Aaron Donald may not be coming off a record-setting season like he was after the 2018 campaign, but he’s still widely viewed as one of the best players in the NFL, if not the very best. Pro Football Focus is frequently higher on Donald than the majority of analysts, and that hasn’t changed heading into the 2020 season.
PFF ranked the top 50 players in the NFL heading into next season and Donald was deservingly slotted at No. 1 overall.
Donald edged out Patrick Mahomes, who was No. 2, and was ahead of Julio Jones (3rd), Quenton Nelson (4th) and George Kittle (5th) in the top five.
Here’s what PFF wrote about Donald, emphasizing his dominance from the interior of the defensive line.
No matter how good you think Aaron Donald is, you’re underselling it. He is the best player in the NFL by a distance, and only the fact that his position doesn’t impact a game as heavily as quarterback or even receiver makes that in any way a debate. Since entering the league, Donald owns the best pressure rate, the best pass-rush win rate (factoring in wins at the line that don’t result in pressures), the best PFF pass-rushing grade and the most total pressures. He has done all this from an interior alignment on the defensive line, where pressure is harder to come by than on the edge. The gap between Donald and the next-best interior player is bigger than it is between any other player and the rest of his peers, and he remains atop this list for the fourth-straight year.
Donald was somewhat surprisingly the only Rams player ranked in the top 50 heading into the 2020 season. You could make the case for Jalen Ramsey to make the cut, as there were three cornerbacks who made PFF’s list: Stephon Gilmore (12th), Richard Sherman (14th) and Casey Heyward (39th).
Jared Goff wasn’t necessarily deserving of a spot in the top 50 after a disappointing year in 2019, while Andrew Whitworth is also coming off a down year for the Rams.
