Aaron Donald is back. And the Rams, who were already prohibitive Super Bowl favorites, will enter the NFL season with a roster overflowing with talent on both sides of the ball.
Donald, 35, ended his retirement Sunday and rejoined the Rams. The defensive tackle has a litany of accomplishments: 10 Pro Bowl selections, eight first-team All-Pro appearances, three NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards, and a Super Bowl title in 10 seasons with the Rams before retiring following the 2023 season.
Donald will play for Los Angeles on a one-year contract that is worth $20 million and includes an additional $10 million in potential incentives, his agent Todd France of Athletes First tells Front Office Sports.
He comes back to a team that traded this offseason for pass rusher Myles Garrett—a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year with the Browns—to add to a collection of star players that already included quarterback and reigning league MVP Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Puka Nacua.
The Rams, who lost last season’s NFC championship game to the Seahawks, were already widely regarded as the favorite to win the Super Bowl title. They are now cemented even more firmly as the front-runner.
At a press conference on Sunday at the Rams’ training facility, Donald said he thinks he still can be the same player that he previously was, adding that the Rams’ eye-catching offseason moves prompted him to contemplate his return and begin discussions with coach Sean McVay.
“Seeing what was being done with this team, the pieces that [were] getting brought here… and then you see all the moves they make, and it’s like, ‘Okay, I wish I was still out there playing right about now,’” Donald said. “You have conversations and then kind of start bringing it to fruition, starting to put myself in a position to train and get my body to a certain point where I felt good and seeing how I move and see if I still can do certain things…. Aaron is back playing football again, right?”
Earlier in the day, Donald confirmed his comeback in a video posted to social media entitled “The Return.” The team also confirmed it without announcing contract specifics.
“I let him out the house y’all,” his wife Erica wrote on X/Twitter.
Los Angeles was $15.4 million under the NFL’s salary cap, according to NFL Players Association records. The $20 million that the Rams will pay to Donald before any incentives is reportedly divided into a $10 million base salary and $10 million through per-game 53-man roster bonuses, a structure that helps the team fit Donald’s contract beneath the cap.
Donald had one season remaining on his contract with the Rams when he retired. That remained in effect, for approximately $30 million. But the team worked out a revised deal with Donald and France.
Los Angeles faces the 49ers in Melbourne on Sept. 10 for its opening game of the season. It was not immediately clear whether Donald will make that trip and play in that game. Donald is known for his rigorous training routine. His on-field preparations for his comeback included two official workouts with the Rams, called “tryouts” on the NFL’s daily personnel notices.
“Good to be able to get Aaron back into the mix,” McVay said at a separate news conference. “You guys know how close we are. There’s been a lot of dialogue that we’ve had. Excited to be able to just take it a day at a time. I’m not going to talk about any sort of plans. It’s going to be a day at a time for us… We’ll see what that ramp-up period looks like, whether or not he’s available or whether or not we think it’s best to be able to play him in Australia.”
The Rams posted to social media an image of Donald’s letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in which he wrote simply, “I’m Back.”
Donald also signed with Jon Rosen’s management team at Envisionary to grow his businesses, brand partnerships, and overall profile in the media and entertainment industries, Rosen confirmed to FOS in early August.
In March, the Rams traded first-, fifth-, and sixth-round draft picks this year and a third-rounder next year to the Chiefs for cornerback Trent McDuffie, then signed him to a four-year, $124 million contract extension that includes $100 million in guaranteed money.
In June, they dealt pass rusher Jared Verse and three draft choices—a first-rounder next year, a second-rounder in 2028, and a third-rounder in 2029—to the Browns for Garrett, who set the NFL’s single-season sack record with 23 last season. Los Angeles is the first NFL team to have both a quarterback who is the reigning MVP and the previous season’s defensive player of the year.
And now the Rams have Donald as well.
“Do I feel like I can play at a high level? Yes,” Donald said. “Do I feel like I can still be myself? A hundred percent. If I didn’t feel like that, I wouldn’t be here.”
