During the best season of his career, Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald was playing at a shockingly-low weight for a player at his position.
Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald was truly a one-of-a-kind player, in more ways than one.
Listed at “only” 6-1 and 280 pounds, Donald was quite a bit smaller than other players at his position. However, he more than made up for that with his outstanding combination of speed and strength, which allowed him to become the most-feared defensive player in the NFL for a decade.
Apparently, even Donald’s listed weight was above what he normally played at. Speaking with former teammate Chris Long on his “Green Light Podcast,” Donald revealed that he regularly played 10-20 pounds lighter than listed. This came to a head in 2018, when he weighed in at just 258 pounds when the Rams appeared in Super Bowl LIII.
ain’t never touched 300,” Donald said. “My first two years, I played at probably 280-285. My third year was around 270-275. Every other year I played at probably 260, 267 sometimes. In 2018, (that) was my lightest year. I played that whole year probably around 250-260 that whole year. I was 258 in the Super Bowl in 2018. I was 258 as a defensive tackle in the National Football League in the Super Bowl. I was playing at 250-260 that whole year.”
Keep in mind that 2018 was probably the best season of Donald’s illustrious career. The longtime Rams star posted a career-high 20.5 sacks and 25 tackles for loss en route to his second of three Defensive Player of the Year awards.
Even though he was playing at his lightest weight ever that season, he still kept himself in peak physical condition.
“I work out all the time. I lift weights all the time. I always keep my strength, bro. I gotta lift. I gotta feel the weight,” Donald said. “I just trim my body up, my second holdout back-to-back. All I’m doing is working out every day, training. That’s all I was doing. That’s when I got a six-pack. ’18, that’s when my body really changed. I don’t know, we were blowing a lot of teams out so we had the opportunity to rush a lot, just felt fast as hell. Fast, quick, use a lot of quickness.”
Despite his small size for a defensive tackle, Donald still retired as one of the greatest defensive players of all time and easily a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee.
