It's FINALLY Official...

It's finally official Aaron Donald is back after a two-year absence with the Rams. What this means for the defense going forward this season and how it shaped the final 53-man roster. All that and more on today's episode of Rams Digest. Welcome back to another episode of Rams Digest. I'm your host Joshua Feinricher. Make sure to leave a like on today's video right now for Aaron Donald being back on the Rams. It is a great day, an amazing day for Rams fans and football fans as a whole. Maybe not NFC West fans or Rams opponents fans, but besides that everyone else. And make sure to share this video with a friend, especially this one because it helps out the channel a lot. Before we get into today's main story, I want to hear from you all in the comments. What are your expectations for Aaron Donald this season? What does this mean for the Rams defensive play style? And will Aaron Donald be close to an All-Pro player this season? Leave your thoughts down below in the comments. I will be responding as always and make sure to stay tuned to the end of today's video for my answers to these questions. But now obviously we need to get to the news of the offseason, you could say. Maybe even more news than the Myles Garrett trade. But going into the details of this Aaron Donald signing, we have the one, the only Adam Schefter that we will be getting to right now. He's back! Rams star Aaron Donald is coming out of retirement and returning to the Rams on a one-year $20 million deal with incentives that could be worth up to $30 million per Ian Rappaport at Rappsheet and me. After two seasons away, Donald will now join forces with Myles Garrett, giving the Rams two of the top defensive linemen in NFL history. You know, Eminem once said Shady's back back again and now it's Donald's back back again. It's felt so empty without him, some some might say, but definitely a monumental signing this offseason again. And this wasn't even rumored until early June right after the Rams traded for Myles Garrett when Aaron Donald posted those videos. I thought he was trolling but then July rolled around and it was like, oh hey hang on now he might be serious. And then August it looked like it was gonna happen but now we are finally here to the point where this is happening and it is a great day. It's a great day for Rams fans. Obviously he's gonna have to be worked into this defensive system of course and Sarah Barshop actually does have a little bit on this in her ESPN article that she put out a little around an hour before I am recording this so I'm gonna get to that right now. And what will his workload look like? That is the main question that I, many Rams fans, football analysts are asking. And in small Rams head coach Sean McVay had been clear that if Donald unretires he'll want to be all-in. It seems unlikely that he will return to playing a high percentage of snaps in his return. Donald would likely be in spots he could be most impactful, perhaps playing 20 to 25 snaps a game mainly on pass rushing nouns. And that is according to Sarah Barshop of ESPN. And to me I fully agree. I think especially early on Aaron Donald is going to want to be worked back into this defense. He's not gonna want to rush his debut. He didn't rush him coming back. I mean Josh and I and a lot of other people thought it should have been done a couple weeks ago for him to be ready for week one but I think that's okay. Again week one is in Australia in Melbourne, that Melbourne game. And there's gonna be a lot of extra swelling on that long at least 10-15 hour flight. So Aaron Donald may not want to play in Melbourne. That was a take Greg Jennings had I saw a couple days ago that I actually kind of agree with the more that I think about it. Him avoiding that travel to Melbourne. He makes his debut week two versus the Giants and then he gets worked up to a full role by the time the Bills game comes around in week five. That I think that is definitely something that can happen and something that would make a lot of sense for this Rams team because they haven't had any reps with him. All of his workouts so far have been individual drills and just seeing where his pace of play is compared to the rest of the NFL. He clearly believes it's enough. I believe it's enough for him to be back but it's gonna take some time for Aaron Donald to gel with this defense again. A defense that hasn't had a lot of reps with Miles Garrett this training camp due to his injury. We're gonna give you all the updates on that leading into week one obviously as well but overall again I love the signing. I think that role for him would be good to start with by the time the playoffs come around end of season stretch. I would like to see much less of a snap count on Aaron Donald and then getting into the salary cap side of this situation here as well. What does this mean for the Rams salary cap? The Rams had 15.45 million available in cap space prior to cutting their roster to 53 players which they has to be by 6 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. The Rams could maneuver cap space to make Donald fit under the cap and still have the money to get through the season whether that's by giving him incentives that are designated not likely to be earned meaning they'll be counting his next year's cap or giving him most of the money as a signing bonus and adding void years to spread out the cap hit from Sarah Barshop again. That has not yet been confirmed at the time of recording how they're gonna spread out this 20 million that's worth up to 30 million in incentives those that extra 10 million in incentives my guess are gonna be those designated incentives that she talked about again as of right now that has not yet been confirmed I'm sure in tomorrow's video there's gonna be some more extra little contract language details that we can get into here on the Rams digest channel but for right now from what we know is the contract is 20 million with an extra 10 million potentially available in incentives that is what we know for right now again could the Rams make trades sure they traded Mark Redmond but that's not really gonna free up too much cap space as he was he was a practice squad level player for this team so again getting this done is absolutely amazing and for Aaron Donald as well we do need to visit where he last left off as a player in 2023 he was still pretty effective but he certainly wasn't you know 15 sack a year Aaron Donald when he retired you know going into his stats from his final season Aaron Donald on that year in 2023 he had three passes defensed zero fumbles and zero fumble recoveries he had eight sacks he had 53 total tackles had 23 quarterback hits he still was a first team all pro at the defensive back position and not defensive back jeez at that defensive tackle position and he was 32 years old when that season ended and now he has just turned 35 so there are some I would say health longevity questions that can be looming with a decision like this that the Rams do need to be careful with him to start the season but on defense there's so many different things that this Rams team can run a defensively with Aaron Donald, Miles Garrett, Trent McDuffie, Jalen Watson, Nate Landman's thought that linebacker position, Quinton Lake being fully healthy, your safety room being so versatile with Kitchens, Curl and obviously Jalen McCullough as well as the guy who's able to rush the passer from the defensive backfield just so many different plays you can run there's a lot of pressure on Chris Shula's shoulders right now but I certainly think he is up for it considering how he ended last season but with all trades there's winners and there are losers again the Rams as a whole Aaron Donald winners we get that but somebody who is a loser of this trade to me at least Brayden Fisk now Brayden Fisk is somebody who had a very strong rookie season was a finalist for defensive rookie of the year in 2024 whereas college and the NFL teammate Jared Verse ended up winning that award but Brayden Fisk dealt with a knee injury at the end of his rookie year wasn't as effective in 2025 still recovering from that injury but with the initiative Aaron Donald this defensive tackle room is definitely a little bit crowded this D-line room as a whole and if we look at what Brayden Fisk did last year again he was coming off of that injury so we're not gonna fully play into everything here but if we do look at this he did play in all 17 games again limited early on though 30 total tackles only three sacks zero picks zero force fumbles 11 solo tackles 19 assisted he did have one fumble recovery 16 sack yards and zero pick sixes again he did have a lot more sack he had eight and a half in 2024 as you can see here on this graphic it was a lot more effective as a pass rusher and a run defender as well but again in 2025 definitely was hampered by that knee injury he has good size though for the position at obviously 6'5 he did go up in weight in his second year up to 294 which a lot of people myself were pretty hyped about but that didn't really seem to make too much of a difference and he was somebody who i thought could be a trade candidate when i first read the sarah barshop article about the ram's cap space he was someone that i was like oh a team that needs some pass rush help show to go after him give him some more reps because he's not going to be getting as many reps this year as a ram but if we do go into this 53-man roster a little bit here that came out literally just before i am recording this video tomorrow's video will go much more in depth on the 53-man roster so make sure to stay tuned for that tomorrow but for this defensive line room looking at they kept six players both tyler davis and ty hamilton ended up making the roster even with the addition of aaron donald again we're going to get into some guys who were cut to make the aaron donald addition but keeping six defensive linemen is definitely not something i saw on this ramfingo card even with aaron donald coming back i thought it was going to be five and not six but they did decide to keep six and you know who your top three are it's going to be kobe turner aaron donald puna ford we know that braden fist is going to be four because he's better than the other two options but he's not going to hit a lot of reps especially as the season goes on because aaron donald's going to be itching to get out there and you're going to play donald over braden fisk as long as aaron donald is you know playing at least even 75 percent of the level that he was while he was an active player so braden fisk is definitely a bit of a loser in in this trade just because of his playing time again i think the mentorship of aaron donald will help him get back on track as a whole especially for the 2027 season so in that way he wins but in playing time wise he does lose and aaron donald as well was a great mentor for kobe turner during his rookie season as well kobe turner talked about that quite a bit because he had a very strong rookie year in 2023 and he's built off of that ever since to becoming one of the better defensive tackles in football so having another season now with aaron donald with the extra couple years of experience that's going to be a great defensive tackle duo one of the better defensive tackle duos i can remember as well you have a great edge rush duo a great defensive tackle duo and a great cornerback and safety duo now this rams defense man i'm telling you it's going to be top three in the league i'm going to give the texans and broncos a lot of respect here too but that rams defense is going to be right up there with them as well but now we do need to get into a couple of the players that were cut earlier today uh cam lampkin being one of them the rams did only decide to keep four corners on this 53 man roster keeping four corners isn't the end of the world obviously we know who they are mcduffie watson emmanuel forbes and josh wallace so again cam lampkin from what i'm seeing is not expected to be on the practice squad that wasn't something that i saw reported again things could change as that waiver process goes through for every player who gets cut but for cam lampkin and they cut az hamilton yesterday which makes a lot of sense he he didn't really show much in the preseason to me besides that one interception but cam lampkin i think was the better player between the two and i am a bit surprised they are not keeping five cornerbacks on this roster again because they're keeping six defensive linemen and five tight ends and seven wide receivers on this roster i do see why they only kept four cornerbacks and then moving on to someone else here a preseason star in dean connors who unfortunately also did not make this roster and this is from underdog nfl according to mike garofalo dean connors has been waived by the rams and he is someone who will be added to the practice squad if he clears waivers although i'm not too confident that dean connors is going to clear waivers dean connors was absolutely awesome during the preseason he showed his versatility as a pass catching running back and someone who showed some pretty good rushing ability as well again a little bit undersized at the position something the rams are a bit okay with but i do think another team will probably pick him up to be on the practice squad and again i think the aaron donald edition made the rams only keep three running backs because of some other positions and then last but certainly not least our guy one of my favorite players from this training camp leslie bailey has made the 53 man roster i said i thought it was going to happen after he didn't really play too much in the final preseason game they're keeping five edge rushers myles garrett byron young jesiah stork jester mon johnson and wesley bailey will all be on the rams 53 man roster first off like this video for wesley bailey making the roster i mean i am so happy for him he showed out this preseason six five edge rusher i've talked about him a lot and again only keeping four cornerbacks and three running backs certainly opened up these spots to be had on this rams roster especially keeping an extra wide receiver an extra d lineman and an extra edge rusher as well so it all makes sense but i think all of these moves were due to the rams knowing that aaron donald was potentially coming back to the rams and this is just the pull that he had even though he's been out of the league retired for two years the rams for this entire offseason were gearing up for his return they were thinking okay where are some positions we can afford to not keep as many okay we have two great corners and manuel forbes you're too in this defense had showed some promise last year now only a cb3 a lot less pressure on it makes sense to keep one less there you have a great running back duo and then ronnie rivers the guy has been with the team for a couple years now okay we can keep three there and we can add an extra wide receiver an extra dean lineman and an extra defensive end edge rusher where these roster spots make sense so i think the rams all along this offseason were going to go with a similar construction to this roster knowing that at least since early july the aaron donald had a chance to come back and then for the rams as a whole for sean mcveigh doesn't really mean too much i mean mcveigh isn't really going to be hands-on with the defense in terms of play calling just because that's not his style and that's okay but for sean mcveigh another guy who gets your message across aaron donald a lot of success with sean mcveigh two super bowl appearances one super bowl win a defensive player multiple defensive player of the year awards i believe under sean mcveigh as well so again not because of sean mcveigh but just with him aaron donald another guy another leader on this roster someone who's had a playoff success played in many playoff games and just someone else who can help the young guys get sean mcveigh's message and deliver it to this team doesn't and then for chris shula and the defensive side of the ball a lot of pressure on him as i said earlier in this video tons and tons of pressure because you already had your two new stars of miles garrett and trent mcduffie and now you add in aaron donald you have a lot of pressure one to keep him healthy to understand his expertise his limitations because he'll have some limitations being 35 i'm seeing a lot of people saying oh he'll automatically be the best tackle in the league i don't think so i still think he'll be good i don't think he's going to come back and be terrible or anything but i don't think it's a fair expectation to him to be oh you're out for two years and now you're 35 still going to be the best of your position i just don't really believe that's going to be the case right away now could he be the most impactful at his position especially for a playoff run yes i do agree with that and he might be the best the tackle in the playoffs but for the regular season i don't think that'll happen i think he'll be slowed into his workload i agree with what sarah barshop said earlier on in this video and in her espn article which you should give a read after this video it's a really well known article and overall just so many different things this rams defense can run for chris shula he's gonna have to balance when to keep it simple especially early on and then when to dial up your more complex schemes and play calls so i think he's gonna have a little bit of maybe trouble with that early on but i think by the seat by the time the end of the season gets there in the playoffs they will be fully gelled and ready to go but i think chris shula's got it in the bag and then for less sneed master class of negotiations for him with aaron donald again the 20 million mark not something i thought was going to happen i thought it was going to be closer to 10 million with 20 million available or an extra 10 million available in incentives but he got the full 20 million in salary for now we'll see what that means tomorrow and or later today because i'm sure more will come out but with that extra 10 million in incentives i'm not surprised aaron donald drove up his own price just because again he's coming out of retirement he's going to want to make sure he's fully compensated and that makes sense and for less need i think they did a good job as well maneuvering the roster him and the entire rams front office and staff because again with aaron donald coming back you had to decide where do i guess accept your losses at positions they accepted corner they accepted running back and they were able to keep some extra guys at other positions which i do agree with and obviously now to today's question for the comments what are your expectations for aaron donald this season leave your thoughts down below in the comments i will be responding as always to me someone who's going to come in and be impactful in spurts early on and then he's going to become a starter as the year goes on and i think be extremely impactful and be a key reason why the i expect him to be good i expect him to be a top 10 d tackle and in the league throughout the year and get better as the year goes on and what does this mean for the ramps defensive play style leave your thoughts down below in the comments i think it means they could be a little bit more aggressive at times they can bring different looks they can even only rush four and still get to the quarterback at times and play deep high safety looks especially in some teams would like to throw the ball deep that it just gives them so much defensive versatility just another reason why i love this trade and will aaron donald be close to an all-pro player this season why for yes and for no to me stats wise maybe not but impact wise yes but i don't think he'll make an all-pro team and i don't think that matters to him and it shouldn't matter to you what matters is he's here he makes an impact and he's a big player for the rams late in the season and during the playoffs so that is what that means make sure to leave your thoughts in the comments on this video down below i will be responding as always and that is all for today's episode of rams digest remember leave a like on this video right now for aaron donald coming back to the rams and for the rams to go on a super bowl run it is a great day for football fans all around except for rams opponents and nfc west fans and make sure to hit that subscribe button right now for aaron donald coming back to the rams we're on the road to 6k 6 000 subscribers we were just over 110 away last time i looked from that goal click that sub button and click that notification bell as well click all so you get notified and never miss whenever we post a daily new rams digest video content pieces covering all things rams big things coming this regular season make sure to stay tuned for that leave your thoughts on today's video in the comments down below i will be responding as always and make sure to share this video with a friend because it helps out the channel a lot i've been your host joshua finers as always thank you very much for watching another episode of rams digest i hope you enjoyed it i'll see you soon for another one and have an amazing 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