The Los Angeles Rams defense underwent some significant changes this season. With players like Jalen Ramsey, Clay Matthews and Eric Weddle all joining the squad, the Rams defense became starstudded in the blink of an eye.
Despite that, the biggest and brightest star enjoyed his sixth consecutive season with the Rams and that’s Aaron Donald. While compared to 2018, Donald’s most recent campaign might seem like an “off-year,” yet he still outperformed most of his peers throughout the league.
As for his teammates, Donald outshined them all in the eyes of Pro Football Focus. According to Stu Jackson of TheRams.com, this was Donald’s sixth consecutive season with the highest defensive rating from PFF:
Donald’s defense grade of 93.7 is the highest by a Ram for the sixth consecutive season, meaning he’s held the title every year he’s been with the team. A 90.0 or higher in any category is considered elite by PFF.
It is no surprise that Donald has once again been the Rams’ best defender. Although his year started out somewhat slow, he came on strong in the second half of the season. He was named NFC Player of the Week for Week 11 when he finished with four total tackles, two sacks and four quarterback hits against the Chicago Bears.
Donald ending up finishing the season with 12.5 sacks, 29 solo tackles, 20 tackles for loss and 24 QB hits. He did this while facing doubles teams for much of the year.
Although Donald was double teamed often, even that could not slow him down. According to Neil Hornsby of PFF, Donald was the league’s best interior defender when faced with double teams:
As promised here are the Interior Defenders with the highest win-rates in 2109 when facing 2+ blockers: pic.twitter.com/03QZh3CFQP
— Neil Hornsby (@PFF_Neil) January 2, 2020
According to Hornsby, Donald saw 319 double teams of his 926 defensive snaps. Clearly the league does not want to give the two-time reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year any breathing room.
The brains behind PFF probably are not too surprised as they ranked Donald as the best player in football before the start of the season. Donald did not disappoint in 2019, continuing to put up big numbers against tough offenses.
Next season could be a very different story as the Rams will be with a new defensive coordinator after letting go of Wade Phillips earlier this month. It seems unlikely that Donald will be anything less than the game-changer he has always been, even with a new playcaller.
