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Florida_Ram

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No guarantees, but I'm on the train that thinks Donald will be highly productive (no drop off in performance) for another 3 seasons.

This is what gets me when people talk of an eventual "drop off in performance" with respect to Aaron Donald.

I'm under no illusions here...as players grow older, there's an eventual drop-off in performance for a variety of reasons. After all, Father Time remains undefeated.

But what, exactly, does a "drop-off in performance" mean for Aaron Donald?

Dude recorded 12.5 regular season sacks this year and another 3.5 during the playoffs. This leads all DT's in both categories (and by a lot for the regular season).

With respect to regular season #'s, the DT that had the 2nd most recorded sacks was Cam Heyward (10). The 3rd most...Chris Jones (9). I won't get into other defensive stats (like TFL or FF's) because Donald leads all DT's in both areas as well (and no...it's not close).

The 2nd highest-paid DT (behind Donald) is Jones who has averaged 8.5 sacks per year for the past 3 seasons. Last year, he inked a 4-year/$85M contract with the Chiefs.

Let's assume that Donald was ONLY able to provide Chris Jones-type #'s this upcoming season. While I would acknowledge that that would be a drop off FOR HIM, those are still outstanding #'s for a DT - enough so that an NFL team would gladly pay him $85M!

Good lawd...what are people thinking?