Aaron Donald named NFC Defensive Player of the Week

It’s the first time Donald has won the award this season.

Aaron Donald has won consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards and is on track to compete for a third straight. Though he’s not stuffing the stat sheet like he usually does, he’s still having an outstanding season.

He was recognized for his play against the Bears on Sunday, being named NFC Defensive Player of the Week. He had two sacks, two tackles for loss, four quarterback hits and a pass deflection in the Rams’ 17-7 win over Chicago.

It’s the first time Donald has been named Defensive Player of the Week this season. He won the award twice last season, once in 2016 and twice in 2015. Surprisingly, he wasn’t named Defensive Player of the Week once in 2017 despite winning Defensive Player of the Year.

This season, Donald has eight sacks, 16 QB hits and a league-high 16 tackles for loss. He’s among the top candidates to win Defensive Player of the Year, but he’ll need to keep up this level of play the rest of the way.