Going into the 2019 season, the Los Angeles Rams have arguably the best defensive player in all of football in the reigning two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Aaron Donald.
In five seasons with the Rams, Donald has been named to the Pro Bowl five times and an All-Pro four times. He is coming off his best season in which he led the NFL with 20.5 sacks, which is the most ever for an interior defensive lineman.
This offseason was a little bit different for Donald than the last two as he did not have the cloud of waiting for a new contract over his head. Donald held out of Training Camp in each of the last two years so had minimal time to prepare for the regular season.
That is not the case this year though. Donald is in camp getting prepared with all of his teammates, and he feels that will lead to him being an even better player this season, via Myles Simmons of TheRams.com:
“[B]eing here and getting myself in football shape and working my moves, hopefully it won’t take me four games to get going this year. … If anything, I should be better.”
Rams head coach Sean McVay isn’t used to having Donald around during Training Camp. Like everyone else though, he has been impressed with what he has seen:
“The best part about Aaron is, he’s going to look at himself, he’s going to be critical, and he’ll come out tomorrow expecting to improve on some of the things he did today.”
The fact that Donald is coming off one of the best defensive seasons of all time and still feels that he can get better is a scary sentiment for the rest of the league.
Los Angeles’ defense around Donald improved this offseason with the additions of veterans Eric Weddle and Clay Matthews. The Rams also re-signed Dante Fowler Jr., so having him and Matthews on the outside should keep Donald from getting double and triple-teamed on every play.
