Aaron Donald is coming out of retirement to play for the Los Angeles Rams in 2026, the team announced on August 30. It is his first season since 2023, and it comes on a one-year contract worth $20 million that can reach $30 million with incentives, per Yahoo Sports.
Donald retired on March 15, 2024, after ten seasons, all with the Rams. He leaves retirement with 111 career sacks, 260 quarterback hits and 24 forced fumbles, ten Pro Bowl selections and three Defensive Player of the Year awards, and a Super Bowl LVI ring won at SoFi Stadium in the Rams' home building.
McVay's call about Garrett
The Rams' own account puts the trigger on a phone call. Head coach Sean McVay contacted Donald about the team's pursuit of Myles Garrett, and the conversation restarted a question Donald had considered closed. Los Angeles acquired Garrett from Cleveland in June for Jared Verse and a 2027 first-round pick — Garrett arriving off a season in which he set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.
Donald then went through what McVay described as a "very strict, regimented process" during training camp, which opened July 25, to establish whether he could still play at the level he left at. On July 31 McVay said that "if there's an arrow, it's trending upward." Donald's own answer, in the Rams' announcement: "Do I feel like I can play at a high level? Yes."
Donald has three Defensive Player of the Year awards and Garrett has two; Yahoo Sports notes it is the first time two multiple-time winners of the award have been teammates. The Rams also signed cornerback Trent McDuffie to a record-setting four-year, $124 million extension in March.
The timing
The announcement landed on the same day all 32 teams had to cut from 90 players to 53, a deadline the league moved to Sunday this year for the first time since 2004, with a 6:00 p.m. ET cutoff. The remaining $10 million is incentive-based.
Source: TheRams.com
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