Rams DT Aaron Donald belongs in the Pro Bowl

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Blue and Gold

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http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2014/12/3/7324929/st-louis-rams-aaron-donald-pro-bowl

You might have missed the Rams rookie defensive tackle, but soon enough you'll know all about Aaron Donald. Retired NFL defensive lineman Stephen White makes the case for Donald to be a household name.



Put your hands at your sides, close your eyes and try to name four defensive tackles in the NFC who you would say are playing better than St. Louis Ramsrookie Aaron Donald. I will give you five minutes, GO!

No peeking!

Actually, go ahead and peak all you want. Go on and try Google, Bing, Westlaw or whatever search engine you want to use, and you are still going to have a hard time giving me four names that you would rank higher than Donald.

Let me help you out with the first three.

1. Gerald McCoy, most sacks of any NFC defensive tackle with 8.5
2. Ndamukong Suh, duh!
3. Calais Campbell, dominant defensive tackle on a team with one of the best records in the NFL

Now, go ahead and try to come up with number four, I triple dog dare you. Oh, and if you're thinking Justin Smith from the 49ers:

A) He is listed as a defensive end.

B) No.

I'm a Justin Smith fan, but Donald would have the edge over him of all the tackles for loss he racks up week after week. Donald is also has the second-highest sack total of any defensive tackle in the NFC with six, which doesn't hurt either. He is just a short ball of mass destruction out there on the field.

Donald is progressing at an incredible pace from game to game. You can almost see on film that everything is coming so much easier for him now. He's recognizing blocking schemes much quicker, which is allowing him to play in the backfield even more than he did initially. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he ended up with double digit sacks by season's end.

In fact, I might actually be disappointed if he doesn't after watching his film the last few weeks.

The shit wasn't even fair this past weekend against the Raiders. They had the center trying to block back on Donald while the guard to his side pulled. It did not work out well for them. That dude is so good already that he was able to beat Stefan Wisniewski up the field off the snap then change directions quick enough to get in the pulling guard's hip pocket and damn near blow up the play in the backfield. There are so few defensive tackles in the whole NFL who are athletic enough to pull that off consistently, maybe only a few in the history of the NFL, and Aaron Donald is one of them.

I played with a guy who had a very similar athletic skill set: Hall of Famer Warren Sapp. The one thing Donald is missing right now that Sapp had is a signature pass rush move. He is a good enough pass rusher with just some basic moves as things stand, but when he develops that one move that he can do on either side that every guard in the league will struggle to block, Donald may quickly move into the top spot at defensive tackle, not just in the NFC, but in the whole NFL.

At the moment, Donald is at least the fourth-best defensive tackle in his conference. Anyone who is not familiar with him should do the right thing and vote the man to the Pro Bowl this season. You won't see me advocating for individual players to win individual awards or accolades much, but in this case I only think it's justified. A lot of folks might be overlooking him because the Rams are 5-7 and in the NFC West basement. Well, allow me to point out that the kid has played his ass off in some of the Rams' biggest upsets this year, including their Week 7 upset of the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. He had five tackles, including a sack, in that game and was a big factor in the win. He isn't just racking up stats against some slappies, he is balling out against everybody!

If you have access to film, check him out if you don't believe me. If you don't have access to film, just take my word for it. Aaron Donald is the real fucking deal and he deserves that fourth defensive tackle spot in the Pro Bowl this year. No need to wait till next year either just because he's a rookie.
 

Blue and Gold

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #2
Only problem is they only choose 3 DTs for Pro Bowl, not 4
 

BonifayRam

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DT Gerald McCoy is in a class all by himself best there is playing today. Calais Campbell is a 6-8 300 pound left DE in a 34 defense is much more DE than DT IMO. Suh is playing on a wining team even with that Donald's stats are better than Suh's who has started all season. Donald did not start until wk 6. I'd take up the discussion to argue Donald is right there below McCoy in impact.
 

Alan

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BonifayRam speaking with a silvery tongue:
DT Gerald McCoy is in a class all by himself best there is playing today. Calais Campbell is a 6-8 300 pound left DE in a 34 defense is much more DE than DT IMO. Suh is playing on a wining team even with that Donald's stats are better than Suh's who has started all season. Donald did not start until wk 6. I'd take up the discussion to argue Donald is right there below McCoy in impact.
Well said. :bow:
 

rhinobean

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I sure hope so! He deserves it! Probably won't as he plays for our Rams!
 

muggman

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Second in the entire NFL in Tackles for Loss with 15, only behind Mario Williams with 16. Rookie of the Year, Pro Bowl appearance, and with a dominant final 4 games potentially All-Pro.
 

Merlin

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Second in the entire NFL in Tackles for Loss with 15, only behind Mario Williams with 16. Rookie of the Year, Pro Bowl appearance, and with a dominant final 4 games potentially All-Pro.

This.

He's as good as there is in this league. Right now. McCoy is just more familiar. By the season's end Donald will catch him or come very close in sacks, but to me TFL is a more telling stats for a DT.

Donald = perennial Pro Bowler. Rams hit it out of the park with him.
 
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Second in the entire NFL in Tackles for Loss with 15, only behind Mario Williams with 16. Rookie of the Year, Pro Bowl appearance, and with a dominant final 4 games potentially All-Pro.

What source are you using? Using the game play finder on pro-football-reference http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny.cgi?id=ogWCt I make it 16, behind J.J. Watt, Justin Houston, Mario Williams, Lavonte David and Von Miller. Which would put him 37th amongst all DTs since 1998, 1 short of last year's ROTY and 1.5 short of Suh's rookie year. Also he's 4th for tackles of negative 5 yards or worse (or better depending on your outlook), behind only Connor Barwin, J.J. Watt and Elvis Dumervil.
 

Faceplant

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Second in the entire NFL in Tackles for Loss with 15, only behind Mario Williams with 16. Rookie of the Year, Pro Bowl appearance, and with a dominant final 4 games potentially All-Pro.
Agree completely...and I thank you so so so much for using the word dominant correctly. I swear every other person I see post uses "dominate" in this context. Sorry, it's a pet peave.....
 

Sum1

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The way the pro-bowl is set up though it doesn't matter about NFC/AFC...you could have all players from one position come from one conference.
 

Faceplant

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Agree completely...and I thank you so so so much for using the word dominant correctly. I swear every other person I see post uses "dominate" in this context. Sorry, it's a pet peave.....
I just realized I spelled peeve wrong, haha. Owned by my own grammar police post!!!
 

ZigZagRam

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http://giphy.com/gifs/fail-fml-bike-Pvd8Gq2sFQ4kE

I can't get this animated gif to post what is the trick

You're pasting the page URL and not the URL of the actual gif.

giphy.gif
<--LesBaker
 

DaveFan'51

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Hearing, all of this, Make's me wonder, Just how many players on our D are going to be voted onto the " Top 100!" Players list this year!?! We have sooooo many who should make the list!(y)
 

ZigZagRam

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Hearing, all of this, Make's me wonder, Just how many players on our D are going to be voted onto the " Top 100!" Players list this year!?! We have sooooo many who should make the list!(y)

Well, judging by how things normally go...one.
 

BonifayRam

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Hearing, all of this, Make's me wonder, Just how many players on our D are going to be voted onto the " Top 100!" Players list this year!?! We have sooooo many who should make the list!(y)

If the Rams go on a terror through the NFL dismantling the powerful western division leaders plus the other two eastern division foes end up being 9-7 and missing the playoffs ....... that top 100 will have at least a half dozen easy maybe close to a dozen.

Such an occurrence like the above will have the entire NFL loosing a lot of sleep in the off season especially the 9ers, Seahawks & Cards.
 

DaveFan'51

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If the Rams go on a terror through the NFL dismantling the powerful western division leaders plus the other two eastern division foes end up being 9-7 and missing the playoffs ....... that top 100 will have at least a half dozen easy maybe close to a dozen.

Such an occurrence like the above will have the entire NFL loosing a lot of sleep in the off season especially the 9ers, Seahawks & Cards.
Agreed! I was afraid to post a guess, until someone else did! But I figured 5+ myself!:D