The Los Angeles Rams might have the worst defensive tackle group in the NFL through three weeks, and Aaron Donald is as much a part of those struggles as anyone else on the team. Regardless of how much anyone expected out of Donald following a two-year absence from football and skipping all of training camp as he mulled a return from retirement, the only thing that matters to the Rams is the product on the field as L.A. looks to rebound from a 1-2 start.
It’s not going so good. And that’s hardly all
on Donald, but he’s no less guilty than the rest of the unit.
Aaron Donald’s pressure rate
Out of 91 defensive linemen who qualify with enough snaps, Donald ranks 79th in terms of pressure rate at 4.8%. Per the NFL Pro website by Next Gen Stats, Donald has registered two pressures out of 42 pass rush snaps and only 12 defensive tackles are behind him in terms of pressure rate.
Donald has 22 run defense snaps and three stops. A “stop” is any tackle that results in a “failed play” for the offense depending on down and distance. Donald’s former Rams teammate A’Shawn Robinson also has a low pressure rate at 4.5% with the Bucs, and only plays in 51.4% of the naps, but actually has 10 stops and one sack.
For context, Aaron Donald’s pressure rate in 2023 was 12.9%. That was a tick higher than it had been the previous two seasons, but not as high as the 16.4% he posted in 2020, the 16.3% he posted in 2019, and well below the 19.2% he posted in 2018.
Donald won Defensive Player of the Year in 2018 and 2020.
So no, Donald is not the player he was when he retired, and even then he was not the player he was when he was the best defensive weapon in football. This is usually when fans chime in to say something like “So what? He took two years off, what did you expect?” and that’s completely besides the point:
We’re here to talk about results, not excuses for results.
This would be like if you gave your car keys to a 12-year-old kid to drive to the store and then he crashes the car. “Well what did you expect, you gave your keys to a 12-year-old kid who had never driven before” is a reasonable explanation for the accident, but it doesn’t fix your car.
Through his first two games, Donald isn’t just an average defensive tackle who merely lacks the elite disruptive tendencies he used to have. By some measures, Donald is a bad defensive tackle relative to most starters.
Unfortunately, the Rams don’t necessarily have any in-house upgrades to offset Donald’s snaps if he doesn’t improve. This is a unit lacking a presence by basically anyone else in the room with Donald.
Other Rams defensive tackles
Kobie Turner
The second-worst pressure rate on the defense among defensive tackles belongs to Turner, at 6.1%.
Turner has generated four pressures on 66 pass rush snaps. On the bright side, Turner does have an impressive 13 stops on 45 run defense snaps, but as a pass rusher he hasn’t offered anything yet. Turner entered 2026 averaging seven sacks per season and looking for a contract extension that will pay him like one of the best interior pass rushers in the NFL.
However, L.A.’s hesitancy to extend him seems more obvious now because even his playing time is down to 62%. Most highly-paid defensive tackles don’t come off of the field more than one-third of the time. And yet Turner is by far the Rams’ best defensive tackle because him and Donald are the only two playing in more than 50% of the team’s defensive snaps.
Braden Fiske
Fiske has only played in 88 snaps, which is 49.2% of the team’s total. Following a rookie season with 8.5 sacks, Fiske has three sacks in his last 20 regular season games. He has a pressure rate of 7.8% (5 pressures, 64 pass rush snaps) but the devil is in the details:
Fiske is not on the field for many obvious run situations: 75% of his snaps are in passing situations.
The Rams traded a second-round pick to move up for Fiske in the second round and now he’s looking like a replacement level player without Florida State buddy Jared Verse. Winning games helps mask problems and it seems hard for many to admit that the Rams are one of the worst front offices in the NFL when it comes to managing their draft picks.
Just imagine how many Super Bowls the Rams would win if they were good at drafting!
Poona Ford
Fan favorite Ford plays in only 38% of the snaps, which is because Ford is a detriment to any team’s pass rush. Out of 69 snaps, 45 are against the run. Ford has generated ZERO pressures on 24 pass defense snaps. As a run defender, he does have seven stops.
But if I’m an offensive coordinator on third-and-three and I saw Poona Ford out there, I might just call a pass.
Tyler Davis
Nobody talks about Tyler Davis at all, even though he’s third on the team in total snaps among defensive tackles: Davis plays more than Ford.
They probably don’t talk about him because he has not done much. Davis had a random seven tackle in Week 1, but only one tackle in the last two games. He has three pressures on 34 pass rush snaps. Davis is a type to come and go without any memories. Last season, he had a pressure rate of 7.3%.
Ty Hamilton
Hamilton has played 27 snaps, including 10 pass rush snaps. He has zero pressures.
Rams total defensive line: 0 sacks
Through three games, the Rams have three sacks:
- 1 by Wesley Bailey
- 1 by Byron Young
- 1 by Omar Speights
Two of those sacks came against Jameis Winston and the New York Giants, not necessarily the most difficult assignment for a pass rusher. If you can even call Speights a pass rusher. (Which you can’t.)
At first, the trade for Myles Garrett felt like it could be overkill. Now his absence is killing the Rams. Without Verse OR Garrett, the Rams have one of the worst pass rushing fronts in the NFL, hurt worse by the fact that the entire defensive tackle room is probably a bit too slow, not that overpowering, and isn’t getting the best coaching from Chris Shula to put them in a position to overachieve.
As a unit, it’s a bad sign when Aaron Donald coming off of a two-year break is your best or second-best defensive tackle, and he’s not playing anything like the old Aaron Donald.
I don’t see how this group could get much better even after Garrett returns. Garrett may open up the defensive a little bit by commanding double-teams, but that only matters if you have players who can capitalize. Is that what you think of Fiske, Davis, and Hamilton?
It’s not going to come from Ford.
Will these results get better in a week? In a month? Who knows. L.A.’s next opponent, the Eagles, is not playing good ball so far this season and their offensive line is more vulnerable to interior pressure than they’ve been in years. The guards and centers don’t seem to be as good as the past.
But aren’t Eagles fans saying the same thing on the opposite end?
“Yeah, the Eagles offensive line sucks…but at least this week it’s the Rams!”
Of course.
You want to speculate about Aaron Donald and the Rams defensive line as a whole? Go for it. “They’ll be fine. They’ll bounce back. They’ll be great after he shakes the rust off.” There are plenty of “what ifs” and “just waits…” for those fans, and you know what…Maybe you’re right!
But you want the truth? The only truth we have is what we’ve seen so far.
And the truth is that the Rams do need to get better. The speculators must be proven right if the Rams defense is going to have any chance to stop the bleeding up front. Otherwise, the truth is that this is one of the worst defensive lines in the NFL.
