Aaron Donald only needed one year to show Rams made right choice with contract

As frustrating as it was to watch the Los Angeles Rams come up short in Super Bowl 53, at least Aaron Donald was able to put together the best year of his career.

Dating back to before the 2017 season officially got it underway, Aaron Donald had been putting up a fight with the Los Angeles Rams to earn a hefty new contract, as the superstar believed, along with a lot of fans, he deserved to be the league’s highest-paid defender.

Since the former Pittsburgh star joined the NFL in 2014 after the Rams decided to use a first-round pick on the defensive tackle, Donald has been one of those players who seems to get better with experience.

Whether it happens to be the fact that he’s reached the Pro Bowl in each of his five NFL seasons or taking home Defensive Player of the Year honors for the second year in a row, Donald has made a strong case to be considered the best player at his position in the NFL.

As for the contract situation, as football fans know, things didn’t work out for Donald before the start of the 2017 season since Los Angeles had some leverage on their hands with the fact he still had two years remaining on his contract. And while Donald would holdout all of training camp and preseason in 2018 for a second year a row, the two parties finally reached an agreement prior to Week 1.

Before Khalil Mack stole his thunder shortly after to become the highest-paid defender in NFL history following a trade to the Chicago Bears, Donald briefly had the honors when Los Angeles decided to finally reward their star defender with a hefty six-year extension worth $135 million.

Despite the concerns over playing Week 1 after missing training camp and preseason, Donald showed once again why he deserved to be in the category of a top defender in the NFL by playing right away in what ended up being the best season of his five-year career.

Not only did Donald play a key role in helping the Rams win the NFC West title for a second year in a row to go along with a trip to the Super Bowl, but he also managed to set a career high of 20.5 sacks in the process.

Take into consideration that Donald went the first three games without a single sack, it’s absolutely insane to think how he managed to pull off 20.5 sacks during the regular season to make it clear the team made the right call rewarding him with that hefty contract.

Even if the argument can be made these numbers never would have been possible for Donald if it wasn’t for Ndamukong Suh being on the defensive line as well to draw a little extra attention away from opponents, this still shows just how special of a player Los Angeles has on their hands.

Coming up short of the team’s ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl was obviously disappointing for so many reasons, but at least with Donald coming off a career year, Sean McVay‘s squad should be motivated more than ever to make another run.

Plus, after watching Los Angeles take care of business before the start of last season by making sure players like Donald, Brandin Cooks, and Todd Gurley will be around for the long run after rewarding extensions, this only helps the chances for the Rams even more in 2019.