Aaron Donald

The Rams reached a blockbuster agreement to acquire Myles Garrett last week. Aaron Donald then dropped breadcrumbs about a potential unretirement. Understandably, the Rams are intrigued by this prospect.

Were Donald to unretire, he would again be the most accomplished player on the Rams’ roster. Garrett would be the only one close to the former all-world defensive lineman, who would be delaying his Hall of Fame induction by returning. While it is possible this situation drags on past training camp, teams may well need to prepare for a Rams D-line housing Garrett and Donald.

Rams DC Chris Shula said (via The Athletic’s Nate Atkins) he would welcome Donald back “with open arms”; the three-time Defensive Player of the Year retired months before Shula’s first season as Los Angeles’ defensive play-caller. Adding fuel to the fire here, ESPN’s Adam Schefter predicts Donald will return to the Rams after two years away.

While Schefter cautions no reporting is present on a Donald comeback being set just yet, but the veteran insider views it as “more likely than not” the 35-year-old D-line dynamo will be back. In surveying some other teams on the prospect of Donald returning to the Rams, Schefter indicates outside expectations are the NFC West power will find a way to bring Donald back.

Donald said last fall he did not have an itch to return to football, noting he had merely missed the camaraderie rather than the game itself. Several months later, he has openly teased a return. It would stand to reason the Rams would be prepared to use the legendary DT less than they previously did, as the 10-year Pro Bowler carried at least an 81% snap share on defense from 2017-23. In that span, Donald won three Defensive Player of the Year awards and helped the Rams to two Super Bowls and one title.

Since Donald’s retirement, the Rams have seen Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske become mainstays. Turner played 67% of the Rams’ defensive snaps last season, while Fiske logged a 48% number. Also rostering Poona Ford at nose tackle, the Rams would need to reduce two rising D-line talents’ playing time to accommodate a Donald return.

This would qualify as a champagne problem for a franchise that would have the makings of a D-line that potentially surpasses the 1960s-’70s Fearsome Foursome in terms of talent. The Rams teamed all-time greats Merlin Olsen and Deacon Jones together, to go with an evolving set of quality supporting-casters, more than 50 years ago to form a historic inside-outside D-line pair. Fiske, Ford and Turner’s presences accompanying a Donald-Garrett duo would stand to present tremendous blocking difficulties for opponents as the Rams attempt to “host” a Super Bowl for the second time.

Donald was attached to a three-year, $95MM deal — a raise provided after he threatened retirement post-Super Bowl LVI — and one season remains on that contract. The Rams have found money to bring in Garrett and Trent McDuffie this offseason. McDuffie signed a cornerback-record extension, while Garrett remains on his $40MM-AAV Browns contract — one the Rams restructured post-trade. L.A. also has Turner, Byron Young, Puka Nacua, Steve Avila, Warren McClendon. The team included Jared Verse in the Garrett trade but has decisions to make on several other young players. But if Donald truly wants to come back, the Rams will surely accommodate him.

JUNE 5: The Rams plan to keep the door open for a Donald return well into the season, SportsBoom.com’s Jason La Canfora notes. This could mean an early-season return or a Suh- or Joseph-like midseason reemergence. Although Donald has been away much longer than those two DTs when they joined the Eagles midway through the 2022 season, plenty of smoke has emerged here since the Garrett trade.

JUNE 4: Aaron Donald ended one of the greatest careers in NFL history at age 33, stopping after 10 Rams seasons. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year made a case as the greatest defensive tackle ever during that period, but the Rams have been able to get by defensively without the all-time great.

The Rams have been able to stay afloat defensively due in large part to successful front-seven draft investments. The team hit on Kobie Turner and Byron Young in the 2023 third round and then landed Jared Verse and Braden Fiske in the 2024 draft’s first two rounds. Los Angeles used Verse as the headline asset in the Myles Garrett package, and Donald took notice of another future Hall of Famer joining the Rams’ defense.

Going a whole two seasons without a surefire Hall of Famer on defense, the Rams acquired Garrett and will pair him with the Young-Turner-Fiske trio. Donald, however, created considerable buzz in the wake of the trade by indicating he is considering a return to football. The Rams’ three-year, $95MM Donald — agreed to months after Super Bowl LVI — contract carries one more season, in the event Donald would want to follow Philip Rivers in delaying his Canton clock.

Unlike Rivers, Donald is a no-doubt first-ballot Hall of Famer. He also plays a far more rigorous position. Unsurprisingly, Sean McVay said (via ESPN.com’s Sarah Barshop) the Rams would welcome a Donald return. But the former superstar, who regularly posts workout videos to social media, is far from certain to complete a comeback even with Garrett headlining Chris Shula‘s third defense.

“Aaron’s a guy that I stay really close in touch with and I know the respect that he has for Myles,” McVay said. “Talked to [Donald] about the opportunity to be able to bring [Garrett] on board. If Aaron decides he wants to dust them off at the age of 35, I bet you he could still do it at a pretty high clip.”

Perhaps the only D-lineman whose peak rivals Donald’s this century, J.J. Watt also teased an unretirement earlier this decade. Retiring after the 2022 season, when a heart scare occurred, Watt said he would consider a comeback to join the Texans or Steelers. But the CBS analyst said that window would close after the 2024 season. Donald is further removed from his career than his former peer was when he mentioned the prospect of a comeback, offering another complication.

Rather than rejoining the Rams this summer and going through another training camp, Donald could delay an unretirement for a bit and consider an in-season return. This seems like the more realistic path, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer offers. Mentioning Eric Weddle‘s unretirement in time for the 2021 playoffs — after the Rams had lost multiple safeties — as a potentially notable example (Weddle initially retired after the 2019 season).

The Eagles also signed Ndamukong Suh and Linval Joseph in mid-November 2022, adding the vets to their D-line after neither had gone through training camp or played in the first half of that season. Both played rotational roles for the NFC champions that year.

Donald playing a rotational role would be rather strange given his abilities pre-retirement. After missing a chunk of the 2022 season due to injury, Donald roared back with a seventh first-team All-Pro season in 2023. He finished that ’23 season with eight sacks and 16 tackles for loss, helping a Rams team that had themed 2023 around cost-cutting moves back to the playoffs.

Los Angeles has Fiske and Turner as locked-in regulars on its D-line. Donald returning would stand to cut into the younger 3-4 ends’ playing time. But a defense rostering Garrett and Donald to go with some rising young talents would obviously be formidable. Beyond a 2022 high ankle sprain, Donald does not have much of an injury history. Prior to 2022, the only two games he missed were due to a 2017 holdout. This may be a storyline to monitor well into the season — or until Donald shuts it down — as the Rams are viewed as early Vegas favorites to win a Super Bowl set to take place at SoFi Stadium.

11:58pm: Donald is adding more fuel to the fire. In a conversation with Jordan Schultz, the defensive lineman acknowledged that he’s considering a comeback.

“I’m for sure flirting with the idea. Helluva an opportunity with the Super Bowl in SoFi this year. If I can find the fire, it’s a possibility.”

2:35pm: The Rams added an all-time great defender when they acquired pass rusher extraordinaire Myles Garrett from the Browns on Monday. Garrett may not be the last future Hall of Famer to join the Rams’ defense before the upcoming season. On the heels of the Garrett trade, it appears retired Ram Aaron Donald is mulling a comeback.

When ESPN’s Pat McAfee contacted Donald via text about a potential return in the wake of the Garrett blockbuster, the 35-year-old admitted, “It for sure got me thinking.” Donald added that he’s “gotta see if that fire can light back up” after two full years out of the NFL.

With the Rams still based in St. Louis at the time, they spent the 13th overall pick in the 2014 draft on Donald. It quickly became one of the wisest decisions in franchise history, as Donald turned into one of the most dominant defensive tackles ever. He earned Pro Bowl honors in all 10 of his seasons, picked up eight first-team All-Pro selections (tied with Reggie White and Bruce Smith for most among D-linemen) and won the Defensive Player of the Year three times. Donald was also a major contributor on the Rams’ most recent Super Bowl-winning team in 2021.

The Rams were already atop the list of Super Bowl favorites for the upcoming campaign before they took a home run swing on Garrett. Although the trade cost them standout edge defender Jared Verse and three picks, including a 2027 first-rounder, they landed a player who set the single-season sack record (23) and won DPOY for the second time in 2025. Their odds of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy next February would only seem to improve with Donald, a well-known workout warrior who has stayed in shape in his post-playing days. With 111 sacks on his resume, he would join the likes of Garrett, Byron Young, Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske and Poona Ford to form a terrifying group up front.

When Donald walked away from the game in March 2024, there was one season left on the three-year, $95MM extension he signed in 2022. His retirement forced the Rams to spread $33MM in dead money over the previous two seasons ($24MM in 2024 and $9MM in ’25). Donald is off the team’s books now, but that will change if he makes the bombshell decision to return. The Rams have approximately $16.34MM in spending room, according to OverTheCap.

Aaron Donald brought his Hall of Fame career to an end last week, a decision which came as a surprise to many outside the Rams’ organization but not one to those within it. The franchise icon recently spoke further about his thought process on the matter.

“Ten years, 10 Pro Bowls, eight All-Pros, three Defensive Players of the Year, Rookie of the Year, two NFC Championships, three NFC West championships, went to two Super Bowls, won one, lost one,” Donald said in an interview (Instagram link). “I’m complete. I’m full. I think the passion to play the game is no longer there for me. I will always love football, but to think about going through another camp and another 17 [game] season, I just don’t got the urge to want to push myself to do that no more.

“I’m just, I’m burned out. The best way to say that is I’m full, I’m complete, I’m satisfied with what I was able to do in 10 years, and I think it’s time for me, at 32 years old, to retire from football and jump into the next step of my career and life and it’s time to move on.” 

Indeed, Donald’s career is one of the most decorated amongst NFL players on either side of the ball. Especially having won a Super Bowl in addition to his individual accolades, the Pitt product would not encounter any unmet challenges if he suited up for an 11th campaign in 2024. Due in large part to his massive raise secured in 2022, his financial situation is also far from a concern.

Donald has racked up over $157MM in earnings, a reflection of the Rams’ ongoing commitment to retaining him and his continued elite level of play through the final seasons of his illustrious career. He will no doubt enter the Hall of Fame when first eligible in 2029, by which point further clarity on his post-playing plans will have emerged.