LA Rams add Aaron Donald to roster as former star comes out of retirement at 35 to agree huge $20m deal
The Super Bowl favorites are adding a future Hall of Famer.
Aaron Donald, a former Super Bowl Champion and three-time Defensive Player of the Year, is coming out of retirement at age 35 to rejoin the Los Angeles Rams, The Daily Mail has confirmed. ESPN was first to report the agreement between the Rams and the 6ft 1in, 280-pound defensive tackle.
As Donald’s agent Todd France confirmed to The Daily Mail, the one-year deal is worth $20 million and could reach $30 million with incentives.
Donald now joins the Rams’ other major off-season acquisition, reigning NFL Defensive player of the Year Myles Garrett, on what should be a ferocious front seven in Los Angeles.
Already considered to be Super Bowl favorites, the veteran Rams have been linked to Donald since acquiring Garrett from the Cleveland Browns for budding pass rusher Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round draft pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick. In fact, Donald had made numerous appearances at the Rams’ training facility in recent weeks, although he has not been practicing with his new teammates.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter stoked fan interest back in June by posting a graphic on X showing Garrett alongside Donald with the caption: ‘Next in line in LA.’
Aaron Donald, a former Super Bowl Champion and three-time Defensive Player of the Year, is coming out of retirement at age 35 to rejoin the Los Angeles Rams, ESPN is reporting
Rumors were stoked in June by this tweet from ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter
And the Rams didn’t exactly hide the looming possibility of Donald’s return.
Asked about the legendary interior lineman earlier this month, Rams head coach Sean McVay told Sports Central LA: ‘The latest is he’s putting himself in a position to make a decision. He’s working hard, he’s feeling good.’
McVay continued: ‘He’s taken great care of himself in the two years that he’s been off… he’s feeling good so far. I think we’ll have a little bit more of an update once we leave here and get back to Woodland Hills.
‘But things are looking positive. But again, he doesn’t owe us anything. We’ll take it a day at a time.’
Curiously, Donald seemed determined to remain retired when speaking to The Daily Mail’s Jake Fenner a year earlier.
‘For me, retirement’s been pretty good, right? Because I left on my own terms when I wanted to,’ Donald told the Daily Mail.
‘The only thing I would say is, them days you got that aggression, you ain’t able to hit somebody to get it all out, so that’s a big change.’
There had been attempts by other teams to lure him back, though.
‘Obviously, there’s been a few NFL players that reached out to me to try to recruit me on their team, but my football days are done and passed me, and it’s onto the next chapter of life for me,’ he said.
Donald did not name names, adding ‘there’s been at least four guys’ who tried to lure him back via electronic message.
‘I’m like, “My days is over, so I’m done,”‘ Donald said.
A shirtless Donald shows off the Lombardi trophy after the Rams’ Super Bowl win in 2022
Donald had no plans to return to the league he dominated for 10 years until this summer
Donald’s viral workout videos were interpreted by some as hints of a comeback to the NFL
Despite being undersized for the position, Donald was generally considered to be among the strongest players of his era, if not football history.
He put up a record 35 reps on the 225-pound bench press during the 2014 NFL scouting combine before being taken out of Pittsburgh by the St. Louis Rams with the 13th pick in the draft.
Although he’d converted from defensive end only a few years earlier, Donald quickly proved to be a capable interior lineman in the NFL, where he won Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2014.
Donald earned the first of eight All-Pro nods the following season as the Rams moved back to Los Angeles. Over 10 NFL seasons, the Pittsburgh native was named to ten Pro Bowl teams and recorded a whopping 111 sacks, including a league-best 20.5 in 2018.
He was still playing at an All-Pro level in 2023 when Donald had eight sacks en route to his first Super Bowl title. And although he remained in prime condition, Donald opted to retire before the 2024 campaign.
Now he joins a Rams defense that includes Garrett, run-stuffing nose tackle Poona Ford, edge rusher Byron Young, impressive young safety Kamren Kinchens and Trent McDuffie, the newly acquired All-Pro cornerback who won two Super Bowls in Kansas City.