The Los Angeles Rams will have a handful of new faces who will get their first chance to interact with the team when voluntary offseason workouts begin on Monday. However, those new Rams will have to wait a bit longer to spend some quality time with Aaron Donald.
According to the Los Angeles Times’ Gary Klein, the star defensive tackle is not expected to participate in the team's offseason workouts as he awaits his new contract. Donald, who is in the final year of his rookie deal, is seeking a contract extension that is likely to make him the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL.
The Rams are no strangers to Donald being a no-show during offseason workouts. Donald decided to sit out the team’s whole offseason program including training camp last year as he sought to call attention to his contract situation.
However, Donald’s absence in those workouts did not seem to hinder his performance on the field. He recorded 11 sacks en route to winning his first Defensive Player of the Year award.
Rams general manager recently indicated that Donald is “on the verge” of landing a contract that will make him the highest-paid defender in the league. Donald sitting out the team’s offseason program isn’t a big deal in the long run.
But the team will likely want to finalize that seemingly inevitable deal sooner rather than later so that Donald and the rest of the team can fully focus on coming together for a run at a championship for the upcoming season.