Much is being made in the Aaron Donald news cycle about what type or caliber of player AD will be if he returns. A lot of speculation has been thrown out there that he could return in order to play 10-15 snaps or that he would return only to take a role that he held during his prime – that he would not come back for less. So which is? The truth is that we do not know but we can take a look at the numbers and see what Aaron Donald has provided year to year for the Rams and be able to form a baseline
of what he would offer the Los Angeles Rams.
2014 – (67.4%)
Aaron Donald’s rookie year featured playing alongside Robert Quinn, Michael Brockers, Chris Long, Kendall Langford, William Hayes, and Eugene Sims. Gregg Williams defensive line was loaded. It was not until Week 5 where Donald took on a starter’s workload.
Total snaps: 707
2015 – (79.1%)
Donald played in all 16 games and there was only 2 games did he drop below a 70% snap share.
Total snaps: 915
2016 – (76.1%)
Part of AD’s snap share was affected by his Game 1 ejection against the San Francisco 49ers.
Total snaps: 829
2017 – (82.3%)
In the first year of Sean McVay and Wade Phillips as defensive coordinator, Donald jumped into the 80% range. He missed the Week 1 game against the Indianapolis Colts because of a holdout.
Total snaps: 790
2018 – (90.4%)
We all remember 2018. Donald’s 20.5 sack season. This was Donald’s peak as he wreaked havoc on opposing offensive lines. His 90.4% snap share for the season ended up being a career high. There were two games in which he played 100% of the defensive snaps – Week 9 @ New Orleans Saints (71 snaps) and Week 15 vs. Philadelphia Eagles (64 snaps).
Total snaps: 914
2019 – (83.6%)
A couple of blowout wins in Week 7 and 13 reduced Donald’s snap share.
Total snaps: 926
2020 – (84.5%)
Donald’s second DPOY award.
Total snaps: 865
2021 – (89.5%)
Maybe if it had not been for blowouts in Weeks 6 & 8, this likely would have been Donald’s career high for snap percentage, but he certainly eclipsed it total snaps.
Total snaps: 1041
2022 – (89.3%)
Donald agreed to run it back with Sean McVay but only played in 11 games due to an ankle injury and the Rams being uncompetitive. He recorded the least amount of snaps in a season for his career.
Total snaps: 616
2023 – (80.8%)
In his final season with a young defense, Donald willed the Rams to the wild card round. He was largely double and triple teamed throughout games with no other key pieces on the defense other than Kobie Turner.
Total snaps: 867
2026 Outlook
Across 10 seasons, Donald played 8470 regular season snaps; averaging 847 snaps per year. 847 snaps comes out to about 49-50 snaps per game.
I think it’s safe to say that Donald will not play 1000+ snaps like he did in 2021. So what is feasible for AD?
My guess is that he is playing around a 60% snap share with the defensive line including Poona Ford, Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske, and the tandem edge rushers of Myles Garrett and Byron Young. That comes out to about 30-40 snaps per game. I think that number would certainly go up in more competitive games or pass heavy teams. But with the Rams having a strong roster on offense and defense, they should be able to blow out their fair share of teams; affording Aaron Donald time on the sideline.
While Donald has been away from the game for two years, AD99 is different. He has remained physically strong and if anything the two years have afforded him the opportunity to be “healed up” from all the banging around in the trenches. Still, at 35 years old, there will be some regression in ability/performance, but the Rams know that even with regression, Donald is still a top 5 defensive tackle in the NFL.
