Quick draw: Aaron Donald and the race to Tom Brady
Aaron Donald has multiple sacks against some of the best quarterbacks in the game, including Russell Wilson (12), Aaron Rodgers (2), Patrick Mahomes (2) and Drew Brees (2).
But in two games against Tom Brady, Donald has yet to bring down the six-time Super Bowl champion for a sack.
Donald provides a good reason for his dearth of sacks against Brady.
“The ball is out quick,” Donald told reporters this week. “He’s not going to let you really get a clean hit on him, if you allow him to have some certain opportunities to get the ball out.
“We definitely got to do our jobs as far as when the ball is coming out, getting our hands up, trying to affect the play any way we can to try and make him uncomfortable, so he can stick to their game plan.”
Donald, of course, is right. According to Next Gen Stats, Brady’s average time to throw of 2.63 seconds is eighth-fastest in the NFL this season. Brady has consistently been one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL in getting rid of the ball quickly.
However, Donald is the quickest to bring down a quarterback this season. In a Week 5 game against the Washington Football Team, Donald clocked a league-fastest 2.17 seconds from snap to initial contact.
So the Monday Night Football matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be race between Donald getting back to Brady fast enough before he can cycle through his reads and get the ball to the open receiver.
In two games against Brady, including the Super Bowl, Donald has no sacks, eight combined tackles and two quarterback hits.
“He’s an incredible player,” Brady told local reporters in talking about Donald. “He’s explosive, quick and powerful. It’s amazing the production he has, even when teams are double-teaming him, triple-teaming him, but he never lets down.”
Donald will have to get through Tampa Bay’s offensive line first, which has allowed just 14 sacks this season, tied for sixth-best in the NFL. And the Pittsburgh product will likely be doubled-teamed, something that’s happened to him a league-high 70 percent of the time this season.
What makes Donald so effective is his elite quickness and brute strength for his size. At 6-1 and 285 pounds, Donald ran a jaw-dropping 4.65-second, 40-yard time at the NFL Scouting combine and can bench press 505 pounds.
“The thing that’s always separated Aaron is his speed,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said. “He’s just faster than other guys are that play the position, and that quickness that goes along with that just puts him on the edge a little bit quicker, a little bit sooner.”
One advantage for Donald is he knows Brady isn’t going to use his legs to get outside of the pocket. The 43-year-old signal caller has thrown 96 percent of his pass attempts from inside the tackle box, the highest rate in the NFL.
Still, Donald knows he will have his hands full in stopping Brady before he can deliver strikes down the field.
“He's a seasoned quarterback that’s been playing a long time,” Donald said. “He knows the game; he knows how to control of the game. So, you’ve got to be smart when you’re playing against a good quarterback like that. Stick to the game plan and do what you need to do to try to find ways to affect him to the point where he can’t have success.”
