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Aaron Donald is hanging up his cleats. on Friday, March 15th, the Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle franchise declared on X his retirement following the 2023 season. The announcement was met with shock and awe, as the Rams are losing arguably their best and most productive player of the last decade.
The news hit Rams fans hard especially, with some stunned and others immediately writing off the team for the 2024 season.
Aaron Donald's career in review
The pass rusher is retiring from the league after spending the entirety of his career with the Los Angeles Rams. However, he didn't spend his entire career in one city. Aaron Donald leaves as one of the last holdovers from the Jeff Fisher era in the entire organization.
Donald was selected 13th overall in the 2014 NFL draft by the St. Louis Rams. The rusher instantly jumped off the screen, delivering sacks at an impressive rate. Donald earned nine sacks in his rookie season. In comparison, Christian Wilkins, among the top free agents this year, hit nine sacks for the first time in year five.
However, Donald didn't stop there. In 2015, he reached 11 sacks, entering double digits for the first time. He kept delivering around ten sacks per season until 2018, when he put together the best year of his career. In his performances that year, he racked up 20.5 sacks. He challenged Michael Strahan for the most sacks accrued in a single season in NFL history.
Between 2017 and 2021, Donald earned at least ten sacks per season in the prime of his career. While he never quite got close to the 20.5 in 2018, he was a workhorse who drew double and triple teams from opposing offensive lines. However, what the best teams were able to do was minimize No. 99.
In the leadup to the Rams' Super Bowl win over Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals, the first rumors broke about Donald's potential retirement. Two seasons after his first Super Bowl ring, No. 99 is hanging up his cleats.
