Aaron Donald’s latest remarks puts the rest of the NFL on notice

For a typical defensive tackle, a 40-pressure, 10-tackle for loss, five-sack, Pro Bowl season while missing six games with an injury would be a reason to celebrate.

However, Aaron Donald is no typical defensive tackle.

Much of the offseason was spent debating whether or not the 32-year-old Donald would return for his 10 seasons. But not only is the three-time Defensive Player of the Year returning in 2023, he recently stated he’s not happy about last year and he plans to take it out on whoever has the misfortune of lining up against him.

“I’ve got a lot to prove,” Donald told ESPN. “I didn’t have the season I wanted, obviously coming off of an injury and things like that. I feel like to get to where you need to be, it's like starting over from scratch again. It's a brand new year. Last year was last year, but there’s a little fire lit into me.”

The 2022 season was the first time since his rookie year in 2014 that Donald wasn’t named a first-team All-Pro, he didn’t finish in the top five of the Defensive Player of the Year voting, he didn’t record eight or more sacks, and he didn’t log at least 75 or more QB pressures.

While Donald’s “down season” can be explained by his missing the final six games of the 2022 season because of an ankle injury (he’d missed just two games in his eight previous seasons), he’s not looking for an excuse to coast on his past accomplishments.

“The great ones never get complacent,” Rams head coach Sean McVay added. “There’s always things that you can look at. Nobody has higher standards for Aaron than he does of himself. And I think that’s a separator, and I think that’s a consistent thing when you start talking about people that are in that kind of company, and he certainly is in rarefied air.”