Aaron Donald has some special praise for the Saints following his retirement

Defensive tackle Aaron Donald announced his retirement earlier this offseason, and teams across the league rejoiced. In 10 seasons with the Rams, Donald made 10 Pro Bowls, was named First-Team All-Pro eight times, won a Super Bowl, and established himself as arguably the greatest defensive player the league has ever seen. There’s no questioning why teams are thrilled to see him walk away.

The New Orleans Saints are one of those teams, having their own history with Aaron Donald in the NFC. The Saints were never thrilled to see Donald lined up on the other side of the ball, and turns out, Aaron Donald didn’t necessarily love playing New Orleans either.

On a recent episode of Chris Long’s Green Light podcast, Donald made an appearance, discussing a range of topics. One of the things Long asked Donald was which team always had a good plan against him. Donald listed three teams: the Philadelphia Eagles, the San Francisco 49ers, and the New Orleans Saints.

Aaron Donald credits Saints for their game plans against him

Donald explained that early in his career, New Orleans would always slide the protection to him, and have the tackle to his side squeeze down to get a hand on him. That left a very congested rush lane for the future Hall of Fame defensive tackle.

Aaron Donald faced off against the Saints seven total times in his career— six times in the regular season and once in the playoffs. In the regular season, the matchups were split 3-3, and Donald only had two sacks, 17 tackles, nine for a loss, one forced fumble, and nine quarterback hits across all six meetings.

The one playoff game Donald had against New Orleans was the infamous missed pass interference game in the NFC Championship. The Rams won that game in overtime and went on to the Super Bowl. Now, the Saints will no longer have to worry about Aaron Donald-led teams being in the way of a Super Bowl.

READ MORE