Recent rumors have teased that it is a matter of when and not if defensive superstar Aaron Donald will confirm that he is coming out of retirement to rejoin the Los Angeles Rams and play alongside two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett.
On Monday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated explained why fans shouldn’t yet assume that Donald will be on the Rams’ active roster in September.
Aaron Donald has been “very happy in retirement”
“Donald was very happy in retirement, and never ruminated to those in the organization that he wanted to come back,” Breer wrote. “In other words, this isn’t a guy who has had some enormous struggle adjusting to civilian life. The 10-time Pro Bowler is a happy retiree, by all accounts, which is to say the idea of going back to that life isn’t something he’ll view as a failure.”
Donald retired in March 2024 as a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, a one-time Super Bowl champion and a lock to eventually become a Hall of Famer. He turned 35 years old this past May, and he reportedly will only return to the Rams if he feels he can “be the best version of himself.”
How Rams are handling Aaron Donald questions this summer
“The Rams, for their part, haven’t pushed,” Breer added about Donald. “They’ve told him they’d love to have him. But they want the decision to be the 35-year-old Donald’s and Donald’s alone. And they’ll be judicious in how they work him back in, should he return. …Of course, the flip side of that is that Donald has never been a guy who’s done anything halfway. He’ll want to earn what he gets, yes, but he won’t be the one putting the governor on how much he practices or plays — and that’s where the Rams will have to find the balance between what Donald wants and what’s best for him and the team.”
An update suggested that Donald won’t confirm his intentions before veteran Rams players are due to report
for training camp on July 25. It sounds like people within the Rams are just fine with Donald taking his time to make what could become a team-altering decision.