For the first time in his career last season, Aaron Donald suffered an injury serious enough to keep him off the field. He missed six games with an ankle injury, which required surgery and ended his season early.
Apparently, it was also enough to send him tumbling out of the top 10 on this year’s 100 best players list.
That’s right: The player-voted ranking does not include Donald’s name in the top 10, meaning his peers believe there are 10 players better than him right now. The future Hall of Famer came in at No. 11 on this year’s list, his lowest ranking since 2017 when he was 15th and down nine spots from last year when he was No. 2. Every year since 2018, he’s been in the top 10, and in each of the last four years, he was ranked in the top five.
But not this year, for some reason.
9️⃣9️⃣ PROBLEMS. pic.twitter.com/aa4sAGdoa6
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) August 4, 2023
Obviously, the voters are putting too much emphasis on the fact that Donald missed time last season. But when he was healthy, he was still the impactful and disruptive player he’s always been, recording 10 tackles for a loss and five sacks in 11 games despite getting very little help from the Rams’ other pass rushers.
There’s no doubt Donald is still one of the 10 best players in the NFL right now and he’s going to show that rather quickly once this season begins. He’s not someone who needs any added motivation because he’s so intrinsically driven, but this could be some bulletin board material for the perennial Pro Bowler.
