The Aaron Donald MVP campaign committee just got its top highlight reel.
The Los Angeles Rams' game-wrecking defensive tackle was the main reason Sean McVay's team clinched the NFC West on Sunday with a 30-16 win over the Detroit Lions.
Donald tossed aside blockers like a spoiled child moves on to the next Christmas present. Boasting an ultra-quick first step, power to move small buildings and a swim move that leaves blockers grasping air, Donald compiled two sacks, four tackles for loss, four QB hits and a forced fumble that essentially sealed the victory as the Rams' offense stalled.
"He's unlike anything I've ever seen," quarterback Jared Goff said after the game, via the Los Angeles Times.
The highlight reel -- with former Lions linebacker and current FOX NFL color analyst Chris Spielman stumping for Donald to win MVP -- feels like something out of season-long compilation. Nope. This is one single game:
"He's forcing turnovers, he's getting there at the most important times," McVay said. "And that's what we talk about all the time, that competitive greatness, being your best when your best is required. He's kind of the epitome of that right now for our defense and, really, a guy that represents that for a football team."
While the Rams' offensive standouts have ebbed and flowed with the season, Donald has been a shining star carrying a defense that has been mostly inconsistent.
In the past three Rams games, Donald has wrecked offenses, compiling 6.5 sacks and three forced fumbles in the three wins.
"The big-time player makes big-time plays in big-time games and that's what we need to keep doing," the modest Donald said after the win.
On a team that has seen Todd Gurley and Goff hyped as MVP candidates, the most legitimate candidate is Donald.
Defensive tackles simply just don't usually look like this man:
Perhaps it's a pipe dream to think Donald could overcome the likes of Drew Brees and Patrick Mahomes to swipe the MVP from a QB. He'd join Vikings defensive tackle Alan Page in 1971 and New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor in 1986 as just the third defensive player ever to earn the award.
Donald won't campaign on his own behalf, however.
"That's for whoever's voting," he said. "I'm just playing my game and trying to help my team win. Whatever happens, happens."
What happens usually is the quarterback gets flung to the ground in a heap.
