LOS ANGELES -- It was late May when Sean McVay called Aaron Donald.
McVay and the Los Angeles Rams were considering trading for reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett, and the Rams’ head coach was curious what Donald thought of the idea.
Donald, who retired in March 2024 at age 32, is “a close friend of mine,” McVay said, and as a former player has a “great perspective on how we operate.”
Not only did Donald like the idea of the team acquiring Garrett, but he also realized, “I wish I was still out there playing right about now.”
“Seeing what was being done with this team, the pieces that were getting brought here,” Donald said. “I was like, ‘OK, it’s a complete team.’ And then you see other moves they [made].”
On June 1, the Rams traded for Garrett, sending outside linebacker Jared Verse to the Cleveland Browns as part of a package that included a first-round pick in 2027 and a second-round pick in 2028.
When Donald mentioned the idea of coming out of retirement to McVay, it led to a conversation the head coach never expected to have.
“When he sat down with me and he said, ‘I’m full, I’m complete,’ he meant it and I believed him,” McVay said in late July. “I think out of respect for him, you don’t revisit those things.”
Donald had retired after 10 NFL seasons as a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and an eight-time first-team All-Pro.
While there was no doubt in McVay’s mind that Donald would impact the defense if he returned, he also wanted to make sure Donald knew he didn’t owe the organization anything. As McVay fielded questions about Donald’s potential return throughout training camp, he reiterated that Donald had earned the right to make a decision on his own timeline.
Three months after the pair had their first conversation about the possibility of Donald coming out of retirement, Donald and the Rams agreed to a one-year, $20 million deal with playoff incentives that can raise the total value of the deal to $30 million, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. It took what Donald called “a long process,” one that general manager Les Snead described to Pat McAfee on Monday as “a grueling summer.” Now, the Rams might be positioned to have the best defensive front in NFL history, in part because of the addition of Garrett and the relationship McVay has with Donald.
“I mentioned to Sean [McVay] yesterday,” Snead told McAfee. “For a player of his caliber to want to leave retirement and probably what -- two, three years away from a first-ballot, possibly Hall of Fame moment to go, you know, I’ll put that on hold to come and play for you. I think their relationship is special.”
IT WASN’T LONG after that late-May conversation with McVay that Donald started putting himself in a position to train and get his body to the point that he could see how he felt, how he moved and whether he could play again in the NFL -- now at age 35 -- and at the All-Pro level he was accustomed to.
For the past 14 weeks, Donald said, he put himself through “nonstop grinding” to get to the point he could potentially return to the practice field in late August. McVay described the work as a “very strict, regimented process” similar to what the defensive tackle went through as a player.
Although he hadn’t played football for two years, Donald said he lifted weights and worked on his conditioning. “It was a little different transition into the grass again, running [and] cutting,” he said.
Donald said Sunday he didn’t know how his preparation would translate, but on Aug. 9, the first day he worked with his speed trainer who had trained him since high school, he got good news.
“He looked at me and said, ‘You ain’t missed a step,’” Donald said. “That’s why it was important for me to work with a guy that knows me, that’s been around me since day one, since high school. Just to get his advice of how I’m looking, what he’s thinking. Obviously over time, I got better, got a little quicker. I started feeling better, the second wind started kicking in a little differently. After you get to that point, that second wind kicks in, now it’s time to transition and start doing some football stuff.
“A long process, but it was my process that I needed to do to make myself feel like I can do it.”
Donald said he was “on and off” on whether to return during the past couple of months of training. His wife, Erica, was on board, telling him, “If you want to do this, [I’m] with [you] 100%.” And although there were days Donald doubted he should come back, she told him not to rush things.
“You want to do this,” she told him. “Don’t make no decisions faster than what you need to make a decision. Take your time.”
And then, in mid-August, Donald had made up his mind.
“I talked to Sean [McVay] every single week, damn near every day,” Donald said. “We stayed in contact. I gave him all my updates, how I was feeling, how things were going. I know he got annoyed with [media] asking all the questions in camp every damn day. I felt bad for him at that point, but I was doing everything I needed to do to give myself peace of mind and see if I can do it.
“[There] wasn’t [any] rushing. I just wanted to take my time and make the right decision because once you choose to come back, you’re all the way back in. You can’t be halfway in; you [have to] be all the way in it. I had to get to that point where I felt like I’m 100% committed to playing football again because the last two years have been amazing.”
DURING THAT PROCESS, the Rams opened training camp on July 26 at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. The day before the first practice, Rams defensive line coach Giff Smith sat down with his position group one-on-one to be “open and honest” about the possibility of Donald returning and what that would mean for those players. Earlier that day, McVay also addressed the possibility of adding Donald to the team in his first news conference of training camp.
“We did individual meetings, and they deserve the right to ask and understand and create clarity because the unknown is what bothers people,” Smith said. “And so we had a good discussion, aired it all out, and then I told them then we’re going to work the next day.
“And so thought it was beneficial for everybody and it really kind of cleared the air and we could just go to work and have a good training camp.”
Defensive end Braden Fiske, who was drafted at No. 39 by the Rams a month after Donald retired, said while he thought Smith’s update “was needed to just address the situation that was going on,” he “didn’t think too much of it past that.”
“It was one conversation and back to work,” Fiske said. “I wasn’t going to let something like that hinder how I go about my business on the field or off the field, and I was just going to keep working and keep fighting. And that’s what we’ve done so far. And it’s worked out up to now.”
Fiske said Smith is a coach who likes to rotate his players in and out of games and that “the cool thing about our room is we’re comfortable rolling with anybody on the field.”
And while Donald said Sunday that he hopes the defense can “do some special things together,” he is also aware the Rams had a “complete” team before he came out of retirement.
“I already thought it was a stacked D-line ... then you bring a guy like Myles Garrett, a generational talent, and [I was] like, ‘That can be fun,’” Donald said. “Obviously, what they did on the back end, bringing certain pieces they need at the secondary, I think this is a complete team with me here or without me here. So for me to even have the opportunity to be a part of this, be with this team, I take nothing for granted.
“It’s a blessing to be retired from the game for two years and have the opportunity to come back and be a part of something special. Nothing is promised, nothing is guaranteed, but I’m trying to get to that ultimate goal day by day, week by week, and just stack them days.”
WHILE DONALD WAS on the field for the Rams during their walk-through Sunday, but he took part only in individual drills. The next day, he didn’t take part in practice, something McVay said was “part of the plan all along.”
Despite the defensive tackle being “in a football mindset the last 14 weeks,” Donald said the next step is “getting back on that grass and knocking the rust off as far as playing football again.” That began with drills Sunday.
“I put myself in the best position, the best way I can with training to get to where I’m at now,” Donald said. “The only thing I can do now is play 11-on-11 and knock the rust off, get going, get caught up with the speed of the game, and the rest is the rest.”
Throughout this process, Donald told McVay he wanted to make sure that if he came back, he could play with a familiar dominance. Does he feel like he can play at a high level?
“Yes,” Donald said. “Do I feel like I can still be myself? 100%. If I didn’t feel like that, I wouldn’t be here. So, from everything I did, from training with just conditioning to the football transition and doing football drills and things in that nature, I recorded everything. I studied myself to a T. I watched every movement, every cut, every hip flip. In my opinion, I don’t see [a] difference. If [there is], it looked a little cleaner to me.”
Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula has had time to consider what Donald’s return would mean to his defense. And while Shula said in early August he was focused on coaching the players who were in the building, he said, “I think I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it a little bit.”
Donald has 111.0 career sacks, which ranks second among primary defensive tackles since individual sacks became official in 1982, according to ESPN Research. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, making the Rams the first team since 1999 to have multiple players with 100 career sacks entering the season.
Garrett didn’t shy away from talking about potentially playing alongside Donald. “I think there’s a lot we can learn from each other, and I’d love to pick his brain on the things he does to attack his matchups, and I think the same could be said vice versa.”
Of course, there’s more to the Rams’ future HOF defensive front than the pairing of the top-end pass rushers.
“Obviously, Myles and Aaron get a ton of credit that’s been deserved and earned throughout the course of their career,” McVay said. “But those other guys on the front are pretty damn good, too. I think the beauty of the unit is the unit. Those guys are incredible parts of it, but so are Byron Young and Josaiah Stewart and Des Johnson on the outside. So are Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske, Poona Ford and Tyler Davis on the inside.
“... It’s how do we come together as a group and how do we play great team football?”
The biggest remaining question is when Donald will play his first game. Neither Donald nor McVay wanted to put a timeline on Donald’s return just 11 days before the Rams’ season opener in Melbourne, Australia, against the San Francisco 49ers (8:35 p.m. ET, Netflix).
“I’m here to just go day by day, work,” Donald said. “I’m not here to be given [anything]. [I’m here] to earn any position that I’m in. Whatever that is, whatever my role is, I’m going to earn it.”
