The Los Angeles Rams have been one of the many talks of the off-season after a shocking year in 2017 in which they won the division. They’ve loaded up on the defensive side of the football and really as a team overall. They acquired Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib to improve their secondary, they needed a wide receiver for Jared Goff and they acquired a good one in Brandin Cooks from the New England Patriots, they signed Ndamukong Suh as a free agent and they paid Todd Gurley, the reigning offensive player of the year. What about the heartbeat of the team, Aaron Donald? I think it’s safe to say it’s been a good week for some well-known NFL players. On Monday, Odell became the highest-paid wide receiver, on Wednesday, Aaron Rodgers became the highest-paid player in NFL history and today, the Los Angeles Rams gave their star defensive tackle a contract extension. Six years, $135 million and $87 million guaranteed.
Aaron Donald is the best defensive player in our league right now and since he was drafted in 2014, he’s been nothing but productive and the scary thing is that he’s in the prime of his career at just the age of 27 years old. When I did my ten best players list just a few weeks ago, he checked in at my third best player and of course, my top ranked defensive player coming into the 2018 NFL season. He’s a very special football player and will be for years and years to come. When you think of most defensive linemen, they all have one thing in common: all of them have been over six feet tall. That isn’t the case with number 99. Standing in at just six feet and weighing in at 284 pounds, he’s an extremely powerful man that plays the defensive lineman position with the mentality of an offensive lineman because of how he works within the trenches. The first thing I always take away from his game is how violent and active he is with his hands. He can rip through blockers and he can also push offensive linemen into the backfield. I’ve often referred to him as a pocket pusher and those are the guys that can still put pressure on the quarterback without consistently getting a rush and that’s him to a T. He uses his height to his advantage on the field because those shorter players are always the most difficult to defend and he can get under an offensive lineman and push him back with his strength and power and he gets low, the top football rule is the lowest man always wins.
He was awarded the defensive MVP after his stellar 2017 season and it’s about time that he won it. He’s always been in the running for the award and will continue to be for the next five years or so. Next to Von Miller, he is the most disruptive defensive player in the NFL and as an offense, you need to have your gameplan built around him because he has the skillset to destroy your offense’s day. I just had to throw this in here the only way that I can: You know the rule by now and that’s you better have game if you have two first names and he does. If you are a football player that happens to be a defensive lineman, this is the guy you need to be watching film on.
