When soft-spoken defensive lineman Poona Ford talks, it's usually for something he deems important.

Ford swore to his defensive line coach at Texas, Oscar Giles, that he was at least 6-foot-1 plenty of times. But when they brought out the tape measurer at Texas' Pro Day, Ford measured 5-foot-11⅝. He had a few words to say about that, but characteristically, it was only a few.

"No way, coach, ain't no way I'm 5-11," Giles recalled.

Giles told them to measure again. When the results came back the same, he told Ford, "you got what you got, man." Ford didn't mind being on the shorter side, but he knew NFL teams wouldn't react well to that measurement. He was right, as only Seattle showed real interest in him during the draft process.

Eight years later, Ford said he "wouldn't have it any other way."

"It's just easier to get up under (linemen), you feel me? Especially if I get my feet planted, I'm not going nowhere."

Ford is the shortest defensive lineman in the league, ranking in the 0th percentile for height among players at his position since 1999, according to mockdraftable data. But his wingspan is a monstrous 80¼ inches, the average for a 6-foot-8 man, and he knows how to use it. Ford's unique combination of athleticism, strength, football IQ, adaptability and arm length has more than made up for his lack of height throughout his football career.

In high school, Ford was built like SpongeBob with a boxy torso and long arms, said Clint Hurtt, who scouted him and later coached him in Seattle. When Ford's high school coach, BJ Payne, first laid eyes on him, he immediately said, "That's our three-tech(nique)." But ahead of his junior year, Ford was a 5-8, 290-pound mike linebacker and running back with Jerome Bettis-esque agility, Payne said.

He sat Ford down and told him, "If you'll transition, trust me and let me move you down and put your hand in the dirt, I promise you, you'll be a high school All-American defensive tackle." He did just that, becoming a four-star prospect at Hilton Head Island (SC) High School, and they've shared a strong bond ever since, built on mutual trust.

In the team's first padded practice under Payne, the offense ran a speed option away from him. Ford ran across the formation to track down a future Division I tailback, Khalil Lewis, for a two-yard loss. Payne said the team's offensive coordinator at the time was "mind-blown."

"He was like, 'You realize that was your backside three-tech that just made that play?' And I just smiled and was like, 'Yes, I do.'"

From there, a star was born, albeit an extremely quiet one. Payne said Ford was so unblockable that they'd have to hold him out of some practices because he was so disruptive that the offense couldn't even set up their looks.

Payne saw Ford achieve some truly outrageous athletic feats that would be impressive for anyone, let alone a 300-pound high schooler. He squatted 675 pounds in his junior year and could throw a spiral 50 yards with each hand. Payne said he's essentially ambidextrous and, beside the quarterbacks, he'd bet that Ford has the best arm of anyone on the Rams' roster.

It wasn't just Ford's athleticism that catapulted him near the top of South Carolina's recruiting ladder. His ability to create leverage, which has become a calling card of sorts in the NFL, was evident from the start, and something his height actually helped with.

"I think with everything, it's leverage and hand work," Payne said. "And, he's always had (that), he's a violent player, has violent hands. And the thing about him is he's a grinder."

Starting in junior year, Ford and Lewis would run 20 100-yard sprints after each practice, even in between two-a-days. And in senior year, Ford led the team to a win over rival Bluffton with 10 carries for around 75 yards and three touchdowns at fullback, along with four sacks on the defensive line.

Even then, Ford always knew where he needed to be on the field.

"It's amazing how football savvy he is," Payne said. "… I've had seven guys go on to play in the league and over 100 guys play Division I. And pretty much every single one of those guys at some point will call me and say, 'Hey, can you help me with this? Can you help me with that?' He never has… He gets it. He's always where he's supposed to be."

Yet, his physical presentation meant people often weren't convinced that he was worthy of his ranking. When Ford arrived for a high school showcase in Orlando with the best players in the nation, writers and recruiters asked Payne to point him out. When he did, there were scoffs and surprised faces saying, "Oh, that's him?"

Payne smiled and said, "Wait until 1-on-1s."

Ford went 10-0 against some of the nation's best, including the top five offensive linemen in the country. He took the number one guard in the nation, who was around 320 pounds according to Payne, and lifted him in the air. That was the onlookers' wake-up call.

So, Ford went to Texas, where his playing time increased each season. As a sophomore, Ford said he played through "a bad ankle sprain." He didn't let on though, playing in 12 games and starting five. Now, he says he should have rested, but he felt the need to prove himself as an underclassman who played significant snaps.

He really took off as a junior, starting all 12 games. Ford finished fourth on the team in tackles with 54 and led the Longhorns in quarterback hits with four. But his senior season came with a regime change, just like he endured in high school. He took it stoically, but with a resignation to do what it took to succeed. Because of his less-than-ideal frame, benefit of the doubt was never a luxury afforded to Ford. He had to earn trust and responsibility.

"Apply what you learned in the classroom to the field," Ford said. "Don't be a guy that they have to tell to keep coaching up the same thing more than once. So just show them you'll be able to learn and apply what you learn to the field and just keep getting better and keep stacking day in and day out."

Soon after he arrived, Giles sat down with Ford, who was around 350 pounds at that point, just as Payne had done so many years earlier.

"'In this scheme, we don't need to be that big,'" Giles recalled saying. "'We're more or less changing direction, slanting, some things like that. So we're not more or less a two-gap team,' and that's what he was with Coach (Charlie) Strong… And what we talked about, he said, 'Well coach, I'm down to do whatever it takes to get on the field.'"

Giles and Ford set up extra conditioning work, they would even meet up to walk together sometimes. Before long, he was down around 20 pounds, and for a natural athlete like Ford, that made him feel like a sprinter, Giles said. The impact on his movement skills was obvious immediately.

Ford earned BIG 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year honors, and his teammates voted him as the Longhorns' most valuable player in 2017. His already relentless motor matched with increased quickness and added pass rush opportunities led to a senior year explosion.

"We watched him rush the passer, I'm like, 'Coach, we got to get him back on the field. He's one of our best pass rushers,'" Giles recalled. "And it was a fact. We turned on the film. If he didn't get the sack, he got a pressure or he was disruptive around the quarterback."

On top of that, Ford started to speak up sparingly, but effectively. His impassive focus on the task at hand impressed his teammates to the point where he became a pivotal leader for the Longhorns.

"He's a quiet leader," Giles said. "He's not a guy that's going to be a 'ra-ra' guy. When he does talk, he's going to demand the respect of everybody in that room. He started in our room, and then it started with our team, where when he did speak, everybody listened."

But all that wasn't enough for teams to look past his size. Giles said Seattle was the only team he remembered talking to about Ford during the draft process. Most NFL squads simply overlooked him, opting instead for more traditional prospects.

Ford said that just added "more fuel to the fire" because he was confident in his ability to succeed in the NFL, he just needed an opportunity to prove it. Seattle gave him that, signing him as an undrafted free agent in 2018.

"He went to Seattle, I always teased him, for a six-pack of Diet Pepsi and some peanuts," Giles said. "He didn't get anybody. And, you know what? He told me, 'Coach, I got a start. I got a chance.' And that's all he needed."

Hurtt, his first NFL defensive line coach, was influential in his development. Hurtt recruited Ford at Louisville, but didn't end up coaching him in college, so when Ford entered the draft and Hurtt was the Seattle defensive line coach, he knew there could be a chance to finally unite.

"(The draft is) a beauty contest," Hurtt told The Athletic. "I said, 'Poona, you've known this since high school, you're not winning any beauty contests, buddy.' … You got all the talent in the world, people just don't know it yet."

Midway through his rookie season, Ford earned meaningful playing time and even started a game for Seattle. The Seahawks taught him more established moves and how to dissect film in a nuanced way. He starts by breaking down run formations early in the week, then moving on to pass sets. There are indicators of quick sets versus more traditional ones where linemen get depth. How they hold their hands and their reactions to certain movements tell Ford how he should attack.

NFL coaches and teammates made Ford realize just how advantageous his height could become, as professional linemen weren't used to it.

"If he bends down, it's almost impossible to get lower than him,'' former Seahawks center Justin Britt told The Seattle Times in 2019. "Like I said, he understands that, and he understands that that's his strength.''

Over the years, he's given some of the league's best interior linemen fits, including former Eagles All-Pro center Jason Kelce. Payne recalled Ford calling him years back to say that Kelce had pulled him aside to tell him as much after they went head-to-head in Philadelphia.

"At least when I play a bigger guy, I can get up under him and win the leverage battle," Kelce said on the Pardon My Take podcast. "And if I play a shorter guy, at least I have longer arms. So when you play somebody shorter with longer arms, like, I've negated every technical advantage I have… I hated playing Poona."

Over the years, he's evolved into one of the most consistent run stoppers in the NFL with explosive upside as a pass rusher. Last season, Ford had the third-highest Pro Football Focus defense grade among qualified interior defensive linemen.

After five years in Seattle, followed by one-year stints with the Bills and Chargers, respectively, Ford signed a three-year deal with the Rams this offseason. Similar to Giles, Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula said during OTAs that he was surprised at Ford's prodigious pass rush skills, as he's built more like a run stopper.

Ford will join a very young defensive line, where suddenly he's in a leadership role as the oldest player in the room, just as he was at Texas. So far, he's fitting in well.

"Everybody just feeds off each other, depending on one another, it's a real family," Ford said. "I'm excited to work with the group, man. I'm just trying to get in where I fit in, sprinkle my little bit of wisdom in there."

That defensive line is still trying to recreate the eclectic success they had with Aaron Donald after his retirement prior to last season. Ironically, Payne said Donald, who was also on the shorter side at 6-1, is who Ford patterned his game after.

"I remember his rookie season, him calling me after the game, and he was like, 'Hey man, I met Donald after the game,'" Payne said. "For him, it was like a little kid moment."

The Rams can only hope that Ford can help lead L.A. to the promised land by bullying opposing linemen, just as his idol did.