Aaron Donald was the NFL’s best defensive player in the modern era
You may begin prepping Aaron Donald’s gold Hall of Fame jacket, since that is his next destination after the long-time Los Angeles Rams player announced his retirement from the NFL on Friday.
It brings to a conclusion a 10-year career in which Donald not only became the best defensive player in the NFL, but also the best defensive player of the modern age and one of the best defensive players to ever play on an NFL field.
This list of accomplishments alone helps make that case.
Donald is one of just three players to ever win the AP Defensive Player of the Year award three different times, joining only Lawrence Taylor and J.J. Watt. He is also one of just two players to be named to the Pro Bowl team in every season of his NFL career. That is an accomplishment that he shares with only former Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders. In addition, Donald was an eight-time first-team All-Pro, the 2014 Defensive Rookie of the Year and the centerpiece of a Super Bowl-winning team in 2021, making the game-clinching play in the closing seconds.
The only two seasons in his career in which he did not earn first-team All-Pro honors were his rookie season (2014) and the 2022 season, when he was limited to just 11 games due to injury.
The honors and the stats speak for themselves. But Donald was always one of those players who just stood out from everybody else on the field.
He just looked different when he was rushing the passer, throwing offensive linemen around like they were toys and chasing down quarterbacks with a ferocity that literally made them scream.
How far back do you have to go to find a defensive player who impacted games that much and had the stats to back it all up? The answer is probably the likes of Lawrence Taylor or Reggie White during their prime years in the league. That is going back more than 30-40 years, spanning multiple generations and multiple shifts in playing styles and rules across the league.
There have definitely been some all-time greats who have come through the NFL in the interim – Ray Lewis, the Watt brothers, Ed Reed, just to name a few – but as great as they all might have been nobody really seemed to ever match Donald’s level. At least when it comes to the combination of statistics, awards and overall dominance.
Donald will be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame in the 2029 class. He will not have to wait any longer than that. He is as close to a first-ballot lock as you will ever get.
