This photo perfectly captures why Aaron Donald is the best football player of his era
What a photo.
We’ve spent, and will continue to spend, a lot of time trying to explain Aaron Donald’s greatness.
He’s not the most impactful player of the modern era, but only because he doesn’t play quarterback. Beyond that, there’s nobody even close. Tom Brady’s the greatest winner the league has ever known, but he had Bill Belichick teaching him how to read defenses and can be slowed down by all the typical things that slow down a QB.
Donald has just wrecked the league since arriving, without any special scheme or accommodation.
He is what makes the Rams defense special. His presence must always be accounted for in ways that leave an offense at an immediate disadvantage on every single play.
Just look what Seattle had to do to deal with him in the second quarter of what would become a 26-17 Rams win on Thursday night:
A day in the life of @AaronDonald97.
: #LARvsSEA on NFLN/FOX/PRIME VIDEO
: NFL App pic.twitter.com/9fJRasdj3J
— NFL (@NFL) October 8, 2021
That’s tackle Duane Brown AND guard Damien Lewis trying to block Donald. They both appear to be doing something that goes against the rules of football, though neither was called for holding on this play.
Brown, however, was called for holding later in the second quarter, with 16 seconds left, negating a touchdown pass that wold have sent the Seahawks into the locker room with a a 14-3 lead. Instead they missed the field goal and Los Angeles took control in the third quarter before ultimately winning a pivotal NFC West matchup.
Brown’s holding call didn’t come on Donald; he grabbed Terrell Lewis. But he shows all the signs of a player who was simply overwhelmed. He backpedals quickly, trying to square to Donald while pushing Lewis far enough to the outside. It doesn’t work.
This is what Aaron Donald does to defenses. Down after down after down after down. He probably gets held 50 percent of the time — at least. He makes plenty of plays himself, of course, but so often he eats up blockers and frees his teammates. It’s hard to quantify just how much grunt work he’s done to make the Rams defense good.
Take, for instance, play when he set a new franchise record for sacks. It may look like Donald is the beneficiary of his teammates flushing Russell Wilson into space.
With this sack, Aaron Donald becomes the Rams ALL-TIME leader in sacks
@AaronDonald97 (via @RamsNFL)
— Overtime (@overtime) October 8, 2021
But all of that only happens in the first place because the Seahawks are so worried about Donald, who keeps after the play and is eventually able to swoop to the QB for his 88.5 career sack.
Cameron DaSilva from our sister site Rams Wire does as good a job as anybody at chronicling Donald, and has the numbers to prove how dominant he’s been.
But Donald is so good that you have to watch him play after play to even start to understand it. You should definitely do that. But because you’re busy, it’s Friday, you probably want to get done work and on to whatever it is you do with your life the rest of the time, so in this one rare case you can get by just by seeing this moment in time, captured by Joe Nicholson of USA TODAY Sports.
It pretty much tells the story.