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dzrams
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TonyHunter87
Every time Donald gets a sack or makes a tackle he has the change to cause a fumble, but he doesn't. I know it seems like nitpicking but to me a player as great as Aaron would have more than 4 forced fumbles in 3 seasons.
It's different from Revis, who didn't get an opportunity to get picks because opposing teams didn't throw his way. But that's just the way i look at it.
I've heard this charge that great DT's should force a lot of fumbles. So I did some research to see how AD stacks up against the best DTs of all time.
I got the list of 30 best DTs of all time from Gil Brandt's article published 6/29/17. Link here:
Top 30 Greatest DTsMany of the great DTs in the top 10 played before the 1970s when stats started being kept. For that reason, I didn't include them in the comparison.
John Randle 29 FF in 14 seasons - 2.07 avg.
Ray Childress 19 FF in 12 seasons - 1.58 avg.
Sapp 19 FF in 13 seasons - 1.46 avg.
Aaron Donald - 4 FF in 3 seasons - 1.333 avg.La'Roi Glover 16 FF in 13 seasons - 1.23 avg.
Cortez Kennedy 11 FF in 11 seasons - 1 avg.
Curley Culp 14 FF in 14 seasons - 1 avg.
Bryant Young 12 FF in 14 seasons - .86 avg.
Haloti Ngata 6 FF in 11 seasons - .55 avg.
Richard Seymour 4 FF in 12 seasons - .33 avg.
Aaron Donald comes in 4th in most average forced fumbles per year. If he had any more than 4 in 3 seasons, he would be on the greatest ever pace for forced fumbles.
But the larger point is, as you can see, DTs don't typically create many forced fumbles. My theory for that is that DTs are the closest to the QB and directly in their line of sight. There isn't a lot of surprise factor when they get sacks.
OTOH, DE's are often coming in from the QBs blind side. There is a much higher possibility in those circumstances of swatting the ball out.
FWIW, AD is near the top in amount of sacks per year too. He's above Sapp and a tick behind Randle. I haven't done calculations for all of the DTs yet and may never do that but a cursory glance tells me that he's on a top 3 of all time pace.