some PFF pieces heaping praise on various Rams (it's not just Donald & Gurley)

AARON DONALD WINS REGGIE WHITE AWARD FOR TOP PASS-RUSHER

PFF selects Aaron Donald for the Reggie White award, recognizing the NFL’s best pass-rusher. Also included are three players who just missed out.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2016/01/13/pro-aaron-donald-wins-reggie-white-award-for-top-pass-rusher/

When we decided to put a name to the player awards that we are debuting in our expanded awards week at PFF this year, we were looking for players who epitomized the highest levels of performance in each attribute. When we thought of great pass-rushers there are of course a wealth of players to choose from, but we decided that the best choice would be the late, great Reggie White.

White’s career pre-dates our site by seven years, but his place among the league’s all-time great defenders and pass-rushers is without question. The Reggie White Award will be given to the pass-rusher who performs best over the course of the season at getting after the quarterback, regardless of position.

Here is a look at our winner and three runners-up:

Winner
Aaron Donald, DT, St. Louis Rams

Last season gave a hint of what Donald could do as a pass-rusher and all-around defensive wrecking ball, but it still required a step up from his impressive rookie season to rank alongside J.J. Watt as one of the league’s best defenders, and Donald did just that. Working purely as a 3-technique defensive tackle, Donald racked up pressure stats that put the vast majority of edge defenders to shame (11 sacks, 26 hits, 42 hurries), earning the highest pass-rushing grade for a defensive tackle in PFF history.

More than just the volume of pressure he produced, it was the speed with which Donald was putting opposing quarterbacks under pressure from an interior alignment that helped him earn such a high grade this season. Donald produced on crucial downs (32 pressures on third and fourth downs), he drew holding penalties (four on pass plays) and caused havoc with relentless consistency from his defensive tackle spot.

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PFF’S 2015 DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Senior Analyst Sam Monson reveals the Defensive Player of the Year award winner, and names four runners-up to the honor.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2016/01/12/pro-defensive-player-of-the-year/

This was a year of defensive standouts in the NFL. In a league that has become ever more centered around the offensive side of the ball, with high-octane passing and point-scoring at record levels, it was a fine year for impressive defensive stars.

This is another award that has been dominated by J.J. Watt in recent seasons (similar to the Dwight Stephenson Award), but Watt finally has legitimate competition, and for the first time in four seasons, does not emerge as the victor at PFF.

This award belongs to the best defensive player, regardless of position over the season, so let’s take a look at the results.

Winner
Aaron Donald, DT, St Louis Rams

Aaron Donald is beginning his career in the same way J.J. Watt began his. Like Watt, Donald is suffering from the disbelief caused by just how good he has been. He led the league as a rookie defensive tackle a year ago, and this season, he has catapulted his grade into a stratosphere only inhabited by Watt. We now know Watt to be a generationally great player, and so simply for Donald to have joined him in that echelon of play causes recoil in most people’s minds.

At one point, people argued that Donald was the product of a dominant Rams D-line, but this season if, it does nothing else, should dispel that fallacy. Without Robert Quinn for much of the season, Donald continued to dominate. He was so unblockable that he began to draw the kind of attention reserved for the best players in the game, and suddenly Michael Brockers earned the best grade of his career for a full season, almost twice as good as his previous best. Donald was the line superstar on that defensive front and dominated all season long, ending the year even stronger than he began it, and posting a season grade the likes of which we have only ever seen from Watt in the past. He notched 79 total pressures, 51 defensive stops, missed just two tackles, and was a more consistently dominant force than any other defensive player in football this season.

Aaron Donald deserves the Defensive Player of the Year award, and his NFL career is just two seasons old. What if there is more to come?

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PFF’S BEST PLAYER AWARD: AARON DONALD NO. 1
Senior Analyst Sam Monson reveals Pro Football Focus’ choice for the 2015 Dwight Stephenson Award, given to the best player in the NFL.</em>

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2016/01/12/pro-2015-dwight-stevenson-award/

In most sports, the Most Valuable Player is inherently also the best player. In football, though, nearly all of the Most Valuable Players honorees are quarterbacks—such is the state of the modern game. The MVP award has become something that only quarterbacks—and the occasional running back, if that season’s QBs play poorly enough—can win. The best players, though, can play any position, and deserve a level playing field come award time.

Instead of handing an award to a quarterback or running back when other players at less glamorous positions enjoyed superior seasons, we at PFF also recognize the best overall performance of the NFL season each year, regardless of position, and bestow the Dwight Stephenson Award to that player.

The award is named after a player who pre-dates Pro Football Focus, but does not pre-date the site’s ethos. Dwight Stephenson played only eight NFL seasons for the Miami Dolphins, but was a five-time All-Pro and was selected to the All-Decade team of the 1980s. More importantly, you only need to throw on a couple of minutes of tape to see that he was something special.

This award comes with no positional bias whatsoever. A guard has every bit as much chance to win it as a cornerback, pass-rusher, quarterback, or any other player. All they need to do is dominate and perform during the regular season.

For the past three seasons of existence, the award has been won by J.J. Watt on each occasion.

Winner
Aaron Donald, DT, St. Louis Rams

As a rookie, Aaron Donald was PFF’s highest-graded defensive tackle. In his second season, he didn’t just take a step forward, he broad-jumped into the area previously reserved only for Watt, a player universally acknowledged now as generationally great and one of the best to ever put on pads. Donald out-graded Watt this season, and by the end of the year, it wasn’t even particularly close.

Donald maxed out the new PFF grading scale with a 99.9, while Watt earned a 95.6. In the old system, there was more than 20 grading points between the two players over 16 games.

Donald ended the season with 79 total pressures, a batted pass, 51 defensive stops, and 30 plays in which he beat his blocker, but the ball was out before the play could result in pressure. Donald was the single-most disruptive force in the NFL during the 2015 season.

Watt may have edged Donald in several statistical categories (89 total pressures, 59 defensive stops), but the Texan has become far more of an edge defender than an interior player this season. Watt played outside the tackle on 63.9 percent of his passes, and was only really an interior player on base downs. Why is that important? Statistically speaking, edge defenders generate more pressure than interior players. Not because they are inherently better, but because they have more space to work with and a lower chance of multiple bodies to negotiate. Of the top five players in total pressures this season, only one is an interior rusher, and 16 of the top 20 in that category are edge players. Donald also saw 92 fewer pass-rushing snaps than Watt over the course of the season, meaning he simply saw fewer opportunities to post these ridiculous numbers. Donald’s season with 92 additional pass-rushing snaps projects to 14.6 additional hurries, or enough to put him 3.6 clear of Watt.

None of this is meant to diminish Watt, who remains a dominant player, but the fact is that between performance and injury, he didn’t have the same type of year he has had in the past, despite the sack total suggesting otherwise. Donald, however, didn’t just take advantage of Watt playing at 80 percent of his previous best, but posted a grade over the season that rivals any year we have ever seen from Watt.

It seems incredible to suggest that any defensive player had a better year than Watt so soon after trying to convince everybody that he was one of the greatest defensive players to ever play the game, but Donald’s season was just that good.

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PFF’S 2015 ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Analyst Nathan Jahnke reveals PFF’s selection for Rookie of the Year, as well as four runners-up for the honor.

One of the NFL’s most popular honors, Rookie of the Year takes into account a player’s full contribution, including offense, defense, and special teams. PFF also take into account the learning curve for the position, and how well rookie players typically perform in that role.

Below you’ll find PFF’s Rookie of the Year selection for the 2015 NFL season, as well as four runners-up who kept the race tight.

Fourth runner-up
Todd Gurley, HB, St. Louis Rams

While Todd Gurley didn’t play a complete season, and we’ve seen plenty of rookie running backs succeed in the past, what Gurley did in 2015 was impressive in its own right. He was the fourth-most elusive back this year, with an elusive rating of 53.9. He made 42 players miss tackles on his carries, which was fifth-most in the league. (That was with everyone higher on the list having more carries than him.) He averaged 4.8 yards per carry, despite running behind the seventh-worst run blocking offensive line in the league. For now, we can say he was one of the best rookie runners this year; but behind a better offensive line and a full season of work, we should see some pretty impressive numbers from Gurley in the future.

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PFF’S OFFENSIVE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Gordon McGuinness reveals PFF’s 2015 selection for Offensive Rookie of the Year, along with three runners-up.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2016/01/14/pro-pffs-offensive-rookie-of-the-year-jameis-winston/

First runner-up
Todd Gurley, RB, St. Louis Rams

We weren’t meant to see this from Gurley, not yet anyway. Plenty of people thought the Rams were being illogical for selecting a running back coming off of a devastating knee injury with the 10th overall pick. But there he was after the first month of the season, in the Rams starting lineup and showing shiftiness combined with strength that made him a superstar at the collegiate level. Gurley rushed for 125 yards or more in each of his first four starts, but the highlight of his rookie season was the Week 7 game against the Cleveland Browns. A whopping 110 of his 128 yards came after contact, and he forced nine missed tackles. For the season he totaled 42 forced missed tackles, and recorded the fourth-highest elusive rating among starting running backs.

Second runner-up
Rob Havenstein, OT, St. Louis Rams

It’s definitely not bad news for the Rams that they appear to have made smart choices in Rounds 1 and 2 of the 2015 NFL Draft, with Havenstein joining Gurley as an integral part of their offense right away. Havenstein cracked the starting lineup in 13 games on the right side of the St. Louis offensive line, and looks like he will be a pillar moving forward. His play dipped in the final three weeks of the year, but it was a solid first season for the former Wisconsin Badger. From Weeks 2-14 he had the fourth-highest grade among right tackles, and on the year didn’t allow a single sack — he was the only offensive tackle to do so. His run blocking didn’t jump out at you when you watched him play, but it didn’t get him into trouble, either.