THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Aaron Donald still hasn’t reported to the Los Angeles Rams, and there is no telling when he will. But first-year head coach Sean McVay speaks to Donald on the phone from time to time. They talk about football, nothing else — and usually it’s McVay who reaches out first.
“I’ve kind of been chasing him around like I’m chasing a girl in high school,” McVay said, laughing, on Saturday, eight days before his team begins its season. “… I’ve reached out to Aaron, but it’s kind of been a back-and-forth. He’s a guy that I enjoy talking to. I’ll enjoy it a lot more when I see him in person.”
Donald’s holdout will hit 38 days by the end of this week, which amounts to $1.52 million in fines — nearly as much as his $1.80 million base salary for 2017.
The crucial day is seemingly Monday, Labor Day, one McVay called “the first day of true preparation for our team and for the Colts.” The Rams will then be off on Tuesday. If Donald doesn’t report by Monday, it will be hard to envision him playing in the Sept. 10 opener against the Indianapolis Colts.
“I’m an optimistic guy,” McVay said when asked if he was hopeful of seeing Donald on Monday. “I’m always going to take the positive approach.”
But there hasn’t been any indication that a deal between the defensive end and the Rams is close. The Rams’ front office — a contingent that included COO Kevin Demoff, general manager Les Snead and senior assistant Tony Pastoors — flew to Atlanta to meet with Donald’s representatives at CAA on Wednesday, but weren’t any closer to a deal by the time they left.
“Aaron’s a very special player to us,” McVay said. “We want him here, and we want him to be a part of this. With what these players have started to create, I think it would be special to have Aaron be a part of that.”
The Rams have continually said the right things publicly — dating all the way back to early March, when Snead said at the scouting combine that Donald “deserves a raise” — but apparently haven’t put the right things on paper.
Demoff, Snead and Pastoors have made it a point to keep McVay out of the details of their negotiations. McVay appreciates that. It allows McVay to focus only on football in his conversations with Donald. They talk about what he has missed and how he fits, and McVay tells him how badly he wants him around. He believes the feeling is mutual.
“He wants to be here,” McVay said of Donald. “We respect their approach and where they’re at, their stance, based on what they want to get accomplished out of these things. But with regards to mine and Aaron’s dialogue, it’s been exclusively player-coach football related stuff. That’s what you want it to be.”
With Donald out, the Rams’ only solidified starter in 3-4 base sets appears to be Michael Brockers. The other five down linemen, after the Rams trimmed their roster to 53 players, are Ethan Westbrooks, Louis Trinca-Pasat, Morgan Fox, Tyrunn Walker and Tanzel Smart. They all have a chance to get significant playing time now.
Donald is a three-time Pro Bowler and a two-time first-team All-Pro who has compiled 28 sacks in his three-year career, four more than any other defensive tackle from 2014 to 2016. Last season, he led the NFL in quarterback hits (31) and tied for the lead in tackles for loss (17). Heading into this season, many would argue that he is the game’s best defensive player, regardless of position.
But he is underpaid by virtue of the two years that remain on his rookie contract.
Donald is owed less than $9 million in base salary from 2017 to 2018, representing a significant gap between him and the game’s highest-paid defensive players. Broncos outside linebacker Von Miller signed a six-year, $114 million contract that guarantees him $70 million, and Dolphins defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh signed a six-year, $114.375 million deal that guarantees him nearly $60 million. But Miller and Suh got their deals after five NFL seasons, not three.
The Rams know Donald is in pristine shape, but McVay admitted that there’s no substitute for practice reps.
“If there’s anybody that you feel like can try to mimic and emulate those things when he’s working out on his own, Aaron’s one of those guys,” McVay said. “But we do want to definitely be aware of getting him back and being smart about it, while knowing that if we do get it solved, and you come to a solution, he’s one of our best players, want to have him out there with his teammates. But not at the expense of not having a smart plan in place to where you rush him back and then it results in not having him back for a couple weeks.”
