Warren Sapp earned a lot during his active playing days. The former Buccaneers DT was one of the best defensive players to have ever played the game. Fans knew the Super Bowl champion as a hard hitter and had many defensive records to his name. The Hall of Famer is one of the few athletes to have his number retired by his team. Hence, Sapp knows well what it means to be an exceptional defender and to get paid a lot for it, and Aaron Donald is someone he recently talked about.
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Sapp recently had an interview where he spoke about another great defensive player and possibly one who rivals him. He came to know his surprising new contract details and candidly remarked about it. He also ranked the star on a list of the greatest defensive players ever. The player in question is none other than LA Rams DT Aaron Donald.
How much are the Rams paying Aaron Donald?
Donald recently had his contract reworked, and the team has come up with a mindboggling number as his salary. Before him, no other non-QB player has ever earned so much for any team. The Rams are paying the DT a combined amount of $95 million guaranteed over the next three years to play with them.
Sources: The #Rams have re-worked All-World DT Aaron Donald’s 3 remaining contract years to give him a massive $40M raise through 2024, making him the highest paid non-QB in NFL history at 31 years old. He gets $95M(!) through 2024. pic.twitter.com/SoDRw4GHE4
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 6, 2022
When Sapp heard about Donald’s new contract, he immediately reacted by saying, “So that’s 95 he touches right now… I love it.” He said it was impressive that Donald had negotiated such a large sum as a non-QB player, as it was previously unheard of.
Sapp also that earlier, everyone said, “When you’re talking about a non-QB, take the stand-up triple… everybody considers that’s a home run.” No one was willing to negotiate a larger sum and only went up to a certain point.
It's not hard to see why Aaron Donald just became the highest-paid non-QB in history. 💰@AaronDonald97 | @RamsNFLpic.twitter.com/ISEy7Pia3j
— NFL (@NFL) June 6, 2022
But he also said that right now, Aaron was one of the best in the world and he played as few others could. The opening up of games has allowed him to shine like no other.
Sapp ranks Donald as a defensive great
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There is no doubt that Aaron Donald is a defensive great. The multiple-time Pro-Bowler and Defensive Player of the Year had Donald has 98.0 career sacks and 150 tackles for loss. He made them since he was drafted in 2014 and both are records in the league.
Sapp said, “The way he’s attacking the QB.. I mean.. what is he averaging? 11-12 sacks a season?… When the game’s on the line, he’s making plays.” He was referring to Donald’s consistently high performance on the defensive line when his team needed him. The former DT even ranked the Rams DT among the top six defensive players ever. Sapp also said the latter might rank above himself for his ability to influence plays.
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Sapp’s assessment of Donald shows how great a player the latter is. Given such abilities, it is only natural that the Rams wanted to keep him in their ranks, even at the cost of a massive salary.
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