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RockRam
The way this has gone, with AD and his agent bent on redefining the DT market the same way Suh's contract did, I do not think the Rams will extend him. I think they'll Franchise him a couple of times and then let him go.
As Detroit and the Dolphins found out, a DT can be great, but if you pay him (or a similar position) too much, it stifles the ability to get the other players you must have to be a championship team.
QB is an entirely different issue. The good ones are few and far between. They help provide stability to an entire team. A DT? Not really.
I'm an AD fan all the way. This isn't an issue of deserve or not deserve. It's an issue of having enough cap dollars to have very good players spread across your entire roster, and not just one position.
What Suh did in Detroit and Miami simply does not compare to Donald's impact. Sometimes I wonder if people watch the games. Donald is a better player than Suh and brings more to the table. And this OUGHT to be obvious!
Suh was very good but he was never Sapp/ Olsen/ Greene/ Paige/ Randy White level elite. Donald is.
And as for your mistaken idea that elite DTs are more common than top qbs, the truth is exactly the opposite. There are far more top qbs in NFL history than elite DTs. In fact we are in an era with qbs like Brady, Rodgers, Wilson, Roethlisberger, and Brees. Manning's career just ended. In the era between Sapp's first game and Donald's most recent game you can add Moon, Favre, Elway, Warner, Aikman, even the later Marino. McNair grew into that. I know I left a couple out . And meanwhile the last elite DT in the league, before Donald, was Sapp. There are some very good ones but not at that level, not elite in the way Sapp and Donald are.
AND YES DONALD IMPACTS GAMES AT A HIGH LEVEL.
Here's just one of many takes on that:
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www.profootballfocus.com]
In games that Donald played this year, the Rams got pressure on 39.2 percent of their opponents dropbacks, the fourth-best rate in the league, and they also ranked fourth among defensive units with a 7.5 sack percentage. In the two games that Donald missed this season, the Rams pressure percentage dropped all the way down to 32.2 percent while their sack percentage dipped to 6.8 percent. The Rams also had to work harder to get the pressure when Donald was absent, blitzing on 40.7 percent of their opponents passing plays without Donald in the lineup compared to just 36.2 percent of the time when he was in there.
When Donald played, they were able to drop more defenders in coverage all while creating more pressure, the impact of which can’t be overstated. He elevates his entire defense in a way that few other defenders even come close to.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2018 03:45AM by zn.