Los Angeles Rams: Aaron Donald is a sneaky good MVP candidate
By Jason Reed
The NFL’s MVP is almost always an offensive player and most of the time is a quarterback. However, the Los Angeles Rams have a different MVP favorite.
The NFL’s Most Valuable Player oftentimes goes to the most impactful player on one of the league’s best teams. Because of their involvement, the most impactful player if often the quarterback. The Los Angeles Rams very well could break that mold in 2019.
One of the unwritten rules of winning the MVP is that you have to be on a playoff team. You could have one of the best seasons statistics-wise but if your team only won five games, the voters are not going to care.
You almost always have to be an offensive player as well. Only one player in the history of the league, Lawrence Taylor, has won the award on the defensive side of the ball. One wide receiver has won the award and 11 different running backs have won the award.
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Thus, when you look at a team like the Los Angeles Rams, who are primed to be a playoff team with MVP candidates, you instantly might turn to quarterback Jared Goff and running back Todd Gurley.
Gurley is already a special case as he is a legitimate MVP threat as a running back. Most people do not look at the defensive side of the ball despite Aaron Donald‘s massive shadow over the league and the fact that he is impactful enough to win the award.
We all know the Rams are going to be good enough to put one of the players in a position to win the award and when you look at the impact on the overall team, nobody quite measures up to the two-time defending Defensive Player of the Year.
Donald is the anchor of the defense and turns a mediocre defense into a solid one. Entire gameplans are designed to stop him yet he still manages to put together freakish numbers.
Last year alone Donald recorded 20.5 sacks, 41 quarterback hits, four forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. He is hitting quarterbacks around three times a game, sacking them once and pressuring them on every snap.
And let’s just say the Los Angeles Rams finish with the league’s best record and have the best chance of having an MVP.
It likely is not going to be Gurley, as he is dealing with knee issues and even when he is activated he will not take up the massive workload it takes to win the award as a running back.
And if Gurley is as active then it likely won’t be Goff, either. Goff is better when Gurley is on the field and the play action game is actually working. This does not mean that he will struggle next year, but it is hard seeing the general NFL fan looking at Goff as the best player on the league’s best team.
That leads us down the rabbit hole to Donald. Donald came two sacks shy of tying the single-season record and it is not crazy to think that he could do so, or even surpass it, in 2019.
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And even if he doesn’t, it will be quite clear that he is the most impactful player on the Los Angeles Rams, and thus by definition, is the most valuable.