https://www.dailynews.com/2018/10/2...ecord-number-of-sacks-for-a-defensive-tackle/
Rams’ Aaron Donald on pace for record number of sacks for a defensive tackle
By RICH HAMMOND
Daniel Gluskoter/AP Photo, File
THOUSAND OAKS – Fruits, vegetables and Aaron Donald sacks come in bunches. Only the latter is not conducive to a healthy lifestyle, and Donald is consuming opposing quarterbacks at a record pace.
After a slow start, at least in a statistical sense, Donald recorded a career-high four sacks in
last week’s victory over San Francisco. Based on a per-game average, he’s on pace to record the most career sacks by a defensive tackle in NFL history, and he’s playing even better than last year, when he was Defensive Player of the Year.
So it will be the Battle of the Aarons at the Coliseum on Sunday – Donald vs. Rodgers – and Aaron Rodgers, the Packers’ veteran quarterback, is well aware of how quickly Donald can ruin an offense’s day.
“He’s a menace inside,” Packers quarterback Rodgers told reporters in Green Bay this week. “You’ve got to try to find a way to get bodies on him and slow him down with different looks.”
Best of luck, the Rams’ recent opponents would say. Donald, who missed all of training camp and the preseason during negotiations for the new contract he signed in late August, failed to record a sack in his first three games this season but now has eight sacks in his last four games.
Eight sacks ties Donald for the NFL league lead with Minnesota defensive end Danielle Hunter, and that’s the thing. Donald is unparalleled as a pass-rushing defensive tackle, certainly in the last 15 years.
“He’s relentless, is one of the best ways that you can put it,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “When you go back and you just tally up all the plays that he’s made, and how he’s getting there and affecting and influencing the game in a variety of ways from his position, it’s really impressive. That’s why he’s the man.”
That’s because it’s not just about sacks. The analytics website Pro Football Focus this week noted that Donald has totaled 47 quarterback pressures this season. The site said that’s the second-most most for any player during the first seven weeks of a season since at least 2006.
In his career, Donald has recorded 47.0 sacks in 69 regular-season games. That’s an average of 0.68 sacks per game. John Randle, who holds the NFL record for sacks by a defensive tackle, with 137.5, averaged 0.63 sacks per game during his Hall of Fame career with Minnesota (1990-2000) and Seattle (2001-03).
Randle set his sack mark in 219 games, and it won’t be easy to pass. Even if Donald maintained his sack pace and didn’t miss a game – neither of which seems highly probable – he wouldn’t pass Randle’s mark until the final game of the 2026 season, when Donald would be 35 years old.
Then there’s Alan Page, the Hall of Fame tackle who played from 1967-78, when the NFL didn’t keep sacks as official stats. Estimates from film have given Page 148.5 sacks, which would top Randle’s mark for a tackle.
None of this is exact science. Randle sometimes played defensive end, and even Donald moves around a lot in the Rams’ 3-4 scheme. If nothing else, Donald certainly is on pace to top this century’s best pass-rushing tackle, Warren Sapp, who had 96.5 sacks in 198 career regular-season games.
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The short-term question is whether Donald can be the first tackle to lead the NFL in sacks since La’Roi Glover recorded a league-high 17 with New Orleans in 2000. Since 1982, when sacks started to be recorded, only Glover and Randle (in 1997) have led the league in sacks as defensive tackles.
Donald’s career high is 11 sacks, which he recorded last season and as a second-year player in 2015. He’s already within three of that mark, with nine games to go, and that number steeply increased last week.
Donald dominated the 49ers with four sacks, one other tackle for loss and a forced fumble, which he also recovered after he yanked the ball out of the hands of running back Matt Breida.
“You don’t see those kind of games very often by a defensive player who dominates a game like that,” Rams defensive coordinator Wade Phillips said. “I’ve been very lucky to be around some great ones, and they’ve done it every once in a while, and it’s a tremendous accomplishment and obviously helps your team so much. It lifts your team when he’s making all kinds of plays like that.”
