For the first time since he retired in March 2024, defensive superstar Aaron Donald featured in an NFL game for the Los Angeles Rams when he helped them earn a dominant 28-6 win over the New York Giants on Monday night.
Following the victory that improved the Rams to 1-1 on the season, Donald reflected on making his regular-season in-game return.
Aaron Donald a little beat up after returning to the Rams lineup
“I’m just a little sore,” Donald acknowledged while grinning during his postgame news conference, per Greg Beacham of the Associated Press. “Man, just two padded practices, and then a game. …The game wasn’t really as fast as I thought. It was more me, calming myself down. Overrunning stuff, or my feet not being on the ground where they’re supposed to be, not trusting my eyes, little stuff like that.”
As noted by Sarah Barshop of ESPN, Donald played 32 of the Rams’ defensive snaps against the Giants and tallied three tackles, one of which was for a loss. While such numbers don’t look overly impressive on a box score, it’s worth noting that the Rams didn’t need Donald to be elite after Giants starting quarterback Jaxson Dart suffered a knee injury on the game’s opening drive and didn’t return.
The Big Blue offense seemingly never recovered from that setback, as backup Jameis Winston failed to build any real momentum after he replaced Dart. In total, Winston completed 11 of 27 pass attempts for 111 yards and an interception against the Rams.
“I had some 1-on-1s, (but) I’ve just got to win them a little faster,” Donald added about his performance against the Giants. “I popped up, got a little high, got too excited. Hopefully we keep getting blocked like that, and we’ll get going. I’m not worried about it.”
Aaron Donald has experience with not having a full training camp
Previous reports noted how the Rams “used a process of two or three weeks to” get Donald ready to play after he held out in 2017 and 2018 amid contract disputes. The 35-year-old is currently going through a similar experience.
“It was the same way when I came back,” he explained. “It took a couple of games to get going. But it’s a little different: I ain’t played in two years, so I’ve got to watch the film and see what I did good, what I did wrong.”
Donald will continue to shake rust off when the Rams play a “Sunday Night Football” game at the 1-1 Denver Broncos on Sept. 27. As of Tuesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had Los Angeles as a 2.5-point road favorite for that game.