Aaron Donald will go down as one of the best defensive linemen to ever play the game of football. His era is filled with future Hall of Famers, too, with so many hyperathletic edge rushers and defensive tackles taking over the league.
While Donald did have help during his career with the Rams, he would’ve loved the chance to play with a handful of absolute superstars.
While on “The Pivot Podcast” recently, Donald was asked to build his all-time defensive line. He went the route of only picking players from his era, which made it a bit easier, but the group he assembled is outstanding.
“I’m picking myself at 3-tech. At nose tackle, in his prime, I’m just going to say in my era. I’m going to go with Fletcher Cox. I’m going to put him at nose tackle, so I’m at 3, he’s at nose,” Donald said. “At end, there’s so many good edge rushers now. I got to put Von out there because Von, he can do it all. And he’s smart and he’s perfect with the games – you run games with him, I love running games with him. So I’ve got to put Von out there. Then for a big-bodied guy, you got T.J. Watt out there, Myles Garrett out there, Khalil Mack when he’s on fire. That’s some power coming on the other edge, collapse the whole other side. Let me pick Khalil Mack out there. I need a guy that’s going to work some power. I got Von with the speed, a little finesse, and he’s going to hit you with some power. Me, power and finesse. You got Big Fletch that’s explosive as hell, quick as hell. And then you got Khalil Mack that’s just powerful and he’s got some bendability. I like that D-line. That’s a fun D-line.”
So here’s how it would look.
- RDE: Khalil Mack
- DT: Aaron Donald
- NT: Fletcher Cox
- LDE: Von Miller
That’s quite the group, led by Donald himself in the middle. As he mentioned, it’s a great combination of speed and power, with Miller bending the edge and Mack collapsing down on the left tackle with a bull rush. And the quarterback would have nowhere to go with Donald and Cox coming up the middle.
It’s a unit every quarterback would lose sleep over.