Put your hands at your sides, close your eyes and try to name four defensive tackles in the NFC who you would say are playing better than St. Louis Rams rookie Aaron Donald. I will give you five minutes, GO!
Rams DT Aaron Donald belongs in the Pro Bowl
You might have missed the Rams rookie defensive tackle, but soon enough you’ll know all about Aaron Donald. Retired NFL defensive lineman Stephen White makes the case for Donald to be a household name.
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No peeking!
Actually, go ahead and peak all you want. Go on and try Google, Bing, Westlaw or whatever search engine you want to use, and you are still going to have a hard time giving me four names that you would rank higher than Donald.
Let me help you out with the first three.
1. Gerald McCoy, most sacks of any NFC defensive tackle with 8.5
2. Ndamukong Suh, duh!
3. Calais Campbell, dominant defensive tackle on a team with one of the best records in the NFL
Now, go ahead and try to come up with number four, I triple dog dare you. Oh, and if you're thinking Justin Smith from the 49ers:
A) He is listed as a defensive end.
B) No.
I’m a Justin Smith fan, but Donald would have the edge over him of all the tackles for loss he racks up week after week. Donald is also has the second-highest sack total of any defensive tackle in the NFC with six, which doesn’t hurt either. He is just a short ball of mass destruction out there on the field.
Donald is progressing at an incredible pace from game to game. You can almost see on film that everything is coming so much easier for him now. He’s recognizing blocking schemes much quicker, which is allowing him to play in the backfield even more than he did initially. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he ended up with double digit sacks by season’s end.
In fact, I might actually be disappointed if he doesn’t after watching his film the last few weeks.
The shit wasn't even fair this past weekend against the Raiders. They had the center trying to block back on Donald while the guard to his side pulled. It did not work out well for them. That dude is so good already that he was able to beat Stefan Wisniewski up the field off the snap then change directions quick enough to get in the pulling guard's hip pocket and damn near blow up the play in the backfield. There are so few defensive tackles in the whole NFL who are athletic enough to pull that off consistently, maybe only a few in the history of the NFL, and Aaron Donald is one of them.
I played with a guy who had a very similar athletic skill set: Hall of Famer Warren Sapp. The one thing Donald is missing right now that Sapp had is a signature pass rush move. He is a good enough pass rusher with just some basic moves as things stand, but when he develops that one move that he can do on either side that every guard in the league will struggle to block, Donald may quickly move into the top spot at defensive tackle, not just in the NFC, but in the whole NFL.
At the moment, Donald is at least the fourth-best defensive tackle in his conference. Anyone who is not familiar with him should do the right thing and vote the man to the Pro Bowl this season. You won't see me advocating for individual players to win individual awards or accolades much, but in this case I only think it's justified. A lot of folks might be overlooking him because the Rams are 5-7 and in the NFC West basement. Well, allow me to point out that the kid has played his ass off in some of the Rams' biggest upsets this year, including their Week 7 upset of the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. He had five tackles, including a sack, in that game and was a big factor in the win. He isn't just racking up stats against some slappies, he is balling out against everybody!
If you have access to film, check him out if you don’t believe me. If you don’t have access to film, just take my word for it. Aaron Donald is the real fucking deal and he deserves that fourth defensive tackle spot in the Pro Bowl this year. No need to wait till next year either just because he’s a rookie.
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