PFT’s defensive rookie of the year

Posted by Mike Florio on December 31, 2014, 12:25 AM EST
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Aaron Donald may not be able to hold Sheldon Richardon’s jock.  But not many other defensive rookies can hold Donald’s.

The 2014 first-round pick, one of only three rookie Pro Bowlers, is the PFT defensive rookie of the year.

Appearing in all 16 games with nine starts, Donald had nine sacks while playing interior defensive line, and at times he was an unstoppable force on a defense that helped take down some of the league’s elite teams.  He surprisingly slid out of the top 10 of the draft, and some of the teams that passed on the former Pitt star likely regret it already.

The other finalists were Raiders linebacker Khalil Mack, Ravens linebacker C.J. Mosley, Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr, and 49ers linebacker Chris Borland.  Feel free to cast your own vote below.  Especially if you agree with us.

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112 responses to “PFT’s defensive rookie of the year”

  1. Can’t really argue TOO much with Aaron Donald being selected, but my vote goes to Mack. IMO Mack was more versatile and more important to his team than Donald was.

  3. Aaron Donald was one of the few (or perhaps, the “only”) bright spot(s) on the Rams this year. If only they had a QB…and some consistency…and maybe a RB…and maybe a coach that got them over .500…

  6. I vote Mack. He was a stud on a team with nobody. St. Louis line is all 1st round picks. he is pretty good though 😛

  7. Not surprised you decided to go with Donald. The obvious anti Raider bias on this site is again well illustrated. The defensive rookie of the year is Mack. The offensive rookie of the year is Carr. The rest of the NFL can start trembling again, the Raiders are going to retake their rightful place at the top of the NFL.

  8. Donald is a phenomenal player, but he doesn’t affect the game the way Mack does. Did you see what he did to Buffalo two weeks ago? I believe he single handily won that game for Oakland. He made Orton’s life a living hell.

  9. It was on draft day that the Bear’s season started to turn sour for me.
    Aaron Donald was not just the player the Bears wanted…. he was the player that they NEEDED!
    They wanted to draft him.
    The reasons were obvious.
    They knew that the Rams were picking one spot ahead of them in the draft and there was a good chance that they would pick him first.
    Did they make a deal and move up two spots in the draft to take their guy?
    To draft the player they wanted and needed?
    To grab the player that would be the cornerstone of their defense for the next 10 years?
    No.
    Instead they crossed their fingers and “hoped” that he would fall into their laps.
    Hell… you wasted your 3rd round pick anyway so why not even try to package that with your fist round to leap over the Rams and do something ballsy for a change?
    I see more of the same coming from my Bears since they kept the brain dead Ted Phillips calling the shots.
    Another “Golly gosh darn it” G.M. and another “Gee willikers… I am grateful to the opportunity” head coach are right around=d the corner while Aaron Donald becomes a pro bowler for years to come.

  11. The choices are all good rookie of the year candidates, but I would take Oakland’s Mack first above the others.
    He plays like a five year veteran.

  12. If I had the Rams defensive ends pushing QBs up in the pocket towards me, I’d have 9 sacks too.

    IMO.. CJ Mosley looks like one of the best linebackers in the league. I’d take him over Khalil Mack 10/10 times.

  13. Mack had a lot less talent around him and did not look over-matched. No knock on Donald, but he got my vote…

  14. No offense to Derek Carr and Khalil Mack but I don’t understand the ROY hype for either player. Both showed flashes but they won 3 games all year. My vote is for CJ Mosley. Although I thought Anthony Barr was a lock before he got hurt.

  15. Mack or Donald.

    Chris Borland is known as the guy that gets punked by marshawn lynch.

    What has Anthony Barr done besides get unnecessary hype from Vikings trolls like bustwater gets?

  19. No way. Mosley or Mack. Not even close. Donald had the benefit of mixing in with an already elite D line. All the double teams were going to Quinn and company. Mosley worked in brilliantly as the QB of the Ravens D and Mack should’ve been the #1 overall pick. C’mon man!

  20. Love to have seen khalil mack play with the d line talent Donald did..they took all the pressure off of him. But Donald is a damn good player.

  24. Mack was the best linebacker. On a bad defense. Donald should have been the number one overall pick, and shined on a good defense. Donald is droy. Beckham is oroy. Not worth arguing

  26. Come on Rex!
    Sheldon Richardson is a great defensive tackle, but Aaron Donald is well on his way to being the best, if he is not there already. PFF has him ranked #1, and while you may see this as bias, I haven’t seen any d tackle who can wreak havoc like he does from a quickness standpoint

  27. He’s a dirty player. Last game he tried to use a flying elbow to Wilsons neck while he was on the ground. Typical Jeff Fisher taught player.

    Go Hawks!

    P.S. Are the Rams drafting in the top 10 this year like they always do? I stopped caring when they started doing it 10 years ago.

  28. Sheldon was a big snub, no doubt about it. The biggest “snub” of this side of 42 years. Was Russell Wilson! I used to actually believe in the Pro-bowl and its meaning. I actually watched it too, believe it or not? But It has lost all its Credentialed after the Wilson snub!!!!!! Along with the Sheldon snub. It’s a joke that Russell was not a first ballot, All-Pro! Complete joke. PS “I hate the Hawks” but jeez,, give this kid his do!!!

  32. Yeah Richardson was a “snub” the biggest snub this side of my 42 years, is Wilson! I actually used t believe in the Pro-bowl. Watched it too, believe it or not? Not after the Wilson snub, I’m done! Ps: not a Hawks fan at all. But,,,, give me a break,,,give the kid his do! Jeez

  35. Donald’s statistics are more measurable than Mack’s, which is why he is at the top of most ballots.
    Donald’s nine sacks are what we get giddy over, but let’s look at the other numbers:
    – QBs had a QBR of 83.3 when throwing towards Mack – the second lowest to only Bruce Irvin.
    – QBs completed 66.7% of passes towards Mack – tied for best amongst linebackers.
    – Donald had 36 defensive stops – Mack had 48.
    – Donald had 28 hurries – Mack had 40.
    – Donald hit the quarterback six times – Mack hit 10.

    Glad the PFT readers have enough football savvy to see past the nine sacks and recognize Mack as the best defensive rookie on the field this season.

  43. Barr dropped from #3 to #9 in the first round, and had a very similar season to the first year of AJ Hawk (look it up.)

    Next year will tell us more. Hawk never became a game -changer, but he has always been solid and a great “reader” of opposing offenses. Barr should be proud to have a career like Hawk’s, if he lasts anywhere near as long.

    We’ll see.

  48. Couldn’t believe he slipped out of top 10. Lions should have grabbed him to replace fairley.

  50. Who in the heck is Anthony Barr?? His only accomplishment was landing on IR because of a bruise!!

  55. I’m a Wisconsin fan and love Chris Borland’s ability to sniff out where the plays are going like a Badger digging for food, but I worry about his size and durability in the NFL.

    And while this thread is about the rookie year, I think Khalil Mack will be the more complete, long term player.

  56. Wouldn’t it have been nicer to just salute the guy, without starting the piece with an insult that someone threw at him? How about just “great job!”?

  57. After all the hype by the draft experts on Clowney , this is the obvious choice for rookie of year & in the future we will find out if he was the best defensive player of the 2014 draft. Statwise he played better or equaled several other probowl lineman like Suh.
    His play reminds me of Jerome Brown & Warren Sapp

  59. So a guy that started a little more then half of the games is your defensive rookie of the year over guys who started every game and nearly every snap such as Mack and Mosley. With guys on the Rams defense line like Quinn, Long and Ogletree needing to be accounted for in pass situations, Donald was not the person teams accounted for. To me Mosley should be DROY leading the defense on a team in the playoffs. You play to win the game.

  60. Zack Martin should win the offensive rookie of the year award.

    They’ll give it to a wideout because 80% of the voters are too stupid to realize how valuable offensive linemen are.

  61. lets evaluate how much each plays as well through week 17:

    Donald – 787 Total Snaps , 705 Defensive Snaps for 67.1% of defensive snaps

    Mosley – 1126 Total Snaps, 1065 Defensive Snaps for 98.6% of defensive snaps.

    Mosley is the clear front runner in my eyes. One has helped his team reach the playoffs and played nearly every defensive snap.

  65. Telvin Smith played well for the Jaguars, not to the level of DROY but he was a pleasant surprise.

  66. Vote again in February and Stephon Tuitt wins this in a landslide. Unless Shazier beats him out with a SB MVP performance.

  67. Well according to your poll we don’t agree, and for good reason.

    While stats are nice impact plays are far more important. How many stops did Donald have? How many games did the Rams win because he made a play? And how often was he game planned for because of this?

    Sorry but in each Ravens game I saw Mosley had a big stop, takeaway or sack when the team needed it most and was the difference in this squad going 10-6 and into the playoffs, as opposed to 8-8 last year and being in the outside looking in.

  69. Mosley looking silly trying to cover/tackle Le’Veon in prime time severely hurt his chances.

  75. kpholmes says:
    Dec 31, 2014 2:22 AM

    Donald’s statistics are more measurable than Mack’s, which is why he is at the top of most ballots.
    Donald’s nine sacks are what we get giddy over, but let’s look at the other numbers:
    – QBs had a QBR of 83.3 when throwing towards Mack – the second lowest to only Bruce Irvin.
    – QBs completed 66.7% of passes towards Mack – tied for best amongst linebackers.
    – Donald had 36 defensive stops – Mack had 48.
    – Donald had 28 hurries – Mack had 40.
    – Donald hit the quarterback six times – Mack hit 10.

    Glad the PFT readers have enough football savvy to see past the nine sacks and recognize Mack as the best defensive rookie on the field this season

    Your doing an apples to orange comparison. Mack is a great talent no doubt about it but you can’t use numbers when comparing an interior lineman next to a LB whos job it is to be all over the field defending receivers, pass rushing etc. Donald’s job was to mainly stuff the run. Pass rushing was not his first duty.

  76. Shouldnt even be a debate. Its aaron donald. He was rated the highest defensive tackle in the league, not just over rookies. Cj mosley would be a distant second. Khalil mack was a non factor in most games.

  78. Aaron Donald and it isn’t even close.

    Donald more than doubled Mack’s sacks… from NT vs. OLB position… in 30% fewer snaps.

    Easy peasy.

  81. Ill say Barr over Mack even tho its not popular, but looking at the stats, Mack had only 5 more tackles in 4 more games played in then Barr, Barr had more forceed fumbles, fumble recoverys, Touch downs and the same number of sacks all in 12 games compared to 16 for Mack

  82. I expect biased fans to overrate one stat: sacks. Disappointing when a so-called analyst does it but it happens all the time.

    Mack had a bigger jump coming from Buffalo but if this is what he looks like in a “learning” year the future is scary. More hurries and hits than Donald but here’s the part you had to watch to appreciate; he’s the best run-defending OLB in football, and it’s not even close. Watching teams attempt to run in his direction is laugh out loud funny. He’s the best rookie defender this year and will get even better next year and beyond.

    But by all means keep analyzing players by looking at sack totals on the back of a Topps card. That’s why we all know Kevin Greene was better than Lawrence Taylor by a wide margin.

  83. I don’t think Barr deserves it because he missed the last four games, but I will say that the Vikings’ defense was not the same after he got hurt. He had a huge impact on that team, played all over the place, and was surprisingly good in all phases of linebacker play despite being primarily a pass rusher in college.

    For the guy who compared him to A.J. Hawk, that is a ludicrous comparison. It isn’t all about stats, it’s about impact. Barr is a dynamic player that other teams will have to scheme against. Hawk is the poster boy for mediocrity.

  84. Thank goodness Ha Ha I fooled everyone Clinton Dix is name wasn’t on this list. This guy is a total bust. Can’t tackle, can’t cover and basically looks lost in the playbook.

    I think GB needs to understand the Wonderlich test actual tell you something. This guy will never, IMHO amount to a hill of beans. When he is on the field, the defense is actually only playing with 10 people. How I can see it and the def coaches can’t is beyond imagination.

    In baseball the center fielder only catches baseballs that come to him. In football its different Mr Dix.

  85. Dec 31, 2014 10:20 AM
    Haha is playing like haha! Can’t spell garbage defense without spelling green bay!

    ——————————————————————-

    Funny you and I see it but the fans love the guy. I have no freekin idea why. They love Hawk too. No freekin idea why.
    They love Datone Jones. Have no freekin idea why. They think Perry is a stud. Have no freekin idea why.

    This has to be the 26th or worse defense in football and Capers is a total moron.

  86. Borland started at linebacker midway through the season and ended up with top-10 tackle numbers….. With interceptions and sacks….

  87. Correction: Donald didn’t *surprisingly* fall out of the top 10 of the draft. He was viewed as a late first rounder early in the pre-draft process, largely due to his smaller size, but skyrocketed up the boards as team finally pulled their heads out of their rears. There was a chance given that movement that he would crack the top 10, but (again, because teams foolishly gave too much weight to his size) he was never actually expected to go there, and was projected to go in the 10-15 range.

  88. If Anthony Barr has stayed healthy, I think that he would have ended up Defensive Rookie of the Year.

  89. Woah woah woah…I see a bunch of people here chastising Donald supporters because they think his campaign is “just about sacks”, and these same people then present a bunch of stats that are in someone else’s (Mack’s) “favor”.

    Dang, that has got to be the single dumbest thing I have ever heard. Nevermind the fact that you can never just use pure stats to compare football players (this isn’t baseball, and this isn’t fantasy), as the sport is much more complicated…*cue the Mike Francesca voice* THEY DON’T PLAY THE SAME POSITIONS! Donald is a true DT, and anyone who understands anything about football knows that DTs have deflated statistics compared to those of other defensive positions. When a DTs puts up similar pure numbers to a DE or pass-rushing OLB, the DT is almost certainly was the (far) better player.

    Donald also played faaaaar fewer snaps than Mack, but not because of lack of merit…the Rams had more competition at Donald’s position than the terrible Raiders did at Mack’s.

    So…total numbers are fairly worthless because they weigh quality over snap quantity, and numbers in general are very limited in value because they have no concept of positional differences. There’s a reason some analytical entities have Donald rated at the #1 DT in the NFL.

  92. If Barr played full season he is hands down DROY, but Mosley should win it.

    Barr’s stats for 12 games:
    55 solo tackles, 15 assisted tackles, 4 sacks, 3 fumble recoveries, 2 forced and 1 was returned for TD to beat Tampa in OT.

    Donald’s stats for 16 games:
    37 solo tackles, 10 assisted tackles, 9 sacks, and 2 forced fumbles

    Mack’s stats for 16 games:
    59 solo tackles, 16 assisted tackles, 4 sacks, and 1 forced fumble.

    Mosley’s stats for 16 games:
    87 solo tackles, 45 assisted tackles, 3 sacks, 2 INT’s, and 1 fumble recovered.

  93. realnflmaster says: Dec 31, 2014 10:22 AM

    Khalil Mack has 4 sacks as a rush linebacker. Donald, a DT has 10…this isn’t a contest.
    ——————-
    Mack’s work as a run defender was pretty impressive. He’s not just a rush backer.

  95. maybe if you just look at stats , and dont watch games i could agree. But nobody did more with less around him than Mack. Unlike Donald who had the luxury of playing on a d-line with Chris Long, Quinn, and Brockers, plus he had Lauranitus, Olgetree, and Dunbar right behind him. Anybody could play pretty good with that cast.

    Well Mack he had…..Charles Woodson leading the team in tackles…..that just confirms how good the raiders were up front…oh unless you want to count Lamarr Woodley three tackles

  96. Daryl Smith did a good job stepping in for Ray Lewis last year…

    but CJ Mosley, as a rookie, has become the core of the Ravens defense – just like Ray a few years ago. So, no matter how you feel about Baltimore, you must admit that is quite an accomplishment!

    As long as he stays healthy and out of jail,
    the sky is the limit!

  97. I also want to address a few things. You say he slid out of the top 10….just wonder which team who drafted on the front side of his pick, would switch their pick and draft him….I know I would keep Mack, and most teams would keep their pick. You could argue a few would change, but not so sure if more than two. (Houston would not) Pretty solid draft last year.

    And as far as Donald being one of the best Dt’s in the nfl….i say slow down a bit…he is a rookie. I am not even sure if he is top 10.

  98. I just checked the stats and CJ Mosley is by far the best on paper ( and I think, on the field).

    He has nearly twice as many tackles and still has 3 sacks (to Mack’s 4 and Donald’s 9)…BUT he also has 2 Int’s and Forced Fumbles.
    CJ was the FIFTH highest LB in the NFL, using ESPN’s fantasy points. And I had trouble finding the other candidates because they are so far down the list. No comparison.

    So, CJ Mosley by a landslide!!!

  99. Be interesting to see Mack’s double team stats, seems like he was double teamed so much this year (and had so many holding calls NEVER called on him all season long), he’s not even a prototype DE, but had to play there a lot due to the Raiders d-line being pretty barren of talent other than 50 year old Tuck having some good games down the stretch.

    Meh, just happy the Raiders have him. Mack and Carr both did pretty darn good for the crap talent that surrounds them compared to other rookies in this class.

    Now only if the Raider decision makers Bucky Larson and Mumbles McKenzie can get a competent coaching staff, and at least 1 or 2 mid to high level FA’s to help them out. Fingers crossed…but not holding my breath.

  100. opneon says: Dec 31, 2014 1:04 PM

    I just checked the stats and CJ Mosley is by far the best on paper ( and I think, on the field).

    He has nearly twice as many tackles and still has 3 sacks (to Mack’s 4 and Donald’s 9)…BUT he also has 2 Int’s and Forced Fumbles.
    CJ was the FIFTH highest LB in the NFL, using ESPN’s fantasy points. And I had trouble finding the other candidates because they are so far down the list. No comparison.

    So, CJ Mosley by a landslide!!!

    __________________________________

    ESPN doesn’t cite their sources, why should you? Khalil Mack was rated #1 4-3 OLB overall as a rookie per ProFootballFocus but go ahead tell us all how Mosley helped you win your league.

  104. ariani1985 says:
    Dec 31, 2014 10:20 AM

    Haha is playing like haha! Can’t spell garbage defense without spelling green bay!

    3

  106. I’m a little surprised Borland is not getting more favorable reviews. He may have been the best LB in the NFL from wks 7- 14 once he got into the starting lineup. I know that equates to half a season but his numbers were stupendous! He essentially made us forget about Bowman and Willis. Not an easy task.

  107. In Teddy We Trust says:
    Dec 31, 2014 11:06 AM
    I don’t think Barr deserves it because he missed the last four games, but I will say that the Vikings’ defense was not the same after he got hurt. He had a huge impact on that team, played all over the place, and was surprisingly good in all phases of linebacker play despite being primarily a pass rusher in college.

    For the guy who compared him to A.J. Hawk, that is a ludicrous comparison. It isn’t all about stats, it’s about impact. Barr is a dynamic player that other teams will have to scheme against. Hawk is the poster boy for mediocrity.
    ………
    Well, it was one of everyone’s favorite Packer trolls who made the comment…. so….par for the course I guess.

  108. I think it’s pretty close between Mack and Mosley. Mosley had the better traditional stat’s, (tackles, INT, ect.), but I’d give the edge to Mack though. He had far less talent around him, and was often double-teamed as a result. He had a lot of tackles in the backfield, and got a ton of pressure on the QB’s frequently. Although he didn’t get many sack’s, he was often in the face of QB’s disrupting the play. He also was facing Manning, Rivers and Smith 2X. Plus Brady. He faced more QB’s with a fast release, and better compitention than the AFC North QB’s.

  110. CJ Mosely by far the best candidate for “DROY.. He has great stats and has been playing the last few weeks with a cast on one arm due to a broken bone in his wrist. Still one Defensive Rookie of the month for December.

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