St. Louis Rams Aaron Donald leads league in TFLs

One of the most enjoyable activities during the early portion of the regular season is tracking the performances of notable rookies, even if we are down the biggest one with Jadeveon Clowney on the sidelines. St. Louis Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald was the best defensive player in college football last season with the Pittsburgh Panthers, as the ridiculously explosive interior pass rusher was impossible to contain and put up unreal advanced stats (pressures, QB hits, and the like).

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There were plenty of questions regarding Donald’s ability to transition to the NFL, as many people believed his lack of size would prevent him from being successful. However, most people believed that while he would lose battles in the running game, he would be an absolute game-changer in the passing game of the Geno Atkins ilk, as, like Atkins, he makes up for his lack of size with ridiculous quickness, explosion, and motor.

We’ve seen all three of those so far in his Rams career, as the Pro Football Focus tweets that Donald currently leads the league in tackles for loss with four of them through two games. Ironically enough, Donald has been doing most of his damage in the running game, as his incredibly underrated instincts combined with his gap-shooting ability have yielded all of this TFLs. Donald looks like the real deal, and it makes a diehard Pitt homer like myself quite happy to see him succeed this early on. Chris Long may be out, but Donald, Robert Quinn, and the rest of the DLs (don’t sleep on William Hayes) still form a top-notch group.