Football star Aaron Donald quits: He was the best NFL defender of his time

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After ten years with the Los Angeles Rams, Aaron Donald has ended his career

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Jed Jacobsohn / AP

Quarterbacks in the US football league NFL are breathing a sigh of relief.

Because with Aaron Donald, 32, the biggest terror of all playmakers has said goodbye to professional football.

On Friday evening German time, he announced his resignation - although he was still unchallenged in his position.

Just six months ago there was a scene that perfectly demonstrated the panicked reactions Donald could trigger even in experienced, hardened quarterbacks.

It was in the game between the Seattle Seahawks and Donald's Los Angeles Rams.

Playmaker Geno Smith received the ball, tapped it back briefly, his head jerked back and forth to take in the field and possible pass-off points.

But what Smith saw wasn't a free agent.

All he saw was Donald, who had already broken through Seattle's defensive line and was charging towards Smith.

Smith recognized the danger and shouted "Oh, my God!" before throwing the ball away at the last moment.

So he avoided the painful collision with the defender, who weighed almost 130 kilograms.

And NFL playmakers will be spared that in the future.

Three-time defender of the year

Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals expressed his relief over Donald's resignation from X.

"Thank God," he wrote in response to Donald's statement, later adding: "An honor to have played against the best of all time!

Enjoy your retirement and please don’t come back.”

Murray's formulation is no exaggeration.

Donald was unique at the defensive tackle position.

For some experts, he was even the best defender in NFL history, regardless of the exact position.

In a vote of all NFL professionals, he was voted the league's best player in 2019.

Donald's statistics legitimize the praise.

In his ten years he was named to the Team of the Year eight times.

He was Defender of the Year in 2017, 2018 and 2020, the number of times only two other players have been honored with this important award.

Donald's 2017/2018 season was particularly impressive when he recorded 20.5 sacks, i.e. tackles against the quarterback.

These numbers may be a bit confusing, but translated from technical jargon they mean: Donald was almost unstoppable.

In his entire career he brought down the opposing playmaker 111 times.

This is by far the best value since Donald started his career in 2014.

But the special thing is that he managed to do this at the position of defensive tackle.

The best, even though he had it the hardest

In this role, you line up right in the middle of the defensive line: where it's tightest and football becomes a wrestling match.

When the play starts, you should either stop opposing runners or fight your way to the quarterback and throw him down.

Basically you have the same task as teammates who play further out.

The disadvantage, however, is that there is hardly any room to maneuver in the middle and you often have not just one opponent, but two or even three - or, as in Donald's case, sometimes four.

It never made a difference to Donald.

In the entire NFL, no player has been doubled as often as him.

And yet Donald got away with it most often.

In recent years, graphs have often flooded the Internet, labeled with complicated abbreviations by statistics nerds.

Visually, however, these axis diagrams were mostly similar: At the very top and right of the two axes there was a lonely point labeled “Aaron Donald”.

No matter how the experts explained it, the point was always: Donald was the best - even though he had it the hardest.

Coordination and strength

One reason for his immense success is Donald's special body.

At 1.85 meters, Donald is relatively small for his position.

This means it has a low center of gravity and was never easy to grab.

Added to this were exceptional speed, agility and strength.

Donald grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh, an industrial city in America's Rust Belt.

Even as a twelve-year-old, he was training with weights in the early hours of the morning to get his body in shape.

During his NFL career, coaches and teammates often praised his hard work in the weight room.

But commitment and athleticism weren't everything.

Not only was Donald stronger and faster than the rest, he also knew how to assert himself with timing, targeted thrusts and step sequences.

Football may sometimes look like a wild scramble on television, but there are sophisticated techniques behind it.

The professionals know exactly when to try a quick turn, where to push and push their opponents, and how to avoid or cushion the impact of others.

Donald was a master at these techniques.

He knew when to move and how.

Especially when it really mattered, like in the Super Bowl 2022. After several years as a title contender and even a Super Bowl in 2019, which Donald's Los Angeles Rams lost to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, the team was once again in the NFL final.

This time it should finally work.

“Aaron Donald will do something”

On the other hand, there was a young surprise team in the Cincinnati Bengals.

Things got close in the final phase.

The Rams held a narrow three-point lead, Cincinnati had the ball and was on the verge of tying the game or even turning it around.

Then Donald's big moment arrived.

First he held the Bengals running back with just one arm, even though he was being harassed himself.

This resulted in a decisive moment, Cincinnati had to use the last, fourth attempt.

Rams coach Sean McVay knew what was going to happen.

The coach stood on the sidelines with his hands on his knees and said, as if in a prayer to calm himself, "Aaron Donald is going to do something." And Donald did it.

With a quick leap, he broke through the Bengals defensive line, grabbed quarterback Joe Burrow and threw him to the ground.

The Super Bowl was decided.

It was the crowning achievement of Donald's career.

Maybe he could have expanded his merits, after all, the Rams were competitive last year and Donald himself, at 32, is still one of the most dominant players in the world.

In his farewell statement, he emphasized the special feature of having spent his entire career, including the championship title, with a single team.

Maybe he saw a farewell to the Rams coming and didn't want to experience that moment.

Maybe Aaron Donald just had nothing left to prove in football.