The Los Angeles Rams may have ranked just 15th in the NFL in sacks last season, but they pressured the quarterback far more than their sack numbers indicate. Thanks to Aaron Donald carrying the team with 20.5 sacks – half the team’s total – last season, the Rams have one of the best pass rushes in the league.
So when Bucky Brooks of NFL.com ranked the top pass-rushing tandems, it was hard to keep the Rams out of the top five, even though they don’t have another dominant rusher next to Donald. He put Donald and Dante Fowler Jr. fourth on his list of the best pass-rushing duos in football.
You could make the argument that Donald and any defender should garner a spot on this list based on No. 99’s sheer dominance as an interior pass rusher. The two-time Defensive Player of the Year is a Tasmanian devil on the inside, with a combination of speed, quickness and power that makes him impossible to block at the point of attack. Fowler showed flashes of brilliance once he settled in as an edge rusher in Wade Phillips’ defense after being traded from the Jaguars at midseason. He’s a scrappy player with a violent set of hands and a nasty demeanor.
After leading the league in sacks last season, it’s difficult to argue against Donald being the best pass rusher in the NFL. No matter who you pair him with, the tandem is going to rank among the top duos around. He’s simply that good.
If the Rams did have a legitimate 10-sack player somewhere else on defense, be it with Fowler or Samson Ebukam, it would change the level of the defense. Donald will only get more one-on-one opportunities if teams are forced to focus their attention on another dynamic edge rusher, which the Rams may not have at the moment.
