The Donald Decision and The NFC Hierarchy
K. Joudry
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At different points, it looked like the conference was going to be a lot less dangerous. Tom Brady retired, Davante Adams got sent to LV, and Aaron Donald was considering life beyond football. Well, Brady came back, so the Bucs will again be a strong team. Adams, thankfully, is both gone from the conference and division, but recent news is that Donald is returning to the Rams.
The Vikings have a fair bit of LA influence. Head coach Kevin O’Connell and OC Wes Phillips are coming over from the Rams. Players such as a Johnny Mundt and Sean Mannion used to play for them. Minnesota will try to mimic LA is some key ways.
Being able to replicate what Aaron Donald can do, though, is a near impossibility. The last time he didn’t finish first overall in the PFF rankings for iDL was in 2014, his rookie season. He came in 2nd. Since then, he has taken top spot. He has only dipped below 10 sacks at two points in his career, a remarkable feat given that he plays at DT rather than along the edge. Donald, in short, is one of the greatest to ever play. Mike Zimmer named him as the best ever 3T in NFL history, and I’d have a hard time disagreeing. He’s certainly the best I’ve seen.
His massive deal with the Rams, according to Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap, is unique:
Donald’s $31.67M per year average salary makes him the first non-QB to earn over $30 million a year. He will earn $10.67 million per year more than the next highest paid interior defender. He will earn about $8.7 million more a year than Trent Williams who held the distinction of signing the largest contract (measured by true value, not the fake years for Davante Adams) for a player over 30 at $23 million per year. It is $11.7 million more a year than the next closest defender over the age of 30. On a salary cap inflated basis this is the biggest contract ever for a D-lineman at 15.2% of the cap, 1.7% more than Warren Sapp’s contract from 1998. Basically it shatters every norm that has been expected in contract negotiations and that is never good for teams around the NFL who have to deal with players who are not Aaron Donald but expect to be treated that way.
The clearest impact for Minnesota is simply that it re-entrenches LA as the clear-cut top team in the NFC. True, they’ve lost OBJ, Von Miller, Austin Corbett, Andrew Whitworth, and several others, but they’ve still maintained a lot of the main players. Donald is their best player, so keeping him in town for these next couple seasons certainly serves as another indicator that they’re all in.
The Vikings have tried to pursue a middle path. Rather than wholly go for it or tear it down, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has tried to participate in a competitive rebuild. In so doing, the Vikings have angered some by refusing to position themselves into one of the main two camps.
The chances of overcoming the Rams in the NFC seem slim, and yet we all would have overlooked Cincinnati at this stage in last year’s offseason. The Bucs, Rams, and Packers are currently the favorites. The Vikings will thus need to capture some Bengals-like magic to become the conference’s representative in the Super Bowl.
Mandatory mini camp begins today, so the Vikings are getting closer to real football.
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