Eagles’ Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis learn from watching the Rams’ Aaron Donald

Once a week, defensive tackles Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter huddle up with player development assistant Pat McDowell to watch film of elite defensive tackles around the league. From Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams to Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs, the group dissects their tendencies and discusses what separates the best from the rest.

On Sunday, Donald won’t just exist on an iPad screen — he’ll be on the sideline opposite from Davis and Carter. By observing the likes of Donald and Jones, Davis is learning what it takes to be one of the greats.

“It’s a lot of great D-tackles in the league,” Davis said. “I’m trying to be one of the greats. [Carter’s] trying to be one of the greats. We just emulating. Obviously, we have different bags, and we have different things that we do differently than them. Just to see what makes people fear them and hopefully just add a little piece of their game to ours.”

Davis, who is in his second year with the Eagles and has 1½ sacks in four games, tries to emulate Donald in two specific areas of his game: first, his pass rush get-off, and second, his hands.

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Donald averaged the quickest get-off (.86 seconds) of any defensive tackle in the league last season for the fourth straight year. Since 2018, Donald has amassed 236 pressures, which is the most among all defensive linemen in that span, per Stathead. The next closest non-edge rusher is Fletcher Cox with 153.

“When your get-off commands respect, he kind of keeps the offensive line on edge, see what they’ve got to do, how they try to block you and stuff like that,” Davis said. “So it kind of just gives that one half second of like, oh, suddenness and hesitation.

“He plays with his hands well. You can almost always see him just playing with extension. He’s a pretty short guy. He has average arms, but he plays with extension. That gets a lot of people, O-linemen, off of him. So it’s just little things like that. You just try to keep going, be cognizant of it, and we just all want to add it to our game.”

As he transitions from becoming a great college player to a pro, Davis is particularly focusing on bringing his hands with him on his first step. He never wants to go into a block and get caught with his hands down or hit an offensive lineman with his shoulder or elbow. If he brings his hands, even if he hits his opponent in the wrong place, he still has a chance to get back to the right spot and be an effective pass rusher.

Additionally, defensive line coach Tracy Rocker has always placed an emphasis on his players’ get-offs. While Carter said that while the group doesn’t necessarily compete with each other to see who can register the quickest get-off time, they do try to hold each other accountable.

“[We] are very competitive all the time,” Carter said. “We just want to make sure everybody get off the ball. If you’re obviously getting off a little slow, we’re gonna tell you, ‘Hey, let’s work on this.’ But other than that, everybody’s getting off pretty fast.”

» READ MORE: Inside Jalen Carter’s circle: How the rookie is learning to be a pro after a turbulent path to the Eagles helped provide a fresh start

Cornerback Darius Slay isn’t too picky about which quarterback will throw him a pick. But the former Detroit Lion wouldn’t mind it if his longtime former teammate and now-Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford chucked the ball up his way come Sunday.

“I really want to pick off every quarterback,” Slay said. “It’d be great to pick off Staff. I’ve played with him for seven years in Detroit, one of my good friends. If he bless me one, I’m gonna intercept it.”

Stafford, who was traded to the Rams in 2021 and helped them to a Super Bowl victory, spent the first 12 years of his career in Detroit, overlapping with Slay for seven seasons (2013-2019). The Lions weren’t exactly juggernauts when Stafford and Slay were on the team, making it to the wild-card round twice in those seven seasons and losing on both occasions.

Still, despite the Lions’ lack of dominance in that stretch and beyond, Slay touted Stafford’s abilities that have translated to his stint in Los Angeles.

“Smart dude,” Slay said. “Amazing arm talent. He gets it done. He’s in that elite arm talent conversation. He could put the ball anywhere, fit it anywhere. Honestly, he’s been doing no looks before no looks was really kind of been going on. He would just not be all hyping about it, but Staff been doing that for a long time.”

Stafford has an additional piece to work with in the receiving corps this season, one year removed from going 5-12-0 and missing the playoffs — rookie wide receiver Puka Nacua, who has 39 receptions for 501 yards. Both totals in each category are the most in NFL history through four career games.

“Oh man, he’s doing an amazing job,” Slay said. “Because if definitely Staff like you as a rookie. So me playing with Staff for so long, if Staff like you, he gonna get you the rock and that must mean Staff like him a lot.”

With Stafford, Nacua, offensive-minded coach Sean McVay, and wide receiver Cooper Kupp returning from injured reserve, the Rams offense poses yet another challenge to the Eagles defense this week. Thankfully for Slay, he knows Stafford well.

The Eagles visit the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest story lines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from SoFi Stadium.