Aaron Donald was the NFL’s best defender of the modern era

It ends a 10-year career that not solely seen Donald develop to be the simplest defensive participant inside the NFL, however moreover the simplest defensive participant of the fashionable interval and among the many greatest defensive avid gamers to ever step onto an NFL self-discipline. 

This  guidelines of accomplishments alone helps make that case.

Donald is one in every of merely three avid gamers to ever win the AP Defensive Participant of the 12 months award three utterly totally different events, changing into a member of solely Lawrence Taylor and J.J. Watt. He’s moreover one in every of merely two avid gamers to be named to the Skilled Bowl crew in every season of his NFL career. That’s an accomplishment that he shares with solely former Detroit Lions working once more Barry Sanders. In addition to, Donald was an eight-time first-team All-Skilled, the 2014 Defensive Rookie of the 12 months and the centerpiece of a Super Bowl-winning crew in 2021, making the game-clinching play inside the closing seconds.

The one two seasons in his career throughout which he didn’t earn first-team All-Skilled honors have been his rookie season (2014) and the 2022 season, when he was restricted to solely 11 video video games on account of injury. 

The honors and the stats talk for themselves. Nonetheless Donald was on a regular basis a kind of avid gamers who merely stood out from everybody else on the sector. 

He merely appeared utterly totally different when he was dashing the passer, throwing offensive linemen spherical like they’ve been toys and chasing down quarterbacks with a ferocity that really made them scream.