4 NFL players that would be irreplaceable for COVID opt-out
By Dustin Baker
2. Aaron Donald, DT, Los Angeles Rams
This may be borderline Captain Obvious stuff, but it would have been irresponsible to leave Aaron Donald off this list.
Donald has recorded 72 sacks since his NFL debut in 2014. This is second in the business and only outpaced by edge rusher Chandler Jones. Any sack leaderboard or metric that you ever read about should be heavily caveated with the admission that Donald is a defensive tackle.
He shouldn’t be near the top of the league in sacks. That is generally the modus operandi of a defensive end. But for Donald, that does not matter. He’s a team-sponsored terrorist of quarterbacks no matter the position.
In 2019, the Los Angeles Rams were the 17th-best defense in the NFL via points allowed. If head coach Sean McVay’s squad aspires to return to the playoffs this year, that ranking cannot drop any further. If Aaron Donald is not around, it will drop further. His potential replacements on the current roster, Marquise Copeland and Sam Renner, are not wretched, but they are also not named Aaron Donald.
This season will be a pivotal one for Sean McVay, quarterback Jared Goff, general manager Les Snead, and the Rams as a whole. The team can not afford a Donald-less campaign.