standard weekly praise for Donald (PFF's top ranked player for 2017)

from PFF: THE TOP 50 NFL PLAYERS FOR 2017

https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-the-top-50-nfl-players-for-2017/

With J.J. Watt injured in 2016, there has been no more consistently dominant force in the NFL over the past couple of seasons than Donald. The Rams defensive lineman has been a one-man wrecking crew inside whether against the run or as a pass-rusher. He has tallied a ridiculous 161 total pressures over the past two seasons, and 90 defensive stops, generating both pressure, and decisive pressure, at a completely different rate to any other defensive tackle.

Aaron Donald (DT, Rams) #15: Top 100 Players of 2017 | NFL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXVwUzgE33U

Best plays from Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald in 2016

Check out the best plays from Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald from 2016.

http://www.therams.com/videos/videos/Best-plays-from-Los-Angeles-Rams-defensive-tackle-Aaron-Donald-in-2016/e9abf37d-747b-4ea7-a081-209afe9bda05

Ray Lewis explains why elite quarterbacks are less valuable than dominant defensive players

Nick Schwartz

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/gallery/ray-lewis-explains-why-elite-quarterbacks-are-less-valuable-than-dominant-defensive-players-062017

Pro Football Focus released their ranking of the top 50 players in the NFL heading into the 2017 season — and two defensive studs edged Patriots quarterback Tom Brady at the top of the list.

According to Pro Football Focus, Rams star Aaron Donald is the best player in the NFL, followed by J.J. Watt. Brady, a five-time champion, was listed third.

On Tuesday’s episode of “Undisputed,” Ray Lewis, Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless reacted to the ranking.

Ray Lewis: The most important player on the defensive side of the ball is the closest player to the quarterback

“Look, I can be a little biased because I’ve always argued that defensive players should be rated higher. When you think about … the most important player on the offensive side of the ball is obviously he quarterback, right?

The most important player on the defensive side of the ball is the closest player to the quarterback. Right? A lot of people don’t think about that.

I’ve watched this from a personal experience. What am I talking about? I played behind one of the most dominant D-tackles in all of football, which was Warren Sapp. I played behind him at the University of Miami, and I never saw dominance like that.

When I started to see what his dominance was, I started to understand that … wow, he actually makes my job easier. When he goes, it’s a whole other conversation.”

Ray Lewis: Aaron Donald is the type of player that wins you a championship

“I got into the league. Our first Super Bowl, the most dominant piece on our defense was Sam Adams. When Sam Adams was ready to play football, I don’t care who it was, he was unblockable.

So you watch Aaron Donald, you watch J.J. Watt. Now let me just be very up front: J.J. Watt [played] three games last year, coming back … I don’t know if I put him [there], you can not put that guy up there. But now we’re in a different world, because it’s a world of popularity now, a world of social media. That’s who is ‘crowning’ people now.

But you talk about Aaron Donald, his body of work since he came into the National Football League. When you talk about pure dominance, from a linebacker standpoint, what it looks like … this is why this piece is so crucial. The reason why I’m really excited that someone sat down and watched enough film to see what that dominance looks like is because that’s where most championships are really won — in the trenches.”

“J.J. Watt, healthy, he’s one of the most unblockable people ever. Why?

If you watch J.J. Watt enough, you say ‘now how in the hell … ?’ You can’t block J.J. Watt. Why? Because J.J. Watt says, ‘Take the game out of it, I’m talking about a one-on-one battle that you have to deal with me.’

Most D-linemen are going to be quicker than the offensive linemen. Some of them are stronger than offensive linemen — and that’s where I think the gems are found. When you find an Aaron Donald, who has a motor like that, or you find a J.J. Watt.”

Why Aaron Donald was the NFL’s best pass-rusher this season

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-why-aaron-donald-was-the-nfls-best-pass-rusher-this-season

The Rams may have returned to Los Angeles and the bright lights of Tinseltown, but the team finished the 2016 season 4-12. With that losing record, very few players on the roster received much positive attention, but defensive tackle Aaron Donald was once again excellent in the heart of the Rams’ defense.

When recognizing individual achievement at awards time, it’s important to try and look beyond the overall defensive unit. There are obvious yardage and scoring milestones for offensive players that get recognition and celebration, even if the offense they play in has been ineffective or lackluster, but defenders tend to be tarred with the brush of overall unit success or failure. The Rams had a top defense in terms of yards per game and yards per play, but because the offense was so poor, they were 23rd in points per game. Whatever the success of the defense as a whole, an individual defender is just one of 11 players, and no one man can make a defense.

Aaron Donald led all interior defenders with 82 total pressures this season, a mark that tied for third overall in the NFL. He may have recorded “only” eight sacks, but nobody was better at generating consistent, impactful pressure than Donald, especially when you consider the position he was playing.

Generating 82 total QB pressures from defensive tackle is not the same as recording them as an edge defender, or even generating slightly more from those perimeter rushing spots. Edge rushers generate pressure at a higher rate than interior rushers. They are typically one-on-one and have less traffic to navigate to get to the QB, or at least to affect his drop. The average edge rusher in the NFL this season generated pressure once every 8.8 pass rushes, but it takes almost five full pass-rushing snaps (13.5) more for an interior rusher to generate the same pressure, on average.

Donald had fewer pass-rushing snaps than many edge rushers, and yet still outperformed almost all of them in terms of total QB pressures. He generated pressure once every 6.1 pass rushes, which was the best figure of any interior defender, but also a top-10 figure compared to edge rushers (seventh).

Of course, not all pressure is created equal, and raw numbers can sometimes mislead. Pressure can take the form of a sack after a defender beats a double-team in under two seconds, a clean-up pressure where the QB is forced to move into a pass-rusher’s leverage, or from a defender having an unblocked path straight to the QB.

Where Donald really separates himself from the pack is in how his pressure comes about. He generated decisive pressure (graded at +1.0 or better in PFF’s incremental, play-by-play grading scale) once every 8.7 rushes. That figure would be the third-best rate of pressure among interior defenders, and it’s only counting Donald’s most impactful pressures.

The next-closest interior pass-rusher was Arizona’s Calais Campbell, who generated the same level of decisive pressure once every 18 pass-rushing snaps, almost 10 more between those plays than Donald. Put another way, Donald was generating decisive pressure more than twice as often as any other interior pass-rusher on a per-snap basis.

71 percent of Donald’s pressure was decisive in nature. He was a player that was forcing the issue, and not just benefitting from plays where he was unblocked, or the play was forced his way. Donald was actively defeating blocks and affecting the QB in the pocket more than any other pass-rusher in the league, and at a rate that leaves his true peers—interior pass-rushers and defensive tackles—flailing in his wake.

Oakland’s Khalil Mack and Denver’s Von Miller each had outstanding seasons themselves, and they may have each posted game-defining impact plays involving strip sacks and fumble recoveries, but their position as edge rushers allows them to have far more plays where they can come at the QB completely unseen, while Donald is almost always going to be rushing from a spot in the quarterback’s line of sight.

Donald notched 82 total QB pressures (sacks, hits and hurries), which was the third-highest figure in the entire league, despite playing almost all of his snaps inside as a legitimate defensive tackle, and not on the perimeter where pressure comes easier. Donald generates pressure at a greater rate than any other interior defender in the league, and when he does so, it tends to be decisive pressure that makes a legitimate impact on the game. Don’t be fooled by his sack total and think that he was merely okay this past year.

(PFF:) Teaching Tape: Aaron Donald is the exception to the rule

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-teaching-tape-aaron-donald-is-the-exception-to-the-rule

In the spring of 2014, no one knew what to make of one particular undersized defensive tackle out of Pittsburgh. To say Aaron Donald didn’t fit the NFL mold was an understatement. Measuring in a shade over six-feet and only 285 pounds, Donald was a good two inches shorter and 15 pounds lighter than the prototypical measurements at the position. Marcell Dareus, Gerald McCoy and Ndamukong Suh – the three defensive tackles prior to Donald to be drafted in the top-5 – were all at least 6-3, 300 pounds.

When it came to college production though, there were no question marks. Donald posted double-digit sack seasons twice in his four years at Pitt. As a senior, his 28.5 tackles for loss led the nation. While this was prior to our grading of college football, we did grade the 2014 Senior Bowl game where he was far and away the highest graded player there in 33 snaps.

Yet even with that elite level production, on May 8th of that year 12 players heard their name called before Donald. There were multiple teams in need of defensive tackle help running 4-3 schemes that passed on the Pittsburgh product. Heck, even the team that eventually drafted him, the (now) Los Angeles Rams, overlooked him initially in favor of Greg Robinson (who didn’t even finish his rookie contract with the team) at the top of the draft. The rest is history as Donald has become the single most impactful defensive player in the NFL.

While many basic scouting cutoffs of size/speed/length/etc. have come from legitimate concerns, any hard-fast rule will have its exceptions. And it’s difficult to find a bigger exception than Aaron Donald. That’s why this Teaching Tape is a little different than all the others in that usually I’m highlighting how a scheme conforms to talent. When talking about Donald, the scheme really doesn’t matter. The man could probably play off-ball linebacker at a high level. That’s how talented he is. What matters is how his immense skill set transcends all schemes and preconceived notions about how defensive tackle is supposed to be played.

The single biggest concern with Donald coming out was his ability to hold up in the running game – specifically against double teams. While one might have argued (correctly in my opinion) that it was 2014 and no one really cared about the running game anymore, but it was obviously a big deal. Nolan Nawrocki, who infamously gave Donald a 4th/5th round grade, wrote, “Overpowered in the run game and ground up by double teams. Gets snared and controlled by bigger, longer blockers. Not a two-gap player.” The majority of scouting reports on Donald echoed the same sentiments and read as if they were written solely by looking at his measurables. The fact of the matter is though that everyone cedes ground versus double teams. I could pull up five clips right now of Damon Harrison – the best nose tackle in the league – getting driven multiple yards off the ball. If one has a preconceived notion that a defensive tackle won’t be able to hold up versus doubles based on his size, then they are far more likely to notice the times he doesn’t.

Since entering the NFL, Donald has not only held up versus double teams, he’s also been able to make plays despite them. As with anything in football there are multiple ways to get the same job done. A couple months back I wrote about how Damon Harrison dominated doubles by attacking the point man then throwing him to the side. Donald often takes a different approach. With his size/speed combination, he has three things he can use to his advantage: quickness, leverage and lack of a strike zone. This allows him to knife into the sweet spot of a double team and not let either linemen engage him cleanly. On the play below you can see how it’s done.

I was told Aaron Donald would not be able to hold up to double teams in the NFL pic.twitter.com/Ntke7pIeVI

— Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) July 19, 2017

Donald gets skinny from the snap, making the right guard’s contact inconsequential. It also leaves the right tackle a tiny area to engage. Combine that with the speed that Donald comes off the ball, and the right tackle has little to no shot of actually getting Donald cleanly. Nearly the exact same thing happens again in the play below.

pic.twitter.com/v6GZ5AEgyC

— Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) July 19, 2017

This isn’t simply a case of highlight reel scouting though, Donald took only nine downgrades against double teams in the run game all season long. That’s a tiny bit more than one every two games. Compare that with the fact that Donald made 30 total stops against the run and you have one of the most complete run defenders in the game.

When we talk about Aaron Donald though, much like in the pre-draft process, his ability in run defense should be an afterthought. The man gets to quarterbacks more often, and with more speed, than any other interior defender in the NFL. And it’s not even close.

The same traits that Donald uses to his advantage against double teams are also his calling card as a pass rusher. He’s always the low man and with his speed and small stature, offensive linemen struggle mightily to land a meaningful punch. Because of all that, no one in the league has more decisive pressures.

Aaron Donald plays football with the difficulty set to easy pic.twitter.com/OEGQ0qnnAC

— Gordon McGuinness (@PFF_Gordon) May 3, 2017

Look at the immediacy with which Donald wins in the video above. It’s almost difficult to believe that he only collected eight total sacks a season ago.

With Wade Phillips coming over from Denver to take the job as defensive coordinator with the Rams, it doesn’t look like Aaron Donald’s dominance is going to end anytime soon. Phillips has excelled at scheming his talent one-on-one’s over the years, a situation in which Donald is nearly unblockable. After being ranked the number one player on our preseason PFF 50, don’t be surprised if he tops the list at year end as well.

UNSTOPPABLE. Aaron Donald's tackle heat map from last season. He made 57% of his plays on the opponent's side of the ball. #Rams pic.twitter.com/nRIoJrPYCg

— Paddi Cooper (@PaddiCooper) July 26, 2017