NOVEMBER 30: Week 13 will double as Donald’s first missed NFL game due to injury. The Rams ruled out the seven-time All-Pro defensive tackle for their Seahawks matchup. McVay also confirmed Stafford remains in concussion protocol and is unlikely to play against Seattle.
NOVEMBER 29: Aaron Donald can now be added to the list of high-profile Rams to have suffered significant injuries this season. Sean McVay said the team’s medical staff communicated to him the perennial All-Pro defensive lineman likely sustained a high ankle sprain against the Chiefs, Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic tweets.
Considering this immense letdown of a season, Donald is not a lock to return this year. McVay said the team has not ruled out shutting down Donald, Cooper Kupp or Matthew Stafford. The defending Super Bowl champions gave new deals to all three players this offseason, and while the team will not exactly be obtaining value from those lucrative accords by sidelining the cornerstone performers, ensuring these health issues do not bleed into the offseason would stand to be important.
Although Kupp and Stafford have missed stretches of seasons before, Donald has been one of the league’s most durable players. The seven-time All-Pro has never missed a game due to injury; his only absences (two) came because of a 2017 holdout. Over the course of his second Rams contract, Donald became one of the greatest defenders in NFL history. He derailed the Bengals’ final drive in Super Bowl LVI and may well have won MVP acclaim were ballots not required to be turned in before that drive.
Donald, 31, threatened retirement and sent the Rams a letter — amid contract negotiations — informing them of his intentions to walk away. The Rams came back to the table with an unprecedented offer — a straight raise with no new years added, making Donald the NFL’s highest-paid defender again. Donald’s $31.6MM-per-year average dwarfs the rest of the D-tackle market; no other interior D-lineman makes more than $21MM per annum. That deal has not started off well for the Rams, who have seen their run of good health in recent years deteriorate into a mess that has this team on course to be the worst defending Super Bowl champion in league history.
Donald’s third Rams pact runs through 2024; he is set to count $26MM against Los Angeles’ cap next year. That money is guaranteed, though Donald’s 2024 cash is not. This season, Donald’s production has dipped a bit. The ninth-year defender has five sacks and 11 quarterback hits. While he still would have had time to move toward his seventh double-digit sack season, this injury will probably nix such an effort.
Kupp underwent ankle surgery and is expected to miss at least the next four games. Considering that timetable and the Rams’ 3-8 record, it seems unlikely the All-Pro wideout will play again this year. Stafford has spent the past two weeks in concussion protocol, with a neck issue leading him back there after he left the Rams’ Week 11 loss to the Saints early. Conflicting reports surfaced about Stafford returning this season, but the Rams are unsurprisingly considering punting on the rest of the veteran quarterback’s 14th season and regrouping in 2023. Stafford’s new deal runs through 2026.
The Rams squandered key seasons from their well-paid trio. Donald will turn 32 in May; Stafford will be 35 in February. Kupp is younger, but he will hit 30 in June. The team, which also placed Allen Robinson on IR on Tuesday because of a season-ending foot injury, may see its skeleton crew thin further in the weeks ahead. Although the 1982 49ers finished 3-6, a strike-shortened season impacted their first title defense. No defending Super Bowl champion has finished with fewer than six wins in a non-strike-shortened campaign; if the Rams are to be without Donald and Stafford the rest of the way, they might have a hard time making it to 6-11. The Lions hold the Rams’ 2023 first-round pick.
Nice of them to tank for Young or Stroud on behalf of Detroit.
It’s not a bad time for Ram players to work on the golf game and the Lakers players will be joining them soon.
I can’t imagine AD golfing without getting hurt
McVay just called another timeout
The Christmas game vs Denver is just getting more compelling by the moment. Hope it will be an Amazon Prime game so that the numbers can be convoluted to fit a most watch category.
The game is on CBS with a kids’ “slime cast” on Nickelodeon. TV was locked in last spring when the schedule came out.
Great news for the Detroit Lions.
Rams pick will be top 5 likely top 3
Their own pick will likely be around 15th
In the second round they also have the Vikings pick aswell as their own.
And I mean looking at the roster it’s not all bad.
Jamaal Williams is tough, Amon Ra StBrown showed signs, you’ve got a couple all pros on the o line in Jackson and Ragnow plus Penei Sewell. Aiden Hutchinson rushing the passer.
Draft your franchise QB at the start of the draft thanks to the Rams and your pretty set going into the rest of the draft and the future
HOU is sitting at #1 (they need a QB) and the Bears are currently at #2. So Detroit better come with a big offer to move up. Yes, I’m fully aware CHI doesn’t need a QB. But that doesn’t change the fact that other QB needy teams will want to move up. And being in the same division, it will cost them more.
I think time has shown you don’t need the first overall pick to get the best QB in the draft.
I’d rather the Lions draft Will Anderson with the Rams pick if it stays top 3 if Young is off the board and draft Will Levis with their own pick which as of now he should be available. Maybe even double up on defense. Lamar Jackson has interest in going to Detroit. He isn’t happy in Baltimore. That’s something to think about as well. Baltimore isn’t going to let him leave for nothing. They could franchise him and move him to Detroit for Goff and their first. And they can draft his replacement. Lamar in Detroit this year would’ve won the Lions at least 3 more games. Not to take anything away from Goff. Mistakes in some of those games cost the Lions the win. Game management by Campbell also cost the Lions the win. Probably more on Campbell than Goff. But it’s fun talking about a nice gift from the Rams this year after gifting them the Super Bowl last year. Until the Lions win the Super Bowl with Jameson Williams and whoever they get this year the Rams still win the trade.
There’s something called the salary cap, Dan. Adding an ultra-high priced marginal top tier QB like Jackson with a short shelf life, vs enjoying the 5 affordable years from a well-spent first round draft pick would waste all the suffering through which Detroit went through to finally get in a position to build a good team.
they need to hope Steelers fall bottom 2
say what you will about Pickett, but steelers aren’t drafting QB r1 again
Excellent offensive line foundation, hopefully looking like two strong receivers by end of the year, and at least a couple of building blocks on the defensive line. They need a QB and a metric ton of defensive talent, but they’re not in a bad spot at all. I mean, other than not currently being a good team.
Exactly, add your future franchise QB. You’ve got a great o line for protection in front of him and he’s going also get a good RB.
Probably add another WR or two in the later rounds or FA especially with TJ gone at TE. But as you said the area they really need to get better at is on defence and as far as that goes it not like they don’t already have some pieces
Drafting talent is just half the game. You have to be willing to pay a premium when those all pro performers are free of rookie contracts and seeking market setting extensions. With the exception of Ragnow, the Lions ownership always balks at stage two.
But who should they have paid big money that they didn’t? They paid Decker and Ragnow. They haven’t drafted all that many guys that are worth big second contracts. They dodged a bullet with Golladay. Tomlinson wasn’t any good until he went to SF. Maybe they haven’t spent enough, but they haven’t drafted an awful lot of guys worth extending.
Big play Slay baby
I agree with you and the reply, they did well dodging Galloday and they moved TJ at a good price more recently too.
But yes if your going to draft I’m really good talent and those players then prove themselves they will need to keep those guys on big contracts.
Well, they can’t extend Sewell or St. Brown until after next season, so we’ll have to wait until then to see.
The Rams have done so as well, at least for the non-day per star players that they’ve drafted and ended up elsewhere.
The Rams approach of trading away early picks and paying up for elite talent has worked in part because of their ability to get comp picks for mid tier players they let sign elsewhere. They may not draft high, but they still draft a lot.
It worked once. I don’t mean to sound pompous, and I apologize if I do, but I was not surprised at all that the Rams were so bad this year. Evidently, I was less surprised than the Rams themselves. I do not foresee it getting better in the Snead regime.
They did have five consecutive winning seasons before this year. But yeah, this most recent version of the team is a combustible, high variance model. Amazing how starkly they’ve hit opposite ends of variance in back to back years.
Sort of points out the problem with an ever expanding schedule, i.e., teams that get eliminated early have no incentive to put their greatest assets back on the field. It’ll soon be like the NBA, where you’ll go to a game and find none of the stars are playing that day.
not sure why there was such a lack of value put on a veteran backup QB for the Rams.
coming in without a 1st round pick, you’d think they’d at least have had some insurance at QB instead of relying on 2 NPC camp bodies behind Stafford.
Ryan Fitzmagic would’ve been a good investment in the offseaon. (he mightve been down for a season in LA for the defending super bowl champs)
could’ve also flipped a 7th for Mason Rudolph at any point prior to the trade deadline too.
I just don’t get it given Staffords age and injury history.
I also didn’t understand that extension either.
Rams are the worst run best run team
The Rams are finished. Everything was spent on that one season. Five years of penury if McVay doesn’t sell them further into draft poverty and salary cap hell.