Where does Aaron Donald rank all-time amongst defensive players?

[starfox]

Top ten? Top five?

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[JeremyNick]

Top 1000 for sure

[88horsepower]

Top Five, if you ask me. With all of the rules set up to stop defenses from being effective, the double-teams, everything he's faced, the dude still is a 3 x DPOY and the most effective interior defensive lineman I've seen in my 30+ years of watching football. He's only 30 and he has already accumulated 98 career sacks, which is astounding for a DT. Seven first-team All Pro speaks volumes of what the league thinks of him, too. He's in my Top Five.

[calculusdork]

Originally Posted by 88horsepower

Top Five, if you ask me. With all of the rules set up to stop defenses from being effective, the double-teams, everything he's faced, the dude still is a 3 x DPOY and the most effective interior defensive lineman I've seen in my 30+ years of watching football. He's only 30 and he has already accumulated 98 career sacks, which is astounding for a DT. Seven first-team All Pro speaks volumes of what the league thinks of him, too. He's in my Top Five.

Already second all-time behind John Randle. Wow.

[starfox]

Originally Posted by 88horsepower

Top Five, if you ask me. With all of the rules set up to stop defenses from being effective, the double-teams, everything he's faced, the dude still is a 3 x DPOY and the most effective interior defensive lineman I've seen in my 30+ years of watching football. He's only 30 and he has already accumulated 98 career sacks, which is astounding for a DT. Seven first-team All Pro speaks volumes of what the league thinks of him, too. He's in my Top Five.

I agree. Top five for sure. To me, he was even the best player in the league a couple years. Defensive tackles just don't get sacks like that. Dude can make plays with one arm.

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[Onepocketj]

Top 5 for me. I have LT and Reggie White ahead of him, maybe Ronnie Lott. Honestly I'm not familiar enough with the older players like Mean Joe Greene or Butkus to rank them.

[Boo]

He wishes he could play the awful Bengals line twice a year like TJ Watt and Myles Garrett.

[Gigantor]

Here is one opinion for a top-10. I could see AD slot in the top 5.

1) Lawrence Taylor, New York Giants
2) Reggie White, Eagles/Packers/Panthers
3) Deacon Jones, Los Angeles Rams/Chargers
4) Ray Lewis, Baltimore Ravens
5) Ronnie Lott, 49ers/Raiders/Jets/Chiefs
6) Mean Joe Green, Pittsburgh Steelers
7) Dick Butkus, Chicago Bears
8) Gino Marchetti, Baltimore Colts
9) Mel Blount, Pittsburgh Steelers
10) Merlin Olsen, Los Angeles Rams

[starfox]

Originally Posted by Gigantor

Here is one opinion for a top-10. I could see AD slot in the top 5.



1) Lawrence Taylor, New York Giants

2) Reggie White, Eagles/Packers/Panthers

3) Deacon Jones, Los Angeles Rams/Chargers

4) Ray Lewis, Baltimore Ravens

5) Ronnie Lott, 49ers/Raiders/Jets/Chiefs

6) Mean Joe Green, Pittsburgh Steelers

7) Dick Butkus, Chicago Bears

8) Gino Marchetti, Baltimore Colts

9) Mel Blount, Pittsburgh Steelers

10) Merlin Olsen, Los Angeles Rams

Is this your list, or is it someone else's? Where are Aaron Donald and Deion Sanders?

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[RustyDawg37]

Originally Posted by starfox

Is this your list, or is it someone else's? Where are Aaron Donald and Deion Sanders?

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I love Deion and would put him in maybe top 25 of all players of all time, but his business decision to not tackle people will make sure he will never show up on a best defensive player list.

[Gigantor]

Originally Posted by starfox

Is this your list, or is it someone else's? Where are Aaron Donald and Deion Sanders?

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Originally Posted by RustyDawg37

I love Deion and would put him in maybe top 25 of all players of all time, but his business decision to not tackle people will make sure he will never show up on a best defensive player list.

Not my list, just an example top-10 excluding Donald for discussion purposes.

Agreed, Deion is debatable but I wouldn't put him top 10.

[rats60]

Definitely top 10, maybe top 5. Along with Joe Greene the greatest DTs of all time.

[49erRCCollector]

Its so hard to make direct comparisons to other players but I would have no issue putting Donald in my personal top 5. I thought he should have been MVP last night. He dictates the way the offensive line plays on every snap with every team.

[majestik101]

Top 25

[the mesiah]

Top 10 for sure ,.

[ejs23]

Originally Posted by majestik101

Top 25

This is about right.

Aaron Donald is great, I'm biased in his favor since he's a Pittsburgh kid and Pitt alumn. But right now he's not even a top 5 DT all time, so definitely not top 5 defensive player. Like with every other "who is the GOAT" debate on here there's always too much recency bias. Donald needs to play another 4+ years at this pace to crack into a top 10 debate.

[MIRRABB]

Originally Posted by ejs23

This is about right.

Aaron Donald is great, I'm biased in his favor since he's a Pittsburgh kid and Pitt alumn. But right now he's not even a top 5 DT all time, so definitely not top 5 defensive player. Like with every other "who is the GOAT" debate on here there's always too much recency bias. Donald needs to play another 4+ years at this pace to crack into a top 10 debate.

Go look at those guys you have as top 5 DT of all time and see how their DPOY and first team all pros compare to AD.

[bamafan3559]

Originally Posted by ejs23

This is about right.

Aaron Donald is great, I'm biased in his favor since he's a Pittsburgh kid and Pitt alumn. But right now he's not even a top 5 DT all time, so definitely not top 5 defensive player. Like with every other "who is the GOAT" debate on here there's always too much recency bias. Donald needs to play another 4+ years at this pace to crack into a top 10 debate.

Outside of John Randle and Alan Page, who do you have in front of him?

[starfox]

Originally Posted by bamafan3559

Outside of John Randle and Alan Page, who do you have in front of him?

Yes! I'd like to know.

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[ejs23]

Originally Posted by MIRRABB

Go look at those guys you have as top 5 DT of all time and see how their DPOY and first team all pros compare to AD.

It's true he dominated his era, but who else was there? JJ Watt until his injuries. Kuechly suffering concussions and retiring early. TJ Watt finally giving him some competition. Donald deserved his awards... he's dominated at his position. But he's not the first to do it.

Originally Posted by bamafan3559

Outside of John Randle and Alan Page, who do you have in front of him?

You got Page, Randle, Randy White, Merlin Olsen, Joe Greene, Bob Lilly. Move forward a bit and you got guys like Cortez and Sapp. But hands down Page, White, Lilly, Olsen and Greene are the Mt Rushmore of DTs. Give Donald another 4+ years and maybe he's up there with them.

[Stifle]

Originally Posted by bamafan3559

Outside of John Randle and Alan Page, who do you have in front of him?

I can remember when Randy White for a few years was reaping havoc on offensive linemen as a DT.

No Bruce Smith or J J Watt as a top 10 ?

[ninjacookies]

His body of work is not large enough to crack the top 5...yet.

He's 30 and only has 8 years under his belt. Recency bias is a helluva drug.


He's top 10 though. LT is GOAT.

[dkcardman]

So hard to cross generations with this answer because so many metrics were not recorded until recently. We are also in an era where teams pass way more than in the past making ops for sacks QB hits more.
Id just say you can make an argument for top 10, but id also like to see him get more time in before calling that. Just 8 years makes it tough to put him ahead of other careers, even if he may be a better player.

[MIRRABB]

Originally Posted by dkcardman

So hard to cross generations with this answer because so many metrics were not recorded until recently. We are also in an era where teams pass way more than in the past making ops for sacks QB hits more.
Id just say you can make an argument for top 10, but id also like to see him get more time in before calling that. Just 8 years makes it tough to put him ahead of other careers, even if he may be a better player.

while it's true there is a ton more passing so more downs to accumulate sacks, the flip side is that the rules are far more favorable to the offense than in the past, and defensive players are far more limited in what they can do without drawing penalties.

[jplarson]

Easy top 10 with top 3 upside. Looking over year-by-year honors and achievements he's right in there with Lawrence Taylor through the first 8 years. LT has him on on getting the league MVP. I'd probably go:

1. Lawrence Taylor
2. Reggie White
3. Bruce Smith
4. Ronnie Lott
5. Rod Woodson
6. Alan Page
7. Ray Lewis
8. Aaron Donald
9. Junior Seau
10. Joe Greene
11. Merlin Olsen