The Los Angeles Rams got into the win column for the first time in Week 2 by blowing out the New York Giants on Monday Night Football, but the biggest story of the night was Aaron Donald making his return.
Donald retired after the 2023 season, but after the Rams acquired Myles Garrett this offseason, the three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year regained the fire and decided to come back.
The 35-year-old did not make the trip to Australia in Week 1, so his first game action came in Week 2 against the Giants and he admitted to being a little more fired up than usual, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“I did a bit more jumping than I usually do,” Donald said. “So it kind of amped me up a little bit, man. It felt good. Felt good to be back coming out, being embraced how I was. So it was definitely special.”
Unfortunately, Donald is not able to play with Garrett just yet as the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year was put on injured reserve with a knee injury and will miss at least four games. Because of that, Donald often found himself in a familiar spot and that was being double and triple-teamed by offensive linemen.
He still found a way to record three tackles and one tackle for loss on the night, and Donald felt he could’ve been even better in his opportunities:
“I had some one-on-ones, I just got to win them a little faster,” Donald said. “At times, like I said, I popped up, got a little high, got a little too excited. But hopefully we keep getting blocked like that, man, and we get going.”
Some rust was naturally expected in Donald’s first game back and he admitted afterwards that he was feeling a little bit sore. Once he gets his legs back underneath him though, the Rams star showed he can still be that guy.
Aaron Donald: Game wasn’t as fast as I thought
Donald trained extremely hard to make this comeback, but there is still no replicating actual game speed. Despite that, Donald felt he was able to adjust well:
“The game really wasn’t as fast as I thought,” Donald said. “It was more of me calming myself down, overrunning stuff or just my feet not being in the ground how they supposed to be, not trusting my eyes, little stuff like that. But playing the game, when I held out in ’17, ’18 it was the same way when I came back, it took a couple games to get going. It’s a little different. I ain’t played in two years, so I gotta watch the film, see what I did good, see what I did wrong, and just clean it up.”
With each game, Donald should only continue to get better and better and once Garrett returns, the Rams defense will be firing on all cylinders.
