Aaron Donald, widely regarded as one of the most dominant defensive players in NFL history, nearly took a very different path to stardom. During a recent appearance on the "Not Just Football" podcast with Cameron Heyward, the future Hall of Famer revealed that two teams wanted him to switch positions entirely before he was drafted in 2014.

Despite being undersized for the traditional defensive tackle role, Donald was an absolute force in college at Pittsburgh. His explosive power and relentless motor made him a nightmare for opposing offensive lines. However, when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals evaluated him, they saw a different player entirely—one who would line up as an outside linebacker.

"There's a chance I go to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but I was like, 'Nah, they asked me, would I want to play linebacker?'" Donald recalled on the podcast. "At the time, I'm like, 'Yeah, I'll play wherever y'all want me to play.'"

Heyward, a longtime Steelers defensive lineman himself, seemed almost stunned by the revelation. "They wanted you to play linebacker?" he asked.

"They wanted me to be a stand-up guy," Donald explained. "Like, Arizona, the Steelers, had me on the board doing linebacker—just running through the stuff. They wanted me to kind of rush from a two-point stance. I never did it but hey, I work hard enough, I'll get used to it."

Fortunately for the Los Angeles Rams—and for football fans everywhere—the Rams saw Donald's true potential. They drafted him in the first round and kept him on the interior, where he went on to become a three-time Defensive Player of the Year and a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer. It's a reminder that sometimes the best move is trusting a player's natural position, no matter what the scouting reports say.