Tag: Aaron Donald

Jalen Ramsey joins Aaron Donald in ‘Madden’ 99 Club

The Rams have two players with 99 overall ratings in “Madden NFL 22,” both leading the defense.

There are five players in “Madden NFL 22” with 99 overall ratings. The Los Angeles Rams incredibly have two of them.

After Aaron Donald was announced as a member of the 99 Club for the fifth straight year, EA Sports revealed that his defensive teammate Jalen Ramsey has joined him. Ramsey earned a 99 overall rating for the first time in the game, a well-deserved honor after the season he had in 2020.

Ramsey is the fourth player in the 99 Club so far, joining Donald, Travis Kelce and Davante Adams. Patrick Mahomes is expected to be the fifth member, giving the Rams and Chiefs each two players with 99 ratings.

Check out Ramsey’s reaction to the news in the video below, saying “it’s a little overdue.”

In his first full season with the Rams, Ramsey had one interception, nine passes defensed and 44 tackles. He wasn’t targeted often in coverage, but when he was, he hardly allowed any completions.

On 71 targets, he gave up 36 completions for 345 yards, according to Pro Football Reference. He only allowed two touchdowns and 133 yards after the catch.

He was undoubtedly the best cornerback in football, earning All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl selection. Now, he can add a 99 overall rating in Madden to his resume.

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Look: Aaron Donald, other Rams players report to training camp

Aaron Donald, Johnny Hekker and other Rams stars have reported to camp at UC Irvine.

After rookies and quarterbacks arrived for Rams training camp on Sunday, the rest of the team made their way to UC Irvine on Tuesday morning and afternoon. It marks the official start of training camp, with the team’s first practice coming on Wednesday afternoon.

Among those to arrive in the wave of players on Tuesday were Aaron Donald, Johnny Hekker, Kenny Young and Sebastian Joseph-Day.

The Rams shared videos of each player reporting to camp, with Hekker’s and Joseph-Day’s being especially funny. His tweet after getting to camp was perfect, too.

Check out the other arrivals below.

Other players also got to camp on Monday, showing up a day early. Those were Leonard Floyd, Donte Deayon and Ogbonnia Okoronkwo.

 

Look: Aaron Donald, other Rams players report to training camp

Aaron Donald, Johnny Hekker and other Rams stars have reported to camp at UC Irvine.

After rookies and quarterbacks arrived for Rams training camp on Sunday, the rest of the team made their way to UC Irvine on Tuesday morning and afternoon. It marks the official start of training camp, with the team’s first practice coming on Wednesday afternoon.

Among those to arrive in the wave of players on Tuesday were Aaron Donald, Johnny Hekker, Kenny Young and Sebastian Joseph-Day.

The Rams shared videos of each player reporting to camp, with Hekker’s and Joseph-Day’s being especially funny. His tweet after getting to camp was perfect, too.

Check out the other arrivals below.

Other players also got to camp on Monday, showing up a day early. Those were Leonard Floyd, Donte Deayon and Ogbonnia Okoronkwo.

 

Aaron Donald earns 99 overall rating in ‘Madden’ for 5th straight year

Aaron Donald is one of five players to earn a 99 overall rating in “Madden NFL 22” this year.

EA Sports should just give Aaron Donald a lifetime pass to the 99 Club at this point. The game developer announced on Tuesday that Donald has once again earned a 99 overall rating in “Madden NFL 22,” making him one of just five players to have the highest possible rating in the game.

Davante Adams is the only other player who has been revealed with a 99 overall rating; EA is announcing all five this week.

This is the fifth year in a row Donald has had a 99 overall rating in Madden, going all the way back to “Madden NFL 18.” No other player can say that, which shows just how dominant he’s been.

Check out Donald’s reaction to the news in the video below.

4 Rams ranked among top 101 players in NFL, including 2 in top 10

Touchdown Wire ranked the 101 best players in the NFL right now and the Rams landed four players on the list – including two in the top 10.

The regular season is nearly upon us, which means it’s time for outlets to rank the best players in football. The Rams have one of the best rosters on paper, headlined by Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald, boasting a stacked team from top to bottom.

So it’s no surprise that they landed four players on Touchdown Wire’s list of the 101 best players in the NFL today. More impressively, three of those players were ranked inside the top 25, including two in the top six.

So which players made the cut in Doug Farrar and Mark Schofield’s rankings? You can probably guess at least three of them.

The 101 best players in the NFL today

Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, and Aaron Donald lead Doug Farrar’s and Mark Schofield’s list of the NFL’s top 101 players.

Recently, Mark Schofield and I compiled 14 different lists of the best NFL players at every position. From those names, we then compiled this list of the top 101 players in the NFL today. In this top 101, we forced ourselves to stick to players we had named in the positional lists, to avoid overdoing “skill position players” at the expense of slot cornerbacks, guards and interior defensive linemen. By drawing from a full list of positions as opposed to loading this with the most popular or highest-paid players, hopefully it gives a better and wider sense of the talent around the league than some other lists might.

The lists: Safeties | Slot defenders | Outside cornerbacks | Linebackers | Interior Defensive Linemen | Edge Defenders | Guards | Centers | Offensive Tackles | Tight Ends | Slot Receivers | Outside Receivers | Running Backs | Quarterbacks

For certain positions, we expanded the lists to 15 players, because when you’re reviewing the NFL’s best quarterbacks and receivers, and you’re leaving Matt Ryan, Justin Herbert, D.K. Metcalf, or Mike Evans off because you’re at the self-imposed mercy of your own numbers… well, that’s obviously sub-optimal.

From these lists, Mark and I compiled our list of the 101 best players in the NFL today, regardless of position. Some positional weight was considered (quarterbacks have an edge over centers, etc.), but again, the overall idea was to break out of the most popular positions and really dig into the league’s biggest difference-makers, without overcooking which positions they play.

With all that in mind, and without further ado, here are our 101 best players in the NFL heading into the 2021 season.

101-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Page 9, Page 10, Page 11

Eagles’ QB Jalen Hurts makes list of NFL players who received the most hate on social media

Jalen Hurts lands high on a list of NFL players who received the most negative comments across Instagram over a recent 12-month period between May 2020-May 2021.

The world of social media can be a very negative place, so it’s no surprise that one of the NFL’s more positive and kind-hearted players receives so much hate.

Over a one-year period, the Action Network was able to capture which NFL players received the most negative comments on Instagram between May 2020 to May 2021.

By utilizing the total number of Instagram posts about each player and analyzing the rate of abusive comments and how likely they were to see those negative posts, the Action Network highlighted which players received the most hate via trolls.

Philadelphia Eagles’ second-year quarterback Jalen Hurts landed high on the list, at No. 6 overall.

6. Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles

171,043 posts about the player on social media
Roughly 34,380 negative posts (20.1%)
This figure represents just under half the capacity of the Eagles’ Lincoln Financial Field

The negative backlash or trolling started after or around the time Howie Roseman and the Eagles selected the Heisman Trophy finalist in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft.

Buccaneers star and Super Bowl champion Tom Brady was No. 1 on the list, followed by Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Donald, Drew Brees, and Josh Norman rounding out the top five.

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Look: Aaron Donald is absolutely ripped heading into training camp

Aaron Donald will be in excellent shape when training camp begins.

The Rams don’t have to worry about Aaron Donald being out of shape when training camp begins on July 27. The perennial Pro Bowler and three-time Defensive Player of the Year doesn’t take any time off during the offseason and always arrives for camp in phenomenal shape.

That won’t be any different this summer.

Photographer Shawn Hubbard shared a shot of Donald flexing and his muscles have muscles. It’s easy to see why he’s the best defender in the world. No offensive lineman wants to block that chiseled specimen on the interior.

Hubbard also posted a few other photos of Donald working out in the basement of his childhood home in Pittsburgh, which he calls “The Dungeon.”

Check those shots out below.

Bobby Evans, David Edwards and every other guard on the Rams’ roster will have their hands full with Donald when camp opens this month.

Aaron Donald ranked as best interior defender in NFL, but one voter put him 4th

One voter in ESPN’s poll of NFL executives, coaches, scouts and players put Aaron Donald as the 4th-best interior defender.

Aaron Donald has won three Defensive Player of the Year awards, made the Pro Bowl seven times in seven seasons and has been named a first-team All-Pro six times. He’s well on his way to Canton, surely as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Yet, someone doesn’t think he’s the best interior defender in the NFL. Or the second-best. Or the third-best.

ESPN surveyed more than 50 NFL executives, coaches, scouts and players to rank the 10 best players at each position and unsurprisingly, Donald was the top interior defender once again. It’s the second year in a row Donald has received more first-place votes than every player in the NFL regardless of position.

However, one voter ranked him as low as fourth at his position, meaning that person believes there are three interior defenders better than Donald. The Steelers’ Stephon Tuitt was the only other player to earn a first-place vote, likely from that same voter who put Donald fourth.

Yes, someone voted Donald fourth. That particular voter prioritized youth and upside. But Donald has shown zero signs of slowing down at age 30. His 24.2% pass-rush win rate leads all defensive tackles by a wide margin, and that’s with facing a double-team on 219 of his 314 rushes, the most in the league. Donald created 30 incompletions, second to edge rusher T.J. Watt.

“You’re not stopping him,” an NFC exec said. “[You] just hope to get the ball out fast.”

ESPN didn’t specify whether it was a player, scout, coach or executive who put Donald fourth, but whoever it was, their logic is unfounded. Donald is only two years older than Tuitt, yet he has shown no signs of slowing down. And his upside is winning Defensive Player of the Year again. Tuitt has very little chance of winning that award, so his upside isn’t close to what Donald’s is.

Tuitt is a good player and probably underrated, but there’s a strong case that he’s not even the best defensive lineman on his team, with that title going to Cameron Heyward. Donald is far and away the best interior defensive lineman in football.

“I would put a space between him and all the defensive tackles or edge guys, honestly,” an AFC scout told ESPN. “He’s by himself.”

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Watch: Aaron Donald was putting in work on 4th of July

There are no days off for Aaron Donald, which is why he’s a 3-time Defensive Player of the Year.

Aaron Donald almost never takes a day off during the offseason, training constantly in advance of training camp and eventually the regular season. He does so back home in Pittsburgh with a trainer he’s worked with since he was in high school, DeWayne Brown of Two Tenths Speed and Agility.

Over Fourth of July weekend, Donald was unsurprisingly on the practice field working on his footwork and agility. His trainer posted the following videos of his workout on Sunday afternoon, which shows Donald’s version of celebrating the holiday.

According to the videos posted by Brown, Donald is set to leave Pittsburgh in one week, which means he’s likely heading back to Los Angeles before the start of training camp. Rams rookies and quarterbacks will report for camp at UC Irvine on July 25, with the rest of the team arriving on July 27.