Aaron Donald pleased with how return to field is going, mum on status for Rams' season opener

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After two seasons out of football , Aaron Donald has been pleasantly surprised by how his body has reacted since rejoining the Los Angeles Rams last month.

Whether it means the three-time Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year will be ready to play in the Rams’ season opener against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia, on Friday morning local time is still unclear.

“We going day by day,” Donald said. “(We’ll) Come up with a game plan and see what’s going on. But feeling good. Feeling really good.”

Donald did not practice Monday, which he described as a scheduled day off. Such breaks were frequently built into his game week to reduce wear and tear in later years during the 10 seasons of his first stint with the Rams. They are likely to again be a regular feature now that Donald is 35 years old and hasn’t played in an NFL game since a NFC wild-card round loss to the Detroit Lions in January 2024.

For Donald, everything is about putting himself in position to be as effective as possible in meaningful action. He is still holding himself to the same standard that led to 111 sacks in 154 regular-season games and eight first-team All-Pro honors.

“Even with my first day out there with 11-on-11, I thought things would be a little all over the place, but (I) settled in, settled in. A couple plays was a little rusty. It ain’t where I want to be, but it’s pretty damn good,” Donald said.

“If you ask me, you know, to not play football in two years, to be moving how I’m moving, like I said, it’s really no drop off.”

Defensive coordinator Chris Shula said the opportunity to have a player with Donald’s resume is worth navigating the uncertainty of his status for this game.

“It’s a challenge I’ll take any time,” Shula said. “No, we’re taking it day by day, and we’re just trying to get him acclimated to the defense. But at the end of the day, football is football. I know it’s been about two years, but we kind of expect him to hit the ground running, and we’ll see what happens.”

Shula said the Rams are accounting for all possibilities when it comes to Donald's availability at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“We’re ready for him if he does (play), ready for him if he doesn’t, and we’ll have a plan for however many plays he feels like he can go, and we’ll go from there,” Shula said.

The only thing that seems to be clear is neither Donald nor Shula expect him to be a every-down player at this stage of his career. After being used on 867 (80.8%) of the Rams' defensive snaps in the 2023 regular season, Donald will likely be focusing on getting to the quarterback alongside star pass rusher Myles Garrett, whose acquisition in June first sparked his interest in coming out of retirement .

The Rams have plenty of quality interior linemen to reduce Donald's workload, including Kobie Turner, Poona Ford and Braden Fiske.

“That’s the best thing about it, I don’t have to worry about playing 70, 60 snaps when you have a group like this,” Donald said. "There’s no pressure on me. I can just go out there, play free, play ball. Let the game come to me, play with the guys around me. Help them, they help me. Hopefully we have a lot of success this season.”

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