Aaron Donald has been at the center of retirement comeback talk since even before the Myles Garrett trade happened. He and Garrett combined would be the craziest tandem on a defensive line the NFL may have ever seen. Plus Donald has even mentioned the possibility of coming out of retirement since there is the chance of winning a second Super Bowl in Los Angeles in February.
So when Adam Schefter gets on NFL Live and says “He’s thinking about it, training camp is getting close. Next month they’d have to figure out a plan to bring him back”. It gives every fan a chance to count the days down until it’s Christmas in July for the Rams.
But one message stood out from Schefter that made me think. He said “That Zach Charbonnet [two-point conversion] play that we talked about — I think that set up the entire Rams’ offseason,” Schefter continued. “Because I don’t know that they would have gone out and traded for Myles Garrett if they had gone out and won the Super Bowl last year.” After being asked what sparked the Rams aggressive offseason.
Rams Wouldn't Have The Leverage They Do Now To Convince Donald To Come Back
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
What Schefter is saying is probably right. It seems less likely, if the Rams won the Super Bowl last year, they would have made both of the trades they did. They may have traded for Trent McDuffie just because the secondary was obviously their weakest point. Without a doubt though, the Myles Garrett trade would not have been on their radar.
But without those trades, Los Angeles wouldn’t have had all the leverage it does now to try to entice Donald out of retirement. The possibility of winning back to back Super Bowls and the chance to win his second at his home stadium might have been worth something, but the Rams would have most likely been running it back with the same team, without another Hall of Fame defensive linemen in place. That’s a hard sell, especailly considering if they had won last year Donald can easily say they don’t need him and that they've been successful since his retirement.
But what happened to the Rams when it came to terrible officiating over the 2025 season and that haunting Charbonnet play, Aaron Donald kind of flips that script because of how dominant he was. If he was on the field in that game that play may not have ever even happened. Having him come out of retirement now with someone who is playing at the same level he was just makes the idea of Schefter’s words all too real.
