Pro Football Focus recently released their annual top 50 players list going into the 2020 season, and to no surprise to Los Angeles Rams fans, Aaron Donald came in at No. 1.
Donald is coming off another All-Pro season, his fifth straight in six seasons with the Rams after being drafted in the first round out of Pittsburgh. Donald did not win his third consecutive NFL Defense Players of the Year award, but he was one of the finalists and many felt he should have won the award due to his overall dominance in an otherwise disappointing season for the Rams.
As is normally the case when lists like this are released, there was some controversy among talking heads, especially since there hasn’t been any sports to talk about recently.
Donald was ranked No. 1 ahead of some great players like Patrick Mahomes, Julio Jones, Quentin Nelson and George Kittle, who rounded out the top five. Skip Bayless, who hosts ‘Undisputed’ on Foxs Sports 1 every day, had a problem with Donald being at the top of the list, to which the latter responded with a simple question for the former:
Why u always hatin on me Skip? 😂🤷🏽♂️🦍 https://t.co/sAwYNcDg9t
— AD_99 (@AaronDonald97) June 5, 2020
PFF clarified that their list is not based on value as that would lead to all quarterbacks being at the top. Rather, they ranked players based on who is the best, and in their eyes and many others, that was Donald.
As Donald gets set to enter his seventh season with the team, there will be as much pressure on him as ever to perform with so many departures on the defensive side of the ball this offseason. The Rams still have expectations of getting back to the postseason though, so it will be on Donald and Jalen Ramsey, among others, to lead them on the defensive side of the ball.
