One of the biggest questions around the NFL pertaining to Aaron Donald’s return to the Los Angeles Rams is about whether or not he can still be the same Aaron Donald he was during his original run, when he was the best defensive player in football.
It’s still entirely possible that he’s a massively impactful piece for the Rams’ defense, but at the same time the odds are slim he’s as good as he was then. Again, he was previously the best defensive player in football and has since spent two years away
from the game.
But there is one thing that’s certainly working in his favor: the position he plays.
This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule by any means, but generally speaking interior defensive linemen, especially ones that already play at a high level, often age more gracefully than other players and positions.
In 2025, there were just two interior defensive lineman 35 years old or older who played an NFL game. That’s relevant, of course, because that’s how old Donald is now. One was 36-year-old Cameron Heyward, one of the best defensive tackles of his era, who started all 17 games for the Pittsburgh Steelers and earned his second second-team All-Pro honor, and sixth All-Pro nod overall.
Then there’s John Jenkins, who’s never been a star but has been as steady as they come at the position. With the Baltimore Ravens last season, Jenkins started 14 games and played in all 17, forced a pair of fumbles and tallied a 64.7 PFF grade, which was 45th among 134 qualified interior defensive linemen. No, that’s not a perfect metric, but you get the gist.
Go back a season prior, to 2024. Heyward was a first-team All-Pro at 35 years old, Jenkins (also then 35) posted the second-best Approximate Value (a metric from Pro-Football-Reference) of his career, and Linval Joseph had a fine if not unspectacular year in Dallas.
Pro-Football-Reference also lists Calais Campbell as a nose tackle in 2024, and if you want a shining example of a lineman who is just as effective as they continue to age, that’s your guy.
This is just a small sample of examples overall. You can dig back through recent NFL history and find plenty of guys who fit this bill. Damon “Snacks” Harrison was a sought-after piece up front for years as he continued to age. In 2018, Buffalo Bills legend Kyle Williams was a Pro Bowler at 35 years old. The Carolina Panthers got a year’s worth of quality snaps from 35-year-old Hollis Thomas in 2009.
The reason this feels relevant is that we’re not just cherry picking one successful guy out of 20 options for all these years. There aren’t many who last to that age, but the ones who do aren’t just serviceable, they’re legitimate needle movers.
That brings us back to Donald. Clearly, there’s some positive history on his side here in the sense that older defensive linemen still make a positive impact, historically speaking. There’s also the fact that, to paraphrase Scott Steiner, he’s a genetic freak and he’s not normal. No disrespect to even a future Hall of Famer like Heyward, but Donald is on the short list of the greatest players to ever suit up.
He may not be at the peak of his powers when he takes the field, whether that’s in Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers in Australia or later on. But there are still plenty of good reasons to believe Aaron Donald is going to be a game wrecker in his return to the field.
