Aaron Donald will be back with the Rams in 2022 and likely into the mid-2020s. The team gave the perennial All-Pro defensive tackle a raise. While no new years were added to Donald’s through-2024 deal, he will receive considerably more cash than he would have under the terms of his 2018 extension.
Donald, who has discussed retirement for months, is now set to earn a whopping $95MM by 2024, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. The 31-year-old pass rusher will collect a $40MM raise on his old deal, Rapoport tweets, and again become the highest-paid non-quarterback in the game — a title the future Hall of Famer held for a few days prior to Khalil Mack topping him four years ago.
The eight-year veteran is returning to his place anchoring the Rams’ defense. The seven-time All-Pro is set to collect $65MM over the next two years of his contract, per Rapoport. It will be interesting to see if the Rams added void years to spread out the cap hits. The Rams have announced Donald’s return; he reported to the team’s facility Monday ahead of minicamp.
As far as guarantees go, Donald will receive a $25MM signing bonus and $6.5MM in additional 2022 guarantees, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports. His $13.5MM 2023 base salary shifts from an injury guarantee to a full guarantee on Day 3 of the 2023 league year. A $5MM roster bonus also will come Donald’s way if he is a Ram on Day 2 of the ’23 league year. Donald can collect the final $30MM if he remains a Ram on Day 5 of the 2024 league year. If Donald intends to play in 2024, the Rams would pay him a $20MM option bonus and $10MM base salary, Florio adds. No offset language is present.
This allows the team some flexibility beyond 2023, but Donald has been one of the NFL’s most durable players throughout his career. Donald would not reach free agency until the offseason ahead of his age-34 campaign. Still, the all-world defender’s through-2024 sum and his not being forced to add any new years to the deal illustrates both his value and the seriousness of his retirement threat. Donald’s previous contract carried a $23.5MM 2023 cap charge. The biggest difference of the pre- and post-raise cap hits will be a $38MM cap charge next year, Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com estimates. Void years are indeed present here, per SI.com’s Albert Breer (on Twitter).
Retirement rumors emerged shortly before Super Bowl LVI’s kickoff, and while Donald seemed to backtrack at the team’s parade, he still mentioned leaving the game after eight seasons last week. Sean McVay and Les Snead insisted throughout the offseason the team would take care of Donald, with McVay expressing confidence last week. It is fairly clear now why that was the case.
Money always hovered at the forefront here. Although no interior D-linemen passed up Donald in earnings over the course of his second NFL contract, several edge players did. T.J. Watt‘s $28MM-per-year pact topped the defender market entering the week. Tied to what amounts to a three-year, $95MM deal, Donald is the first non-quarterback to secure a contract north of $30MM per year.
Wide receivers made inroads toward the $30MM-per-year mark this offseason, but it took inflated figures in the final years of Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill‘s deals to balloon those contracts to their $28MM-AAV and $30MM-AAV marks. By not adding any new years on Donald’s contract, the Rams have moved into new territory with Monday’s deal. Given Donald’s resume and impact in the Rams’ second Super Bowl win, it is tough to argue he did not deserve a significant raise.
Since going 13th overall in the 2014 draft, Donald has become one of the greatest players in NFL history. Only Donald, J.J. Watt and Lawrence Taylor have won Defensive Player of the Year acclaim three times. The Pitt alum has maintained top form into his 30s, as evidenced by his Super Bowl-sealing takedown of Joe Burrow, which punctuated a dominant performance. Donald is the only active player to be named a first-team All-Pro seven times. The player with the second-most such honors among active performers, Bobby Wagner (six), will join him in L.A. this season. Donald has only missed two games in his career — both due to a 2017 holdout.
The Rams have taken care of their offensive and defensive pillars this offseason, with the Donald deal following their Matthew Stafford extension. The team remains at work on augmenting Cooper Kupp‘s contract, following his stratospheric 2021 season.
He earned it
He should probably be the highest paid player in football. I realize he never will be but he had/had more of an impact than almost any QB.
That being said, I’m amazed at how some teams (rams, chiefs, bucs come to mind) are able to amass so much talent and keep paying them. I’m surprised their front office people don’t get poached more.
I mean he’s good but stafford is the reason they won. They had arguably a worse team to the years past the only difference is goff to stafford. Just look at mack on bears and raiders or tj watt on Steelers, good but not enough to win it all.
You sound stupid. Donald is an all time great DT but he is not more impactful than a QB.
Any QB? Any QB at all?
“Money always hovered at the forefront here.”
I’m pleased to announce that Sam Robinson is now being considered for the Capt. Obvious Award.
Stafford was big but Donald made the huge play in Super Bowl and had the big second half. If Donald doesn’t make the sack Bengals had Chase open for TD on the 4th down play. Also, Kupp was huge, he took over the last offensive drive.
Again who placed the ball in kupps hands? Goff couldn’t do it for years…..stafford is better than everyone gives him credit for. Comes in and turn an average wr into a hof caliber player
They all played key roles and insisting Stafford was the difference holds no water. Why didn’t that happen in Detroit if Stafford made all the difference? Because they didn’t have Aaron Donald or Cooper Kupp.
He was never going to walk away from the money. Retirement was a joke.
Yeah…a $95 million “joke”.
Laughing all the way to the bank.
Yep, he gave zero you know what about his team or its future. It was nothing but a money grab for him.
I make the same comment over and over, but…still can’t get over how Pitt produces elite NFL players but is completely irrelevant in college football.
Seems like having future NFL Hall of Famers would give you a leg up over future insurance salemen and bouncers.
Not enough Alumni with deep pockets.
For the scale of their program, their best products have been incredible–Donald, Revis, Fitzgerald–but at the same time, they’ve produced what, half a dozen NFL starters in the last decade? That’s a far cry from even second tier programs.
Never said anything about quantity, but…the quality…ridiculous.
Yeah, it’s kinda like a blind squirrel finding a nut, but finding the most extraordinary nut.
The oldies out there want to remind you that you forgot Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett.
James Harrison, Josh Cribbs, Antonio Gates, JulianEdelman somehow came from Kent State, program far worse off than Pitt,and Gates didn’t even play football there.
Also very impressive.
And, as mentioned above, it’s not like boosters are driving this funnel of talent…all the more impressive.
Went from being ok with his career being over to a record setting deal a few days later? Ok…
Yeah I’m sure he’s at peace now lol
I am glad for Donald, but this is also a good news for me as a fan of the “other” team. I have seen this movie before, where two or three players in one team with incredibly high salaries results in weaknesses in other positions and the team eventually starts to spiral down.
How do the Rams continue to spend boat loads of money that seemingly exceeds the cap? How does the cap work? I’ve never seen a team in the NFL spend anywhere near what they spend.
What they end up doing is taking the big base salary guys and pushing it off as bonus to later years or void years. That reduces the cap hit for that season. They have done it a few years with Donald and its part of the reason his cap hits will be so high in 2023 and 2024. it will eventually bite them in the backside. 2024 has them set with $130 million in cap hits for 4 players and none of them are Cooper Kupp.
By the time it hits them, the GM giving the deal is usually fired. Players slow down, the roster suffers, the GM leaves, and the team quits pushing the deal further down the road and has to swallow the salary as the player leaves or flounders on the roster as the team rebuilds. Usually this works better with QBs, because they play forever these days, but in any case the GM handing out the money is rarely the one who has to fix the mess it causes when the player(s) slow down.
Mickey Loomis in New Orleans is an exception, as he’s played this strategy many times, but unlike other teams, seemingly never gets caught in a salary hole without somehow slipping out.