Aaron Donald gets paid! How we saw his career develop here.

Former Pittsburgh star Aaron Donald just signed the richest non QB deal in the history of the NFL. 

What is interesting is with a blog that’s been going over 10 years, we can look at what we wrote about a player in his college days that became the NFL’s best defensive player.

Our first introduction to Donald was on June 30, when we called him the 4th best defensive lineman in the ACC. Oops!

4) Aaron Donald, Pittsburgh

 Who was one of the best defensive linemen in the Big East last season? It was DT Aaron Donald of Pittsburgh. Donald was 1st All-Big East player, after leading the Big East with 1.54 Tackles for Loss a game. You’ll even find his name on a handful of 2nd and 3rd team pre-season All-Americans. NFL Scouts have him projected as a 3rd-5th round pick despite being a bit undersized for a DT 6-0, 275 lbs.

By the end of 2013, we said Pittsburgh needed to clone Aaron Donald. 

Pittsburgh Panthers – The Panthers would like a “Duplicator”, so they can make about 10 more Aaron Donalds.

Aaron Donald was part of a fantastic 2013 Season for the ACC that Jimbo Fisher called dominant. 

In 2015 we wrote about what Pittsburgh brought to the ACC. 

• Defensive lineman Aaron Donald was a unanimous All-American, 1st round NFL pick, and multiple collegiate award winner in 2014

We wrote in 2017, that Donald’s 2013 season was one of the biggest sports moments of Pitt sports in the 2000s. 

2. Award Winning Aaron Donald

Aaron Donald was the most celebrated award-winning defensive lineman of the 2013 season. Basically, he won every major defensive award possible for a d-lineman.  He took home the Lombardi Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Chuck Bednarik Award, and Outland Trophy in a remarkable year.

Here was his mega-donation to Pitt in 2019, which we wrote about.

Aaron Donald has become the youngest seven-digit donor in Pitt history. Pitt has changed the name of the athletic complex to the Aaron Donald Football Performance Center. Aaron Donald has given an influx of cash to the Pitt program. Donald believes in what head football coach Pat Narduzzi is building there. You hear that a lot from players and fans, however, Donald has put up the cash to back up his belief in Pitt.

Back in 2020, we ranked him the 19th out of the 75 best NFL players All-Time from a current ACC School. 

He can still move up too now, as he adds to his Hall of Fame career.

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