{"id":412852,"date":"2026-07-26T13:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T13:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/412852\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T13:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T13:23:10","slug":"aaron-donalds-past-and-rams-present-point-to-him-coming-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/412852\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron Donald’s past and Rams’ present point to him coming back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When he retired in March 2024, I thought: That makes sense, the only person who could possibly stop Aaron Donald<\/a> would be Aaron Donald.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m not so sure.<\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s starting to look like even Aaron Donald might not be able to stop Aaron Donald.<\/p>\n

The defensive lineman could be back terrorizing the NFL this season.<\/p>\n

Do it, Aaron. You know you want to. We all know you can.<\/p>\n

No pressure, of course. The Rams<\/a> are not begging, but with training camp opening Saturday at Loyola Marymount, they\u2019re miles past hinting.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that is something that he wants to do,\u201d Rams coach Sean McVay<\/a> volunteered Saturday as players clocked in, \u201cwe are going to try to be able to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, off-stage, Donald is \u201cgoing through his process,\u201d McVay said, \u201cputting himself in a position to make a decision\u201d about whether to rejoin this star-studded Rams team that\u2019s already favored to win the Super Bowl on Feb. 14 at their own SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

An absolute embarrassment of riches \u2014 not that the Rams are shy about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, two all-time greats?\u201d said recently signed cornerback Jaylen Watson<\/a>, a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs. \u201cThat\u2019d be hard to draw up against.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be awesome,\u201d said fourth-year offensive lineman Steve Avila, who as a rookie was teammates with Donald. \u201cHonestly, my first year here, I probably blocked him one time correctly. So I think it\u2019ll be awesome to have him back and just see where I stack up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know anything,\u201d Avila added, \u201cbut it would be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would because there\u2019s always something more to prove, even for somebody like Donald.<\/p>\n

Arguably the best to ever do it defensively, Donald could strengthen that argument still. There are rewards to outweigh the risks.<\/p>\n

Donald helped the Rams cap the 2021 season with a victory in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium<\/a>. Another Super Bowl title would draw him even with Lawrence Taylor and Deion Sanders.<\/p>\n

\"Rams <\/p>\n

Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald gestures to fans before a game against the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium in October 2023.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Only three players \u2014 Donald, Taylor and J.J. Watt \u2014 have won the NFL\u2019s defensive player of the year award three times. Donald could be the first to win a fourth.<\/p>\n

And he and Garrett together? They could go down as the greatest defensive duo in NFL history.<\/p>\n

It was, of course, trading Jared Verse for Garrett<\/a> that got Donald\u2019s wheels grinding, McVay said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were going through the possibility of acquiring Myles, I kind of asked him what his thoughts and opinion [were],\u201d said McVay, noting that he also seeks perspective from former Rams Andrew Whitworth<\/a> and Eric Weddle<\/a> among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really what stimulated the conversation of the possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

A possibility made all the more plausible when Donald was spotted going through an on-field workout on July 10 at the Rams\u2019 practice facility.<\/p>\n

Now Donald\u2019s 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\u2019s happening is them hoping for his return.<\/p>\n

The Rams\u2019 will-he or won\u2019t-he question is the biggest in the NFL \u2014 and in American sports, now that former Laker LeBron James finally decided<\/a> Friday to take his talents to Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t be surprising that we\u2019re back here with Donald.<\/p>\n

When he announced his retirement, he told the world what he\u2019d told McVay: He was burned out. And after a decade of dominance, he was full, satisfied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you talk about a guy that did this for 10 years and gave every ounce of his soul to this game,\u201d McVay said, \u201c \u2026 when he sat down with me and he said, \u2018I\u2019m full, I\u2019m complete,\u2019 he meant it, and I believed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if you revisit interviews Donald did after retiring, you\u2019ll notice how often and how quickly he\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

He kept training so hard that after one session with Donald, Verse \u2014 then a second-year defensive end \u2014 joked he couldn\u2019t work out for another day and a half because he couldn\u2019t move his body: \u201cHe needs to stay away from me!\u201d<\/p>\n

Now all the non-denials being issued by Donald\u2019s past and possibly future team feel like affirmations.<\/p>\n

Like it could be a matter of time before the Rams are throwing an Unretirement Party.<\/p>\n

And like that would be a fitting precursor for another championship parade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When he retired in March 2024, I thought: That makes sense, the only person who could possibly stop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[77645,164869,773,48,52,51,165319,47,50,49,4606,752,165320,25751,32914,11706,10947,11730,165318,315,72],"class_list":["post-412852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-aaron-donald","tag-donald","tag-jared-verse","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lawrence-taylor","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mcvay","tag-nfl","tag-own-sofi-stadium","tag-past","tag-possibility","tag-ram","tag-rams","tag-super-bowl","tag-three-time-defensive-player","tag-time","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}