Between its new and returning talent, the Rams defensive line was regarded as one of the top 10 in the league by scouting service Pro Football Focus. Entering the 2020 season, Los Angeles' unit checked in at No. 8 in PFF lead NFL analyst Sam Monson's rankings.
That ranking starts with defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who has the led team in tackles for loss in each of the last six seasons and sacks in all but one of them.
Beyond the stats, he was selected asPFF's 2019 Defensive Player of the Year, 2019 Pass-Rusher of the Year, No. 2 player on its Top 101 from the 2019 season, named to its all-decade team, and, more recently, earned the distinction of being their No. 1 player in the league entering the 2020 season.
"The Rams don't just have the best defensive lineman in the NFL in Aaron Donald, but they have arguably the best player in the NFL, period," Monson wrote as part of his analysis. "By any measure, Donald is by far the best pass-rusher in football, owning the best pressure rate, pass-rush win rate and PFF grade of any player at any position over more or less any period of time since he entered the league. He had 80 total pressures in 2019 after posting a league-leading 106 in 2018."
In addition to Donald, the Rams bring back veteran Michael Brockers and fifth-year pro Morgan Fox after re-signing both this offseason, with second-year defensive tackle Greg Gaines and third-year defensive tackle Sebastian Joseph-Day rounding out the returnees. Collectively, they, along with the linebackers, produced the third-best front seven in the NFL by the end of the 2019 season.
Los Angeles also signed former Detroit Lions defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson to boost its run defense.
For the rest of Monson's rankings, click here.
