Aaron Donald ends retirement, returns to Rams after two seasons away

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. — Aaron Donald is coming back.

The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year has ended his retirement and returned to the Los Angeles Rams after sitting out the previous two seasons, the team announced Sunday.

The Rams’ practice field felt different Sunday afternoon.

There was an electricity in the air, the kind that comes when something unexpected suddenly becomes real.

After two seasons away from football, the greatest defensive player of his generation had agreed to return to the Rams on a one-year deal worth $20 million, with another $10 million available through playoff incentives. And on Sunday, Donald stepped onto the practice field again, beginning the next chapter of a career most assumed was already finished.

For Donald, the decision wasn’t about simply coming back.

It had to be all or nothing.

“You can’t be halfway in, you got to be all the way in it,” Donald said. “So, had to get to that point where I felt like I will feel like I’m 100% committed to playing football again.”

That process took time.

Donald spent the offseason testing himself, working with his longtime speed trainer and doing everything he needed to do to answer the question that mattered most: Could he still be Aaron Donald?

“I was doing everything I needed to do to get myself the peace of mind to see if I can do it,” he said.

The feedback was encouraging. His trainer, someone who has known Donald’s body and movement for years, didn’t believe the former All-Pro had missed a step.

Now came the harder test: football.

Donald acknowledged that there will be rust to knock off. After two years away, he needs to get back into 11-on-11 work, rediscover the speed of the game and reacclimate himself to the chaos that made him so dominant for so long.

But mentally, he says, he has been preparing for this moment for months.

“I’ve kind of been in a football mindset the last 14 weeks,” Donald said. “Do I feel like I can still be myself? Hundred percent. If I didn’t feel like that, I wouldn’t be here.”

Sean McVay knows better than most what Donald means to this organization.

“He’s earned the right where he doesn’t have to do this,” McVay said.

Donald could have stayed retired. He could have walked away as a Rams legend, his legacy already secure and his place in Canton unquestioned.

Instead, he chose to chase something else.

One more season. One more run.

And perhaps one more chance to lift the Lombardi Trophy in Los Angeles.

“He means a lot to me, and it’s way bigger than football,” McVay said. “There’s a lot of history, there’s a lot of experiences that we’ve shared, a lot of love for each other’s families, and so I know for him to want to be able to explore this and come back into the mix is a real credit to the special people that he’s got a chance to be around.”

Donald’s unexpected return reunites the Rams with one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history and the cornerstone of the franchise’s Super Bowl LVI championship team. He last played during the 2023 season, completing a remarkable 10-year run in which he earned Pro Bowl honors every season and was named a First-Team All-Pro eight times.

Donald has appeared in 154 regular-season games, including 150 starts, and recorded 543 tackles, 111 sacks, 176 tackles for loss, 256 quarterback hits, 24 forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries. According to TruMedia, his 790 pressures and 525 quarterback hurries are the most among active players following his return.

Despite his two-year absence, Donald ranks seventh among active players in career sacks, second in tackles for loss and quarterback hits and tied for third in forced fumbles. He is also the Rams’ franchise leader in sacks since the statistic became official in 1982 and tackles for loss while ranking second in forced fumbles.

Donald’s return adds another chapter to a career that began when the Rams selected him with the 13th overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. He was named the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year that season and quickly developed into the most dominant defensive lineman of his generation.

He joined Lawrence Taylor and J.J. Watt as the only players in league history to win the Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award three times, capturing the honor in 2017, 2018 and 2020. Donald was also one of three unanimous selections to the NFL’s 2010s All-Decade Team, joining Tom Brady and Watt.

Donald’s defining moment with the Rams came in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium. With Los Angeles protecting a late lead against the Cincinnati Bengals, Donald pressured quarterback Joe Burrow on fourth down and forced an incomplete pass that secured the Rams’ first Super Bowl championship in Los Angeles.

He has played in 11 postseason games, including two Super Bowls and two NFC Championship Games, recording 34 tackles, six sacks, 10 tackles for loss, 51 pressures and 16 quarterback hits.

Donald’s 154 regular-season appearances with the Rams rank 21st in franchise history. After two seasons away from the game, he will now attempt to resume one of the most decorated careers the NFL has seen and once again anchor the Rams’ defensive front.

The Rams aren’t looking too far ahead yet. McVay said the team will take Donald’s return one day at a time before deciding whether he will be ready for Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia, just 11 days from now.

But the possibility is suddenly there.

And for the Rams, the dream of finishing this thing at SoFi Stadium just got a whole lot more interesting.