Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Month for December, the NFL announced.
This is the third time Donald has been named NFC Defensive Player of the Month with the previous two times coming during his historic 2018 season where he recorded 20.5 sacks and won Defensive Player of the Year.
Donald had strong showings during the Rams’ undefeated 4-0 run in December, recording six sacks, 20 tackles (8 for loss), eight quarterback hits, and two forced fumbles. Donald’s best game came in Week 14 against the then-NFC West leaders the Arizona Cardinals where he racked up three sacks, five total tackles, three QB hits, and one pass break-up that resulted in an Ernest Jones interception.
For his performance against the Cardinals, Donald was awarded the NFC Defensive Player of the Week for that week. It was the first time during the 2021 season he was awarded the honor.
After a slower start by his standards, Donald has looked like his normal dominant self along the line and in turn Los Angeles has regained its form as one of the NFL’s premier defensive units. Week in and week out, opposing teams have trouble trying to contain the 30-year-old and even though they often resort to double and sometimes even triple teams, Donald still finds a way to wreak havoc in the backfield.
While Donald is a long shot to capture his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award, it does not matter much as he and the rest of the Rams defense are peaking at the right time of the year. At 11-4, Los Angeles is still in the mix for the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC and with two winnable games against the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers coming up Donald and the rest of the team are in prime position to make a deep playoff run.
