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We are a fair way away from the NFL regular season, however, that does not mean that we cannot enjoy, and prospective players to keep an eye on. Knowing who plays the best can help you anticipate the NFL odds for the upcoming season.
Knowing your players and your teams well can help you to better anticipate the player’s movements, futures, odds, and gameplay. Out of all these players, we want to consider Aaron Donald, a defensive tackle for the Rams.
He is a popular player who has been with the Rams for nearly a decade, and he has seen a fair bit of success in his nearly 10-year career. Let’s take a further look at him!
  Who Is Aaron Donald
Aaron Donald is a defensive tackle for the Rams in the NFL. He came from the Pittsburgh college football team, where he gained unanimous All-American honors, and he was selected for the Rams in the first round of the draft in 2014.
He is widely regarded as being one of the best defensive players of all time, named Defensive Player of the Year on 3 separate occasions. Not only that, he has also received a Pro Bowl selection in all of the 9 seasons he has played in.
Aaron Donald also has 7 1st team honors as well and won Super Bowl LVI.
  Aaron Donald Early Life
Aaron Donald grew up in Pittsburgh as one of three children from a working-class family. His father introduced him to working out, wanting to help his son’s life have more structure. Later on, Donald admitted he was lazy as a kid but by 12 years old he would wake up with his father at 4:30 am to work out for 2 hours in the basement gym.
He played high school football at Penn Hills High School and was selected as a first-team All-State Class AAAA in each of his last 2 seasons. He also made 15 tackles for loss, 63 overall tackles, and 11 sacks when he was a senior.
  His College Career
As a freshman he played all of his 13 games as a reserve defensive end, recording 11 tackles, with 3 for loss and 2 sacks. However, when he became a sophomore in 2011, he ended up in the starting lineup, where he turned it into a breakout campaign.
He made 47 tackles, with 16 for loss, 11 sacks, as well as a forced fumble! He was then named a second-team All-Big-East selection.
His numbers continually grew over time.
  His Pro Career
When Donald was at the NFL Combine, he set the record for making the fastest 40-yard dash for a defensive tackle, at 4.68! The record he broke was set by Tank Johnson, who ran it in 4.69 back in 2004.
Donald was quickly swept up by the Rams in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft with the 13th overall pick! NFL rumors would say he was very sought after, but the Rams swept him up, and we do not blame them with such an incredible record at the Combine!
Later, in 2014, the Rams signed Donald to play for a 4-year, guaranteed $10.13 million rookie contract, which had a $5 million bonus and a 5th-year option, which is quite an awesome contract for a draftee.
Only a few months later, he made his debut against the Vikings, finishing with a 34-6 loss and four tackles. The week after he made 3 tackles and his first sack in the NFL, when playing in a victory against the Buccaneers.
In October of the same year, he finally got his first career start when playing against the 49ers, and he finished the game with 4 solo tackles.
Eventually, he recorded 47 tackles, 9 sacks, and 2 forced fumbles, which saw him as 1 out of 5 rookies that were selected into the Pro Bowl in 2015! He also won the Defensive Rookie of the Year award that year and he was later named to play in the NFL All-Rookie team.
Fast forward some years, in his 2021 season, he was fined after he choked Lucas Patrick, the offensive lineman for the Packers. But, a couple of weeks on, he has 3 sacks, 5 tackles, 3 for loss, and a pass deflection all against the Cardinals.
This earned him NFC Defensive Player of the Week. He also managed to scoop up NFC Defensive Player of the Month in December too!
However, much like what saw Donald fined a few weeks ago, he choked Humphries in the Wild Card round against the Cardinals. But, the Rams still won to advance to divisional.
In 2022, the Rams announced a re-negotiation of Donald’s contract and extended it. The deal added $40 million over the previous 3 years of the 6-year, $135 million contract.
This means that Donald is the first-ever player, who is not a quarterback, to make more than $30 million per season!
  Overall
Aaron Donald started small, and grew, his speed, strength, and tactical ability speak volumes of what he is capable of. He is a talented defensive tackle for the Rams and it seems they would like to hold onto him forever.
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