Aaron Donald's retirement is the first thing to go wrong for the Rams this offseason
The 2024 Los Angeles Rams were a ball of momentum.
Their 2023 season saw them rise up from a 3-6 start and make it to the playoffs well ahead of expectations. A depleted chest of NFL Draft picks — only one top-75 selection in the past two years — still managed to produce high-potential starters like Kyren Williams, Steve Avila, Kobie Turner, Byron Young and reigning rookie of the year runner-up Puka Nacua.
The Rams entered the 2024 offseason with moderate cap space and, for the first time since selecting Jared Goff in 2016, a first-round draft pick. The opening week of free agency saw a boatload of reasonably priced veterans move west. Darious Williams, one of the league’s better sideline cornerbacks, returned. Kamren Curl followed. Kevin Dotson re-signed, and Jonah Jackson arrived, giving Matthew Stafford one of the league’s most proficient offensive lines.
Everything was going well in Los Angeles. And then Aaron Donald decided to call it.
Cheers to what’s next. Extending a big thank you to the Rams and all of the fans for your support over these last 10 years. Much love. pic.twitter.com/edGxkUYdLz
— AD_99 (@AaronDonald97) March 15, 2024
Donald’s retirement is a surprise but simultaneously not unexpected. He flirted with the idea of hanging up his cleats after the Rams’ Super Bowl 56 victory.
Los Angeles kept him around for two more seasons with a market-breaking three-year, $95 million contract extension — a massive deal that hasn’t been eclipsed, even as the salary cap grew from $208 million to $255 million, because no one else is Aaron Donald.
Aaron Donald destroying 3 Vikings run plays by himself pic.twitter.com/lEKwwTXu1I
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) July 5, 2022
He had a relatively disappointing 13 sacks over those two years but was a first-team All-Pro last fall. In 2023, he had 31 pressures and 23 quarterback hits — both top-20 numbers in the NFL.
The thing about Donald is numbers cannot quantify what he brought to the field. There were no NFL offenses stupid enough *not* to double-team him. He invited triple teams and occasionally more and still wrought havoc. He wasn’t an edge rusher, meaning he perpetually had to fight through static and somewhere between 600 and 900 pounds of humanity (depending on if the running back stayed in to help) to break through the line and get to the quarterback.
Aaron Donald, a retrospective: pic.twitter.com/3JGmrUnXiK
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) March 15, 2024
He finished his career with 111 sacks — more than 11 per season.
There’s no underselling how big a loss this is for the Rams. Donald wasn’t a rising tide that lifted all ships. He was a tornado kind enough to allow his teammates to saddle up and ride across a devastated landscape.
Los Angeles only brought back two players who’d started at least 10 games for its defense in 2023. The Rams made the playoffs anyway because Donald’s gravity in the middle of the field created the space guys like Turner and Young needed to thrive.
Aaron Donald vs. a top 2-3 LG in the game..however good you think Donald is, he's probably better: pic.twitter.com/ex2sz6kcVZ
— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) September 12, 2018
There is no “next man up,” thematically, in the Los Angeles lineup because no one could possibly recreate Donald’s impact. But there’s really no “next man up” for the Rams because their defensive line was already concerningly thin before their future Hall of Famer’s departure.
There are only five linemen currently set to return from last year’s active roster: Turner (good!), Bobby Brown (0.5 sacks, one QB hit in three seasons as a pro), Michael Hoecht (six sacks in 2023, rising as a player), (Desjuan Johnson (2023 seventh round pick who might be decent) and Cory Durden (2023 undrafted free agent who has played 44 career snaps).
That’s not great! While 2023 contributors like Jonah Williams (the other one) and Larell Murchison could return as free agents, the rest of this year’s available crop is fairly picked over. Arik Armstead and D.J. Reader signed elsewhere the night before Donald’s retirement. The best available veteran on the open market may be Mike Danna, who is a great complementary piece but aggressively not, you know, Aaron Donald.
This casts a pall over what had otherwise been a great offseason in Los Angeles. The Rams were building toward a long playoff run and still are. But the path to beating them just got a lot smoother without having to plan around the tsunami up front.
That makes this a day Rams fans everywhere should celebrate; they got to see greatness up close for a decade. But also one that should, at least a little bit, cast a shadow on their sunshine in 2024.