There are a lot of outstanding interior defensive linemen in the NFL right now, but not a single one is as talented and dominant as Aaron Donald. There may not be a player in football who’s established himself as the best at his position the way Donald has, with just about every fan and analyst understanding he ranks No. 1 when it comes to defensive tackles.
Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire ranked the 11 best interior defensive linemen in the league and it’s no surprise who claims the top spot. Donald is borderline unstoppable as an interior rusher in the rare instances where he has one-on-one opportunities, which is why he gets doubled as often as he does.
We all know that Aaron Donald is a Destroyer of Worlds as an interior defensive lineman — he’s had more than 100 total pressures in three of the last four seasons, which would be All-Pro work for an edge-rusher, never mind an inside guy who is the primary focus of every offensive line he faces. But did you know that last season, per Sports Info Solutions, on his 50 pass-rushing snaps either aligned right over or outside the offensive tackles, Donald had two solo sacks, two combined sacks, and nine total pressures?
Brandon Staley really experimented with moving Donald around more last year and it worked extremely well. Donald still rushed primarily from the interior, but he also moved outside at times and generated pressure from an edge-rusher position, too.
That made it difficult for opposing offenses to game plan for him, since they weren’t sure where he was going to line up on a given play. That should continue with Raheem Morris as the new defensive coordinator, seeing how great Donald was last season in that more versatile role.
The three-time Defensive Player of the Year will attempt to become the first player ever to win the award four times in his career, further bolstering his resume as one of the best defensive linemen to ever play the game.
Rounding out the top five on Farrar’s list were Cameron Heyward, Chris Jones, DeForest Buckner and Kenny Clark, in order from No. 2 to 5.
[vertical-gallery id=649170]