Aaron Donald has been one of the best overall players in the NFL the last few years, winning back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year awards. He led the league in sacks with 20.5 last season, which set an NFL record for a defensive tackle, but his numbers don’t look as impressive in 2019.
He has eight sacks in 11 games, which is still impressive for a DT but it isn’t what fans are used to after seeing him stuff the stat sheet last season.
Donald was shut out by the Ravens in Week 12, being held to just a tackle assist on the night. He didn’t get a single hit on Lamar Jackson, nor did he do much in the way of pressure. Sean McVay said Donald’s stats are misleading because of how much attention he draws.
Still, McVay believes Donald has room for improvement.
“Sometimes the stats can be misleading. I don’t think anybody on our team, really as a whole, played good enough to feel good about what occurred last week,” he said. “He certainly has things he can improve on. Then, sometimes there is an element of, all right, if they are paying a lot of attention and he’s dictating double teams, then it does free other guys up. Sometimes it’s about the play-ops that present themselves. More than anything, you look at your factor-ops from a defensive standpoint. He consistently grades extremely high on that, but that was a game our team as a whole, and I don’t think anybody can say that they were good enough last week.”
Donald remains one of the best players in the league and someone every offense has to be aware of. He can wreck a game with his ability to generate pressure and create negative plays, which is what makes him so good.
He’s still in contention for Defensive Player of the Year in 2019, which says everything you need to know about how well-respected and viewed he is by everyone.