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

[starfox]

Top ten? Top five?

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[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.

[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.

[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

[Boo]

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

[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.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[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?

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[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

[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.

[the mesiah]

Top 10 for sure ,.

[RustyDawg37]

Originally Posted by starfox

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

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

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.

[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

[Gigantor]

Originally Posted by starfox

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

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

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.

[Siberian13]

Deion isn’t even close to the top 10.

[49erRCCollector]

Originally Posted by Siberian13

Deion isn’t even close to the top 10.

I love Deion but he had some major flaws in his game if we're talking "top 10 all time careers"

[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.

[49ersSF]

1 Lawrence Taylor
2 Aaron Donald
3 Reggie White
4 Deacon Jones
5 Ronnie Lott
6 Mean Joe Greene
7 Ray Lewis
8 Bruce Smith
9 Dick Butkus
10 Deion Sanders

[thewesdub]

Easy top 5, arguably top 3

[PrimeTimeScott]

Originally Posted by 49erRCCollector

I love Deion but he had some major flaws in his game if we're talking "top 10 all time careers"

I always thought Champ Bailey was a better overall player. He was one of the best open field tacklers that I have ever seen play, he also shut down half the field like Deion, and he was nearly as fast (most days--before someone shows him getting caught from behind against the Patriots).

[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?