Madden 99 Club: Rams’ Aaron Donald earns honor for 6th time

Is there a higher honor in professional football than being named to the Madden 99 Club?

Perhaps. But joking aside, the 99 Club is a huge deal. It represents the highest video game honor in the land, signaling that a player has virtually no flaws at his position.

Madden NFL 23 will release on Aug. 19, and there will be a handful of familiar faces in the 99 Club — and likely some new ones.

Wide receiver was the first position to have its ratings announced on Monday, followed by edge rushers on Tuesday. Each position had a player garner a 99 rating.

But that wasn’t the case with every position. For example, the highest-rated running back, which was revealed Wednesday, was Tennessee‘s Derrick Henry at 97, while the highest-rated cornerback, which was revealed Thursday, was Los Angeles‘ Jalen Ramsey at 98.

Kansas City‘s Travis Kelce also came up just short, topping the tight ends with a 98 overall rating.

Will there be any more new 99s? We’ll soon find out. Quarterbacks will be listed on Friday.

Let’s take a look at this year’s members of the 99 Club.

Aaron Donald, DL, Los Angeles Rams

Donald checks in to the 99 Club for the sixth straight year, tying Hall of Fame QB Peyton Manning for the most 99 Club appearances of all-time.

He has been the best player on the defensive side of the ball over the past decade since being selected No. 13 overall in the 2014 NFL Draft by the Rams. The 31-year-old Donald appeared in all 17 games and finished with a career-best 84 tackles, 12.5 sacks, four passes defended and four forced fumbles last season while consistently being double-teamed.

He’s an eight-time Pro Bowler, seven-time first-team All-Pro and three-time Defensive Player of the Year (2017, 2018 and 2020). He has the most sacks (98), tackles for loss (150) and quarterback hits (226) in the NFL during the regular season over that period. He’s also the only player in the league to record at least 11 sacks in each of the past five seasons.

The Rams reworked Donald’s deal this offseason to make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history with a contract that’ll pay him $95 million through 2024, with $65 million guaranteed over the next two seasons.

Myles Garrett, Edge, Cleveland Browns

Garrett is the first Brown to earn entry into the Madden 99 Club, and it’s hard to imagine a more deserving player.

The five-year veteran out of Texas A&M is a 6-foot-4, 272-pound problem for offensive linemen everywhere.

He’s a three-time Pro Bowler and has been first-team All-Pro in each of the last two seasons. And he has numbers to back up those honors.

Garrett has at least 10 sacks in each of his last four seasons, including a career-high 16 in 2021. Last season, he also notched career bests in tackles (51), tackles for loss (17) and quarterback hits (33).

Davante Adams, WR, Las Vegas Raiders

New team, same game.

This year marks Adams’ second consecutive year as the top-rated Madden receiver, and the 29-year-old becomes the first Raiders receiver to be rated this high since Randy Moss in Madden NFL ’06, which was released in 2005.

In 2021, Adams had the second-most receptions in the league (123), trailing only Cooper Kupp (145). Adams’ 1,553 receiving yards were the third-most in the league behind Kupp (1,947) and Justin Jefferson (1,616).

Adams added 11 touchdowns — fifth-most in the NFL last season — on the way to earning his fifth straight Pro Bowl selection. He also was a first-team All-Pro selection for the second consecutive season.

Las Vegas acquired Adams this past offseason in a blockbuster trade with the Green Bay Packers, the franchise where Adams spent the first eight seasons of his NFL career.

Trent Williams, OT, San Francisco 49ers

Nine-time Pro Bowl selection Trent Williams was the first player to enter Madden 99 Club for the upcoming season, as revealed on July 7. He is the first offensive lineman in the game’s history to join the 99 Club.

Williams just wrapped up his second season with San Francisco after nine standout campaigns with Washington.

Stay tuned for more updates throughout the week!