Aaron Donald was the NFL’s best defender of the modern era

It ends a 10-year profession that not solely noticed Donald grow to be the most effective defensive participant within the NFL, but additionally the most effective defensive participant of the trendy period and among the best defensive gamers to ever step onto an NFL discipline. 

This  checklist of accomplishments alone helps make that case.

Donald is one in all simply three gamers to ever win the AP Defensive Participant of the 12 months award three completely different occasions, becoming a member of solely Lawrence Taylor and J.J. Watt. He’s additionally one in all simply two gamers to be named to the Professional Bowl crew in each season of his NFL profession. That’s an accomplishment that he shares with solely former Detroit Lions operating again Barry Sanders. As well as, Donald was an eight-time first-team All-Professional, the 2014 Defensive Rookie of the 12 months and the centerpiece of a Tremendous Bowl-winning crew in 2021, making the game-clinching play within the closing seconds.

The one two seasons in his profession during which he didn’t earn first-team All-Professional honors have been his rookie season (2014) and the 2022 season, when he was restricted to only 11 video games on account of damage. 

The honors and the stats communicate for themselves. However Donald was all the time a type of gamers who simply stood out from everyone else on the sector. 

He simply seemed completely different when he was speeding the passer, throwing offensive linemen round like they have been toys and chasing down quarterbacks with a ferocity that actually made them scream.

How far again do it’s a must to go to discover a defensive participant who impacted video games that a lot and had the stats to again all of it up? The reply might be the likes of Lawrence Taylor or Reggie White throughout their prime years within the league. That’s going again greater than 30-40 years, spanning a number of generations and a number of shifts in enjoying types and guidelines throughout the league. 

There have undoubtedly been some all-time greats who’ve come by means of the NFL within the interim – Ray Lewis, the Watt brothers, Ed Reed, simply to call a couple of – however as nice as all of them might need been no one actually appeared to ever match Donald’s degree. At the least in terms of the mixture of statistics, awards and total dominance.

Donald will likely be eligible for induction into the Corridor of Fame within the 2029 class. He won’t have to attend any longer than that. He’s as near a first-ballot lock as you’ll ever get.