He’s out there, lurking, hovering… and watching?
One of the keys to the Rams’ 2024 season hangs over their heads like thin smoke from a distant fire, present yet absent, here yet gone.
Even without him, they are contenders for the Super Bowl. With him, they could become Super Bowl winners.
They would love for him to show up at some point, but they would never actually say so, never openly worry about it, and never do anything to distract the talented young players from adjusting to his massive absence.
But they know it, their fans know it and, most importantly, he knows it.
When the Rams start their season in Detroit on Sunday night, everyone will be talking about their bright future, but also secretly hoping to revive a glorious part of their past.
Aaron Donald, everyone wait.
Donald retired in March after 10 seasons, but he’s only 33 now, still in shape like a Greek god and still capable of making an impact. In his final season, he had eight sacks and 53 tackles and was named first-team All-Pro. Does that sound like someone ready to retire for good?
What if, for example, it was December and Donald was bored but still in top form because he always stays in top form and the Rams are hot and both parties saw the opportunity for one last hurrah?
Will the best defensive lineman in history come out of retirement to help his team reach its third Super Bowl appearance in seven years?
No one will openly predict that. Donald himself says there is no chance of it. But anyone who understands his unstoppable engine believes it could well happen.
To date, Donald’s most emphatic public statements have been the standard denials he made on “The 25/10 Show” with DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy.
“Feels good,” he said of life after retirement. “No doubts, nothing. I know the whole world’s talking about, ‘He could come back for a playoff run if the Rams can do it.’ But I’m like, I’m done, I’ve made my peace with everything.”
Here’s a more detailed opinion from Rams general manager Les Snead, who brought safety Eric Weddle back from a two-year retirement during the playoffs to help the Rams win the Super Bowl after the 2021 season.
Would Aaron Donald be tempted to celebrate another Super Bowl if the Rams are among the contenders this season?
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
I asked him this week if the same thing happened with Donald, and Snead downplayed the idea… sort of.
“I’ve been asked that a lot, and if I’m honest, I’d say no,” Snead said. “Aaron seems to be enjoying his retirement. He’s put so much into it, a lot of stress and drudgery for his size, it hasn’t always been fun, and there’s an element to it that’s refreshing.”
However…
“I told him the other day when he was in the building, ‘It’s not October or November when you realize there’s a certain emptiness in your life,'” Snead said.
Snead reiterated: “If I were really betting my 401(k) pension in Vegas on Aaron Donald coming back, I would bet against it.”
However…
“He still keeps himself in shape, he still has good downs in him,” Snead said. “There’s a side of Aaron that says, ‘I’m an A student,’ and maybe he felt like he was going to be an A or A-minus student, and he doesn’t do that unless he truly believes he’s an A student. But we would say an ‘A’ or ‘A-minus’ Aaron Donald is still pretty darn good.”
This time, too, Snead rejected the idea… somehow.
“If I put my hard-earned money on him, I would say he’s not coming back,” he said.
However…
“I think Aaron is so principled, and if this group comes into the tournament, he would be faced with a moral dilemma: ‘Is this the right thing to do because I wasn’t part of the journey?'” Snead said. “But we could maybe force him and recruit him and say, ‘I understand your feelings, but yes, it’s the right thing to do.'”
So, yes, the Rams would bring him back in a heartbeat, even if it was just for the playoffs. And even though Vegas is only predicting 8.5 wins, we’re betting the Rams will storm into those playoffs.
They have the quarterback, a finally healthy Matthew Stafford, who finished last season with 17 touchdown passes and three interceptions in the final seven games. He’s 36, but he’s proven he can remain effective when he can stand up straight.
“He’s one of those players where his arm looks like it’s aging well or not aging at all; he’s throwing the fastball faster than ever before,” Snead said of one of his many valuable acquisitions. “He came here and carried this franchise on his shoulders. He’s exceeded all expectations in terms of handling this moment and the pressure that comes with it.”
They have other strong offensive weapons: Kyren Williams is second only to Christian McCaffrey from San Francisco after he carried the brunt of the running game starting in Week 4. In addition, a solid Cooper Kupp and the up-and-coming Puka Nacua form a perfectly complementary receiver group.
“When someone like Cooper Kupp has a bad year like he did last year, and the main reason for that is his health, I would bet on someone like him to bounce back and have a really good year,” Snead said. “That’s just the way he is, that’s the way he was programmed.”
Then there’s the defense under new coordinator Chris Shula, with everyone focused on Donald’s potential successors, which include top draft picks Jared Verse and Braden Fiske from Florida State and second-year rushers Kobie Turner and Bryon Young.
Snead has been this city’s most successful sports executive at making bold and smart decisions, and we suspect he’s done it again with this defensive rebuild. They trust their guys so much that they didn’t hesitate to trade defensive leader and top tackler Ernest Jones just because he wanted a new contract.
How will teams prepare for a lack of Aaron Donald?
“Hopefully they’re asking themselves, ‘What do we do now?'” Snead said. “Is it going to be Fiske or Verse? The first four weeks of the season, people are going to be asking, ‘Who are the Rams, what are they doing?’ They’re going to have to figure us out, and hopefully there’s a little chaos, advantage Rams.”
And then, of course, their future Hall of Famer shows up and that advantage carries them through to February.
Aaron Donald, everyone wait.
