Aaron Donald will miss Sunday’s Colts game after reporting to the Rams on Saturday, and it’s not a lock the All-Pro defender returns for Week 2 against the Redskins. The Rams won’t automatically redeploy Donald until he’s ready, Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk reports. Although it would be borderline shocking if Donald missed three games, he does have barely a week to integrate into Wade Phillips‘ 3-4 system if he wants to suit up for Week 2.
Smith notes the Rams are prepared to sit Donald in Weeks 2 and 3 if it comes to that, whatever amount of time he needs to get up to speed. Regardless if he plays or not, the Rams will be paying him his $106K-plus game checks, per Smith, who adds that stipulation was a key factor in Donald reporting. The Rams travel to face the 49ers for a Thursday-night game in Week 3, and Smith writes it’s not out of the question it takes until Week 4 — a road trip to Dallas — before Rams fans see Donald back in uniform.
However, the 26-year-old dynamo stayed in shape while working out in Pittsburgh, per Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.com, who does not expect Donald’s acclimation process to Phillips’ scheme to take long. He expects the fourth-year star on the field in Week 2.
Here’s the latest coming out of Los Angeles on the Donald front.
- The Rams asked the NFL for a roster exemption to add Donald today and not to have to cut anyone in doing so, thus having a 54-man team — per Rich Hammond of the Orange County Register, on Twitter. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk tweets the Rams received the exemption, and Donald is on board as the team’s 54th player. Los Angeles will need to make a roster move after Week 1 to trim the active unit down to 53.
- Still holding the leverage, the Rams did not relent in the Donald impasse. Gonzalez noted earlier this week the team understands a Donald extension will need to make him the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player, but Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News notes (on Twitter) the team has a limit to how far it will go. Making Donald the league’s richest defender will mean the Rams will have to approach or surpass the $20MM-AAV barrier.
- A Donald deal occurring soon should make him the league’s first defender to secure a $20MM-per-year pact with $50MM fully guaranteed at signing, Joel Corry of CBS Sports tweets. Von Miller and Ndamukong Suh are the league’s only $19MM-AAV defenders, and Donald being two years younger than Miller would stand to raise the ceiling. And Corry doesn’t believe the regular season starting closes the window (Twitter link). The Rams signed both Robert Quinn and Michael Brockers shortly after their respective 2014 and 2016 seasons began. Both Quinn and Brockers signed their extensions between Weeks 1-2. The 2017 Rams, though, hold the least amount of cap space in football.
- The Rams agreeing to waive Donald’s fines — which would have approached $1.5MM, or nearly his entire 2017 base salary — represents a win for the all-world interior defender, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes. While both Odell Beckham and Khalil Mack attended their teams’ training camps as top-tier members of the 2014 first round, each suffered an injury. And Beckham is questionable to play for the Giants on Sunday night. Florio expects Donald, barring a 2017 extension, to consider taking the same approach next year as a result of his team’s actions. Florio also anticipates members of the 2015 first round who don’t receive extensions prior to their fourth training camps to consider following Donald’s lead.