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#1 Overall, Aaron Donald: Los Angeles Rams, Defensive End, #1 Defensive Lineman/Linebackers/Pass Rushers
2020 Pre-Season Rank #15, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #5, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #3, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #2. PEAK 2017-21
Well, look who’s back!
When we last saw Aaron Donald on this list, it was heading into the 2023 season, which he completed with another Pro Bowl, giving him a perfect ten-for-ten in that accolade. He then shock-retired, doing so while still having something left.
Let’s see what he still has.
It is easy to see why Donald opted to come back. The Rams begin the season as the most loaded team in football. Quarterback Matthew Stafford is the reigning MVP, and they landed the defending Defensive Player of the Year in Myles Garrett. This team narrowly lost to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game, and now they have a returning Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett? We haven’t even mentioned the acquisitions of Trent McDuffie and Jaley Watson to the Defensive Back Corps!
A quick reminder of who Donald is.
He is a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, and anyone who has ever done that twice has always been enshrined…easily. From 2015 to 2021, he never finished lower than fifth for the DPOY, he led the NFL in Sacks once, Tackles for Loss twice, and also boasts a Super Bowl ring.
He could easily add another.
Should he be ahead of the previous #1, Quarterback Aaron Rodgers? We answer this with this question.
Who is easier to put on the Mount Rushmore of his position? Aaron Donald or Aaron Rodgers?
You can see who we narrowly picked!
Modern Positional Average
Defensive Lineman/Linebackers/EDGE:
Here are the five Defensive Lineman/Linebackers/EDGE who have entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame and played within the last 25 years. They comprise our baseline:
Jared Allen (2025), Dwight Freeney (2024), Julius Peppers (2024), DeMarcus Ware (2023), & Bryant Young (2022).
O.K.. This is tricky. Initially, we were ironclad on positions regarding how they appear on a stat sheet, but we were kidding ourselves. The front seven on any defensive corps is a rotating group of roles that are far more complicated to define than any offensive position. We made a significant change, focusing on pass rushers and interior linemen, but even then, the myriad of roles renders it difficult, especially when we are looking at matching current players with their first five counterparts.
Here are the statistical averages that we are using based on the last group of Defensive Lineman/Linebackers/EDGE to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame:
- Games Played: 211.4
- Approximate Value: 132.4
- Approximate Value per Games Played: 0.6263
- Games Started: 191.8
- Approximate Value per Games Started: 0.6903
- Approximate Value per Five-Year Peak: 63.4
- Approximate Value’s Best Five Results: 68.6
- Top Five Defensive Player of the Year Finishes**: 4.8
- Pro Bowls: 6.8
- First Team All-Pros*: 3
- Quarterback Sacks: 129.8
- Quarterback Sacks Five-Year Peak: 63
- Top Five Quarterback Sacks Finishes: 9
- Tackles for Loss: 157.6
- Tackles for Loss Five-Year Peak: 75.4
- Top Five Tackles for Loss Finishes: 11.2
- Combined Tackles: 600.2
- Combined Tackles Five-Year Peak: 259.2
- Forced Fumbles: 35.6
- Forced Fumbles Five-Year Peak: 15
- Super Bowl Wins: 0.6
- Super Bowl Appearances: 1.2
*This is an aggregate of the Top Five finishes (5th = 1, 4th = 2, 3rd = 3, 2nd = 4th, 1st = 5)
**This is a reminder that the All-Pros we use are from the AP.
#6 Overall, Trent Williams, San Francisco 49ers, Offensive Tackle, #1 Offensive Lineman
2025 Pre-Season Rank #5, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #6, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #6, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #20, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #33, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #35. 2018-23*
Aging like wine, we love the story of Trent Williams, who was one of the better Offensive Linemen in Washington history and who wanted out after he felt that the team misdiagnosed a dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, a growth that was determined to be a type of cancer in 2019 but was dismissed by the Redskins medical team in 2013. He did not play at all in 2019 and wanted out, landing in San Francisco in 2020, where he was a First Team All-Pro from 2021 to 2023 and now has the most Pro Bowls (12) of any active Offensive Lineman.
What Williams has accomplished in San Francisco has cemented a bronze bust.
*Williams sat out in 2019.
Modern Positional Average
Offensive Lineman:
Here are the five Offensive Linemen who have entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame and played within the last 25 years. They comprise our baseline:
Tony Boselli (2022), Alan Faneca (2021), Steve Hutchinson (2020), Kevin Mawae (2019) & Joe Thomas (2023).
As football analytics advance, it is easier than ever to calculate the effectiveness of offensive linemen. We will add more metrics as analytics continue to evolve, but games are won and lost in the trenches, and football fans are invested there.
Here are the statistical averages that we are using based on the last group of Offensive Linemen to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame:
- Games Played: 174.8
- Approximate Value: 188
- Approximate Value per Games Played: 0.6760
- Games Started: 173
- Approximate Value per Games Started: 0.6832
- Approximate Value per Five-Year Peak: 65.4
- Approximate Value’s Best Five Results: 68.0
- Pro Bowls: 7.8
- First Team All-Pros*: 4.8
- Super Bowl Wins 0.4
- Super Bowl Appearances 0.2
*This is an aggregate of the Top Five finishes (5th = 1, 4th = 2, 3rd = 3, 2nd = 4th, 1st = 5)
**This is a reminder that the All-Pros we use are from the AP.
