The 2024 season was the first in a decade that Aaron Donald didn’t play for the Los Angeles Rams after the future Hall of Famer announced his retirement.
Donald had considered stepping away from football on several occasions but finally decided to go through with it after realizing his passion was no longer there.
Despite this, some around the NFL believed that Donald would eventually return to the Rams for their playoff run. That obviously did not happen, but it wasn’t without head coach Sean McVay making his case for Donald to rejoin the team.
During an appearance on “Pardon My Take,” McVay said that he tried convincing Donald to return to the Rams after drinking too many vodka sodas at his son’s first birthday party:
Sean Mcvay tried to convince Aaron Donald to come back after a couple pops pic.twitter.com/SKJbDIS1ww
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) March 7, 2025
If Donald was serious about returning to the Rams last season, it would’ve needed to happen before Week 12. This is due to the NFL rule that states players on the reserve/retired list are not eligible to return after that point.
Donald still could’ve technically played for the Rams after Week 12, but the team would have needed to release him and then work out a new contract.
In order for that to happen, Donald would have needed to pass through waivers. Given his talent, it is highly unlikely that another team would have passed on the opportunity to claim him.
Now that Donald’s contract with the Rams is up, he could decide to make an NFL comeback at any time. However, that does not appear to be likely as Donald seems to be enjoying retirement.
Aaron Donald congratulated Jared Verse after being named AP Defensive Rookie of the Year
Jared Verse had the difficult task of replacing Aaron Donald last season, but he ended up having a stellar year en route to earning AP Defensive Rookie of the Year honors.
Donald has been keeping tabs on the Rams and congratulated Verse after winning the award. “Congrats, man. Well-deserved, bro. Well-deserved,” Donald said in a video.
“Let’s keep it up. We ain’t satisfied. We still hungry, though. We going to enjoy this one, but we got a lot more to go, a lot more to accomplish, man. From individual accolades to team success, just continue to lead, continue to play.
“Continue to have fun doing it, man. It’s a short time you get to do this game and play this game, so take it all in and enjoy it. Much love. I’m proud of you, bro. Let’s go!”
