2 pieces on Donald

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from Ranking the NFL's Most Unblockable Pass-Rushers

Doug Farrar

[bleacherreport.com]

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1. Aaron Donald, DL, Los Angeles Rams

Aaron Donald has made the Pro Bowl in each of his four seasons and has been named a first-team All-Pro for the past three. The only question is: What were the All-Pro voters thinking in 2014? Because Donald has been dominant since the day he hit the field in his rookie season, and he seems to get better every year.

Lost to a point amid the team's coaching (and subsequent winning) issues under Jeff Fisher, Donald found his day in the sun in 2017. The Los Angeles Rams won the NFC West, and new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips maximized Donald with his creative blitz packages and multiple fronts.

The addition of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh in free agency should make the 27-year-old even more unblockable than last season, when he amassed a league-leading 91 total pressures, per Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus—an astonishing feat for an interior defender.

The NFL's version of a needle in a haystack? Try to find something Donald doesn't do at a plus level.

You want power? Watch him come low off the snap and demolish a guard. You want quickness? Donald can blow past blocks as quickly as you see edge-rushers do it—his burst off the ball requires multiple replays to believe. You want hand technique? Donald can get past enemy blockers with rip and swim moves as well as anyone.

And against double-teams, the 6'1", 280-pound Donald presents a combination of balance and strength that allows him to not only slice through blockers but also embarrass them on his way to the quarterback. It's why he's able to create pressure in any situation, in any defensive front, from any gap.

Not only is he the best defensive player in the league and the most unblockable, but Donald can also make a claim that no one else matches his consistent effectiveness from down to down.

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from: Agent's Take [www.cbssports.com]

Joel Corry

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Resetting the non-QB market

It's been a foregone conclusion that Rams interior defensive lineman Aaron Donald and Raiders edge rusher Khalil Mack, who are scheduled to make $6.892 million and $13.846 million respectively this year on their fifth-year options, would eventually become charter members of the $20 million-per-year non-quarterback club. Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie's timetable for a Mack extension has been the 2018 offseason ever since locking up quarterback Derek Carr long-term last summer. Les Snead, McKenzie's counterpart with the Rams, has called a new deal for Donald a major priority.

The Raiders and Rams having sticker shock is the likely impediment with deals for the 2014 first-round picks. A modest increase over the current non-quarterback standard, which is Broncos linebacker Von Miller at $19,083,333 per year and $70 million in overall guarantees, may not be enough to end the stalemates. The substantial growth in quarterback salaries over the last year with the non-quarterback market remaining stagnant is a stumbling block. It is my understanding that restoring the traditional financial relationship between the highest-paid quarterback and non-quarterback which has existed under the current CBA is an important consideration to the players' representatives. This would mean a contract averaging over $23 million per year with $85 million in guarantees where $65 million to $70 million is fully guaranteed at signing is needed in order to recreate the balance. Not surprisingly, there is reluctance to dramatically reset the non-quarterback market.