the run defense. And there’s Dolac right there on the right side of your screen. So, this is going to be a standard inside zone concept this way from the Baltimore Ravens. But what they’re going to do is they’re going to have Derrick Henry motion pre- snap behind the quarterback before he takes a hand off, taking that zone track. The Rams counter to that is to have Jared Verse over here, the defensive end, reduce down inside. So, by the alignment right here, by the structure of the defense, it looks like this defensive tackle has this gap, Verse has this gap, and Dole has this gap. But once they see the motion, Jared Verse reduces down. He takes this gap and Dolak’s actually going to fire off this way and take the outside gap. But again, if you’re going to be the outside gap, the edge player in this situation, and they run zone scheme this way, you got to be able and willing to hunt the running back down from the backside, it’s a check the box kind of play you got to make. Dolac makes the play. Let’s check it out. There’s a running back motion. There’s a reduction. There’s a snap. Dak pursues, makes a play. Now, to give credit where credit is due, Jared Verse blows this up as well. But this is a great job by the rookie linebacker. You can see right before the snap, the reduction, he now has the edge, sees the zone, flies down, gets horizontal, makes a tackle. Really good stuff right here. Really good run defense by the linebacker. Good effort, good athleticism. A lot of times in these situations when linebackers bounce outside and take the outside gap, they get too wide, right? They’re so concerned about taking the outside that they end up well outside the tackle. But Dolan does a great job following off the butt of the tackle, taking that zone track and then tracks down Derrick Henry from behind there. You can see Jared, he’s blowing it up on the play side. They’ve got it blown it up, too. I mean, this is just really good defense by the Los Angeles Rams. Credit where credit is due across the board. This is a really, really good defensive football team. But Dolac getting more playing time with some injuries, some opportunities, he’ll add a whole another element. I was really excited by what he did against the the Ravens and I think has a bright future in this defense. again making plays like this. Athleticism, hustle, production. Nice job by the rookie. All right, from the wide copy one, Dolak right there. There’s the reduction. Comes off the edge, makes a tackle. This is really good defense across the board. You can see the corner, the nickel corner right there. He comes off the edge, too. So, this is good team defense. And you see the safety rotate late right there. Corner backs up. They shift into their single high. This is just good disguise, good execution by the Rams defense across the board. But even if you have a good disguise and you do a good job implementing in your game plan, you got to make the play, right? It comes down to a lot of times not just the X’s and O’s, right? It’s the Joe’s on the field. They got to make the tackle, got to make the play. Verse does here, Dolak does here. And again, that’s why the Rams are so good, right? They’re very smart. They have great game plans and really good execution, but they’re also highly productive. They don’t miss tackles. They take advantage of opportunities while playing good team defense. Look, on the play side, doing your job across the board. That’s awesome. and on the backside taking advantage of the game plan that you draw up first creating some havoc and making the tackle. Dolak coming around as well. Good job across the board. All right, sticking with the run defense and there’s Dolak right there on the left side of your screen. Same kind of concept except this time the reduction is going to happen on the left side. Dolak’s going to come this way and they’re running right into it. Right, so this is a situation here where as crucial as it was to make the play on the backside, it’s doubly so on the play side. You got to blow it up and Doak does a great job. So, what the Ravens try and do here is they try and bring some motion pre- snap to get a little flow from the linebackers and safeties and then try and do a split zone, have the tight end work across this direction to kick out the inm line of scrimmage and have everyone else up front take their standard zone tracks, right? It’s a basic misdirection kind of concept. You’re trying to confuse a young linebacker like Doolak in this situation. But what you do if you’re the Rams, and this is why they’re so smart, they take all the guesswork out of it. They say, “Listen, Dolak, we’re going to fire our defensive end inside and you’re going to go outside, right? Don’t think about anything else. Just do that and make the play.” The young linebacker gets it done. Let’s check it out. There’s the motion across the formation. There’s the snap. Inside zone blown up. Once again, it’s not just Dolak making the play. See 37 right here. He’s right there as well. You can see 91 Kobe Turner getting involved in the action. I mean, the team defense is just extraordinary. You can see the motion, the flow. By the way, you know what the difference between winning and losing is? Look at number four between for Baltimore, Zay Flowers. He’s going in motion. He’s trying to get flow from the linebackers and safeties. Look at this effort. This is what losing teams do, guys. And I know the Ravens, right? They they’ve been down and out since they’ve had the injuries to Lamar Jackson. They’re a beat up football team. I get it. But you’re a professional athlete and you give this kind of effort. That’s that’s non-excusable. But let’s look at Dolak here. Again, you can see a defensive end reduced down inside. So Dolak goes off of his butt. He gets a little bit too far inside right there, but he recognizes there’s the crease, bounces outside, jumps around the blocker, is there to make the tackle. filling the hole, being aggressive, seek and destroy. That’s what Dolac showed in the preseason and that’s what he’s showing with this action against the Baltimore Ravens. Far from a perfect player, right? Obviously Andreacted rookie got a lot of things to improve on. He’s got some physical deficiencies, but when it’s time to make him plays and to do your job, do he gets it done, guys. And a lot of people, right, were really high on Puall. We were on this channel. We love Poo Paul. We broke him down a lot. Thought he was a really good prospect. But Dolak is showing exactly why the Rams were excited to keep him. Nice addition in LA. All right, from the wide copy, there’s the motion. There’s the handoff, the zone track, and the Rams just blow it up. I mean, look at Dolak right here. Again, you can see going back to the very beginning, number eight verse, is going to crash down inside. There it is. Dolak comes off his butt, gets around the blocker, and there he is to make the tackle. Good position right in this gap. And you see just like before the outside corner, crashes as well. So, the Rams are playing downhill. They’re playing hyperaggressive. And look, you can do that when you’re playing a team that’s giving this kind of effort, that’s on a backup quarterback, right? But the thing I really like about it is that you can rely on Dolak. Let’s say you don’t fire 37 here against, you know, good opponents, healthy opponents in the future. You have 37, he has to be involved in coverage. Dolak’s right there to make the play in his own right. And that’s what I like about it, right? He’s he’s there with his teammates, but he would have made the play regardless. And I think that’s why Dolak’s such a good addition, and that’s why the Rams were so high on him. He’s got a bright future in this defense. All right, let’s go with some pass defense now. And there’s Shawn Dolak right there on the left side of your screen. So, he’s just going to drop into coverage. Very simple stuff. You can see they’re in the red zone right there. There’s the goal line. They’re right around what the 15 yardd line. And when anytime you’ve got a mobile quarterback in this situation like Tyler Huntley, he’s going to look for opportunities to run. And Dolan, he does his initial responsibility dropping a coverage. But when number five tries to escape, this is a tough situation for any linebacker, let alone a rookie undrafted free agent. But 56 does a great job limiting the damage. He shows off his athleticism and hustle. Let’s check it out. There’s a snap. Drop into coverage. Pressure. Scramble drill. Quarterback running. Thinks he has a big play. gets about seven, eight yards before getting tackled. Really nice job by Dolac. I want to freeze frame it, guys. Right here. This is a situation where the quarterback, he’s in almost full sprint right now where he’s getting very close. Dolac, he’s putting his foot in the ground. He was going completely the other direction right there. Full sprint. Dolak just turned. This looks like a chance for a touchdown potentially or at least a really darn close to it. But great closing speed, great angle, makes a tackle. Now number five right there makes it easy on him. Tries to tries to juke or do whatever he’s trying to do there. So 56 though takes advantage of it. gets him on the ground. Good athlete. One of the underrated elements of Dolak is his athleticism, his hustle, but it’s also high IQ. When he stops on a dime right there, you noticed he immediately is looking straight horizontally. He’s not going to go on a diagonal path to try and cut him off for a three-y gain. That’s how the quarterback could get around him. Instead, he runs straight flat and actually gets up the field a little bit to make sure he takes a right angle. He’s a good athlete. He hustles, all great stuff, but he also has high football IQ like we see here making the tackle. All right, from the wide copy, watch Dolac drop into coverage. Sees the quarterback escape. Foot in the ground. Hustle, hustle, hustle, make the play. It’s what it’s all about, guys, right? Look how he goes at an angle. He doesn’t go diagonally right here to try and cut him off like at the 16, limited to like a three- yard gain. He goes flat and actually ends up giving up ground at the end, taking a good angle to make sure he gets Huntley on the ground. Smart, savvy, athletic, hustling to the football. This is what it’s all about, guys. This is how you win. I talked about Zay Flowers, you know, a couple plays ago in this film review, not giving good effort. This is winning effort right here. Love to see it from the rookie. All right, let’s stick with some more effort plays. And there’s Doolak right there on the right side of your screen. And it’s going to be a quick throw out this direction on the right side as Doolak drops into a coverage. It’s not his zone, but he of course hustles to the football. He the way he plays the game, guys, he just plays like a heat-seeking missile. He just goes to the football full speed with bad intentions. And he’s not about just, you know, throwing his body in there just trying to, you know, get a big hit on Sports Center. He’s all about the fundamentals. He gets people on the ground. Let’s check it out. There’s the snap. Quick throw out. Do like hustling. Balls out. Boom. Wraps him up. Gets him on the ground. Good play. This is a check the box kind of play. And there’s a lot of check the box kind of plays. But I want to highlight those because as an undrafted rookie making, you know, obviously his first big appearance. The big question mark is can he make these kind of tackles, right? Are you an NFL linebacker or not? Right? Look, things happen in practice. Things happen in the preseason that the Rams coaches really high on. But when you know you actually get on the field and you’re playing an NFL team and you know it’s a Sunday afternoon, can you make the plays and look good doing them and Dolak does? Does his job, responsibility, hustles to the football, wraps him up, physicality, gets him on the ground, you know, good technique, drives the hips, doesn’t hit him high, doesn’t, you know, rip miss anything with the contact. Just just good football player, right? Good solid fundamentals. And that’s what I like to see from Dolac, right? He’s one of these guys when you talk about athleticism and hustle and and speed, he’s good at those things, but he’s not gonna set any world records, but he’s just a fundamentally sound old school linebacker. And I think the Rams have been looking for a guy at linebacker that can just make the plays you’re supposed to make, right? It’s like the baseball analogy of a shortstop, right? Give me the guy that doesn’t make the highlight plays necessarily, but can field the ground balls and throw it to first base and get the guy out, right? Make the routine plays all of the time and hustle and play with good effort. And that’s what Dolak is doing. He did a really good job making some highlight plays. We highlighted some of them in the run game, but he just does everything routine. He does his job and plays with good effort. It’s what you want to see from any linebacker. All right, from the wide copy, watch Dolak right there. Reads the throw, hustles to the football, makes a tackle. Again, is it, you know, a Sports Center highlight or anything like that? It’s going to end up on Instagram or Twitter or whatever. No, but it’s just routine, right? It’s just doing your job. It’s hustling, playing with good speed, good effort, right? There are other guys. Look at number three. Now, I know he’s far away from the football, but he’s jogging, right? Look at some of these other guys like kind of jogging a little bit. Not the undrafted free agent rookie. I would expect him to be going full speed, mind you. But I love the effort right there. Boom. Immediately. And he doesn’t hesitate either, right? He’s kind of hustling to the ball and then goes right into a tackle mode immediately. Just plays the he plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played, guys. And the question will be how much playing time he gets going forward. I think he needs a healthy amount. He quietly showed, I think, why the Rams are so high on him. All right. This may be my favorite play from Dolak all game long. And there he is lined up traditionally at the standard middle linebacker position. And it’s going to be a design cut back right here from the Baltimore Ravens. What they’re going to do is they’re going to have all the offensive line kind of work this direction just like this where the tight ends and everyone just trying get everyone to flow inside from the uh from the Rams perspective to make them think it’s an inside run with Henry. Let me clean up the screen for you guys there. Make them think it’s an inside run right here. everyone trying to fill, everyone trying to close the gaps like that and then have the design counter and out leverage everybody and Derrick Henry being the phenomenal superhero athlete that he is can just outrun everybody right here number 56. He sees what’s going on. He diagnoses it and actually honks down Derrick Henry. Phenomenal effort. Let’s check it out. There’s a snap. There’s design outside run. He’s got the edge. There’s Dolac. I guarantee you this was a good run for the Ravens, don’t get me wrong. But I guarantee you right here they’re thinking touchdown. One-on-one Derrick Henry with a defensive back. He cuts back inside. Another defensive back. This is going to be a touchdown. But instead, who’s out there? Dolac. And And let’s look at this guys. Let’s compare Dolak’s speed and athleticism to a safety. Right? They’re basically lined up, stacked on top of each other right there. Stride for stride. Stride for stride. Stride for stride. Stride for stride. Right there. Don’t tell me not a good athlete. Don’t tell me he’s not fast. He’s right there running at the same speed as 37. And when you have a big physical linebacker, that’s how you counter Derrick Henry. And that’s how you counter teams like the Bills with Josh Allen and a lot of these other big strong quarterbacks and teams that have mobile uh quarterbacks like the Packers with Love, Washington, uh the Philadelphia Eagles, all those teams. This is how you counter it with an athletic linebacker who’s got some size to them. These DBs, these safeties, these corners, they can run stride for strideware Henry, but they can’t get him on the ground. He’s just too big. Dolan, he’s got enough size. He’s got enough power. He can get him on the ground. He’s physical and strong enough to do it. But a lot of linebackers, the question is, are you fast enough? Are you good enough athlete? Shawn Dolac definitely is. All right, from the wide copy, watch 56 right there. Sees the outside run, foot in the ground, hustle again. I mean, every play he makes is just a high hustle play. Just plays with a great motor. You love to see it. And you can see right now the Ravens, they got him, right? They got a linebacker firing inside. They got Jared Verse wash down inside. They’re on the edge. This is going to be a touchdown right here. You’re thinking touchdown one-on-one corner safety. Maybe if they’re lucky, he gets down to the one instead. It’s down to the four. That’s a big difference, guys. This is how you get goal line stops. One of the things I personally believe about goal line stops is they happen to play before because if you get a first and goal at the one, it’s tough. But if you get a first and goal at the four, you got a chance and the Rams took advantage of this chance. And it all started here with Shawn Dolak making a really, really nice play. All right, this next play is something Shawn Dolak needs to work on. And there he is right there on the left side of your screen. And for the Baltimore Ravens, it’s going to be standard zone run, standard outside zone to the left. Derk Henry going this direction right here. And what you’re going to get is you’re going to get a zone double team right here working up to the next level. We’re going to get a reach here and then backside scoops. Generally how this works is the running back’s taking this track and he’s kind of reading this block. If they get him reached, he’ll just follow it up just like this. If they get don’t get him reached and he gets pushed this direction, he’ll cut back behind. That’s normally how it goes. Let me clean up the screen for you guys here. Do right here, he’s got the tough responsibility. This zone double team comes, he’s going to make sure he sets an edge to the defense, but he cannot give up any ground either. This is something I think Dole needs to work on. He’s a little uncomfortable in these situations at times on the play side. Let’s check it out. There’s a snap. There’s a block. There’s the cut back. Decent little run from the Ravens. Let’s look at Dole here on the play side. Right. You can see this double team coming at him right there. He’s getting outside. He’s trying to set an edge. Great. And he gets blown out of the way a little bit, right? Doesn’t hold his ground. Isn’t firm. Isn’t very assertive right here. Throw your helmet into 72 right there. And I He gets He gets caught. And look, it’s first severe NFL action. It’s going to happen, right? It’s not going to be perfect. It never is. Even for, you know, even for Aaron Donald, it wasn’t perfect every single game. Although for for him, it was pretty darn close. And it’s not going to be perfect for, you know, an undrafted free agent making his first serious action. But this is something right here. You need to throw your helmet into 72’s chest right there and keep square cuz when this running back cuts back, if they don’t have good effort on the backside, this could have been a huge play. As a playside linebacker, your job, of course, is first and foremost to make sure you don’t let them get out leveraged. Don’t let him get outside of you, which he did. But right there, you can’t get blown out of the hole because if Linder Bomb right here delivers a really good block on the Ravens defensive tackle and doesn’t give up this penetration, Derrick Henry probably creases this wide and either cuts behind 64 and then hits it up the left hash or follows directly right behind 72’s block on Doolak. Right, this was a good job by this defensive tackle for the Los Angeles Rams. Dolac needs to be a little bit more aggressive. I think it’s something he’ll definitely improve on as he gets more reps. All right, from the wide copy, watch Dolak right there. Sets the edge. that’s okay. But then just gets shocked out of the hole a little bit, right? And he gets kind of buried outside. You see how this offensive lineman’s helmets up field? Not a good position to be in. You can see that crease right here that the Baltimore Ravens could have potentially hit if their defensive tackle doesn’t get penetration and do a great job here. Now, that’s the beauty of team defense and having good defensive players, right? Even when you have one guy on the play side get blocked and get shoved out of the way a little bit, the rest of the guys can, you know, pick up the slack. And that’s that’s why the Rams draft and develop the way they do up front. Dolan overall played a pretty good game. I think plays like this are something he needs to work on right here. Good position. Now, keep your body square and throw your helmet and chest into this offensive lineman and hold your ground. He gets washed out of the way a little bit. Not a great rep from Dolac. All right, let’s end on another check the box play coverage. And there’s Dolac right there, of course, in the middle of your screen. So, what we’re going to see here from the Baltimore, we’re going to get a little motion out this direction and then we’re going to have the running back at the snap do like an angle route just like this. And what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to test this young linebacker because the quarterback right here, he’s going to be staring right at him and seeing if the linebacker recognizes and reacts as this running back widens out and then comes back into his own enough to make the tackle, right? It’s a standard play. You got to make it if you’re going to be a quality linebacker, even play in the National Football League, right? Because this DB is going to widen out with the motion with his zone coverage. But you right here, Doolak, you got to recognize and drift when it’s time to and make the tackle. Dak does a great job again checking the box. Let’s check it out. There’s a motion, there’s a snap, there’s the angle, makes a tackle. It’s what it’s all about, right? And again, nine out of 10 linebackers makes this play right here. You see the ball, make the tackle. It’s looks so simple and it and it really is in some levels, but you got to check the box for undrafted free agent linebackers like Shawn Dolac. Can you prove you belong? And we know he played with good effort. He hawkked Derrick Henry. Made a lot of nice plays on the backside in the run game and a couple on the play side. Although there is some things to clean up, but he can check every box in coverage. He hustles, got the quarterback out of bounds and a scramble drill. I mean, he’s everything we wanted to see from Dolak in terms of his athleticism and production we saw. Now the question is, can he check the box? Does he have any severe flaws that will prevent him from getting on the field more? And the answer is no. Right? Even his negatives are something he can work on and right here does a good job in coverage recognizing and reacting. I tell you what, LA fans, look, we were big fans of Pu and you obviously let him go and you rolled with Dolak. You look like you were really smart because this young linebacker, he just checks every single box. He plays with good attitude, solid fundamentals, good athlete, makes the plays. I really like Dolak’s future, just not just in his Rams defense, but just in his NFL career. Great young player.

The Los Angeles Rams must be extremely pleased with Shaun Dolac. In his first set of serious action he played an outstanding game for the LA Rams. The future is bright for Shaun Dolac in this Rams defense.

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