When he retired in March 2024, I thought: That makes sense, the only person who could possibly stop Aaron Donald would be Aaron Donald.
Now I’m not so sure.
Because it’s starting to look like even Aaron Donald might not be able to stop Aaron Donald.
The defensive lineman could be back terrorizing the NFL this season.
Do it, Aaron. You know you want to. We all know you can.
No pressure, of course. The Rams are not begging, but with training camp opening Saturday at Loyola Marymount, they’re miles past hinting.
You could see it from space, how wide open the door is for Donald, 35, to return for an 11th NFL season 13 years after he broke in as the defensive rookie of the year.
“If that is something that he wants to do,” Rams coach Sean McVay volunteered Saturday as players clocked in, “we are going to try to be able to make that happen.”
Meanwhile, off-stage, Donald is “going through his process,” McVay said, “putting himself in a position to make a decision” about whether to rejoin this star-studded Rams team that’s already favored to win the Super Bowl on Feb. 14 at their own SoFi Stadium.
Adding a three-time defensive player of the year, eight-time All-Pro, 10-time Pro Bowler and 2021 Super Bowl champion to a defense that also features two-time defensive player of the year Myles Garrett?
An absolute embarrassment of riches — not that the Rams are shy about it.
“I mean, two all-time greats?” said recently signed cornerback Jaylen Watson, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs. “That’d be hard to draw up against.”
“It would be awesome,” said fourth-year offensive lineman Steve Avila, who as a rookie was teammates with Donald. “Honestly, my first year here, I probably blocked him one time correctly. So I think it’ll be awesome to have him back and just see where I stack up.
“I don’t know anything,” Avila added, “but it would be awesome.”
It would because there’s always something more to prove, even for somebody like Donald.
Arguably the best to ever do it defensively, Donald could strengthen that argument still. There are rewards to outweigh the risks.
Donald helped the Rams cap the 2021 season with a victory in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium. Another Super Bowl title would draw him even with Lawrence Taylor and Deion Sanders.
Only three players — Donald, Taylor and J.J. Watt — have won the NFL’s defensive player of the year award three times. Donald could be the first to win a fourth.
And he and Garrett together? They could go down as the greatest defensive duo in NFL history.
It was, of course, trading Jared Verse for Garrett that got Donald’s wheels grinding, McVay said.
“When we were going through the possibility of acquiring Myles, I kind of asked him what his thoughts and opinion [were],” said McVay, noting that he also seeks perspective from former Rams Andrew Whitworth and Eric Weddle among others.
“That’s really what stimulated the conversation of the possibility.”
A possibility made all the more plausible when Donald was spotted going through an on-field workout on July 10 at the Rams’ practice facility.
Now Donald’s decision is not just the only point of intrigue for the Rams entering camp, where there are no obvious position battles and the only holding out that’s happening is them hoping for his return.
The Rams’ will-he or won’t-he question is the biggest in the NFL — and in American sports, now that former Laker LeBron James finally decided Friday to take his talents to Philadelphia.
It shouldn’t be surprising that we’re back here with Donald.
When he announced his retirement, he told the world what he’d told McVay: He was burned out. And after a decade of dominance, he was full, satisfied.
“When you talk about a guy that did this for 10 years and gave every ounce of his soul to this game,” McVay said, “ … when he sat down with me and he said, ‘I’m full, I’m complete,’ he meant it, and I believed him.”
But if you revisit interviews Donald did after retiring, you’ll notice how often and how quickly he’d get choked up. The tough-guy tears betrayed how much it hurt Donald to let go, how much he was going to miss playing the violent, taxing game that has been the focal point of his life.
He kept training so hard that after one session with Donald, Verse — then a second-year defensive end — joked he couldn’t work out for another day and a half because he couldn’t move his body: “He needs to stay away from me!”
Now all the non-denials being issued by Donald’s past and possibly future team feel like affirmations.
Like it could be a matter of time before the Rams are throwing an Unretirement Party.
And like that would be a fitting precursor for another championship parade.
The post Everything about Aaron Donald’s past and Rams’ present point to him coming back appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
