Aaron Donald is a Ram again, and the rest of the NFC just found out its offseason isn’t over. The best interior defensive lineman of his generation is walking back into a Rams locker room that already has the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in it. Every team circling a home date at SoFi Stadium in February should feel worse today than it did yesterday.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport reported the terms: one year, $20 million, with playoff incentives that can push it to $30 million. Donald retired in March 2024 with three Defensive Player of the Year awards, eight first-team All-Pro selections, and a rookie of the year trophy from 2014 that took the Rams a decade to hand to anyone else. He’s coming back for a defense that already didn’t need the help.
https://x.com/AdamSchefter/status/2094153260634349707
I’ve been a Cardinals fan long enough to know what it looks like when a division rival gets harder on purpose. Arizona spent the offseason hoping the Rams would take a step back. Instead the Rams landed a unanimous Defensive Player of the Year and talked a Hall of Famer out of retirement to stand next to him.
I hate this on principle, and I still can’t stop thinking about how much worse it makes everyone who isn’t the Rams, myself included.
Myles Garrett arrived in June, after the Rams sent Jared Verse and three future draft picks to Cleveland to get him. The Garrett trade gutted a young pass rush to buy the best one on the market, and it paid off immediately — Garrett won Defensive Player of the Year unanimously, broke the single-season sack record with 23, and led the league in tackles for loss. Putting Aaron Donald on that same front isn’t roster depth. It’s a second superstar standing next to the first one.
None of this reads like nostalgia. The Rams traded for Garrett, paid Trent McDuffie $124 million to become the highest-paid cornerback in football, and added Jaylen Watson to play beside him, all in the same year the Super Bowl lands at their own stadium. SoFi is where Donald stuffed Samaje Perine on third-and-one, then closed out Joe Burrow on fourth down to win it back in 2022. The Rams aren’t hoping to get back there; they’re building the shortest road available.
Donald told Pat McAfee over text that the Garrett trade “for sure got me thinking,” that he needed to see if the fire could still light. A washed player doesn’t talk like that. A guy who just watched his old building get a lot more dangerous does.
There’s an obvious objection: Donald is 35 and hasn’t played a snap in two seasons. Rust is real. But back when Donald was just flirting with the idea, the Rams were already operating like a diminished version of him still beats almost anyone healthy.
Every contender chasing this Super Bowl now has to plan around both of them in the same building.
The rest of the NFC should be terrified.
Good.
