NFL Breaking News: Aaron Donald Announces Retirement

Aaron Donald retires

“We’ve got breaking news on the NFL. Some surprising news when it comes to Aaron Donald, a surefire Hall of Famer, has announced he’s set to retire after 10 seasons in the league. Donald’s a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, most recently back in 2020. He’s spent his entire 10-year career out there in LA with the Rams, being named to the Pro Bowl 10 times with eight First-Team All-Pro selections.

The key player in Super Bowl 56 victory

Donald also led, if you remember, the Rams to victory in Super Bowl 56, able to get that ball away from Joe at the time, getting them that Lombardi and helping them in a big way for the franchise’s first championship since the 1999 season. But Donald’s set to call it a career after a very long, luxurious one out there with the Rams.

More on this, I want to bring in our NFL Insider, Paul. This is a surprise to most of us. We’re thinking about free agency, and getting ready for the draft, but here’s Donald set to retire. Your reaction to that news?

So, not a huge surprise that he’s retiring when he has plenty left in the tank. Let’s remember, after the Super Bowl, there was talk that he could retire after winning that Super Bowl. And then he got the three-year contract extension that ran through the 2024 season. Then the Rams, earlier today, it was reported, restructured his contract a little bit, lowering his cap hit for the 2024 season. And so, I guess a lot of people probably got comfortable that, okay, 24 is going to be his last hurrah, and maybe that’s going to be that for Matthew Stafford as well and Cooper Kupp.

Three-time Defensive Player of the Year

So, it would make sense for that triumphant team that won that Super Bowl a few years ago to go out after the 2024 season. So, that he is retiring now is a bit surprising. But, of course, again, not entirely surprising that it is happening at his young age where he’s just 32 years old, about to be 33, plenty, like I said, left in the tank. A 10-time Pro Bowler, a guy who, for seven straight years, was in the top five of voting for Defensive Player of the Year, and, of course, won it three times.

That only Lawrence Taylor and our friend Paul can say. So, incredibly impressive career, no question about it. And the retirement, again, we all knew he would be retiring young, but a slight surprise certainly that it’s after the 2023 season and not after the 2024 season, as you mentioned.

His entire career with the LA Rams

Not a surprise for us, but a lot of us thought that this was the year, that after what we saw with the Rams, you know, kind of trending towards the postseason towards the end of last year, that 2024, they had all the pieces. Donald is one of those. What does this mean for them, losing maybe their best player when it comes to that defensive side of the ball? That’s huge. I mean, there’s no question about it. I don’t think anyone with the Los Angeles Rams is deluded enough to think that ‘we’re going to be okay without Aaron Donald.’

I mean, yeah, they’re going to go out there and be competitive, but they are not a better team without Aaron Donald. However, again, no one was under the illusion that he’d play there forever. There was never going to be this Tom Brady-like run for Aaron Donald. It’s honestly, if you go back a couple of years, again, it’s a little surprising that he made it to 32 out there on the field. So, you know, they went out and got Kobe Turner in the draft, and he played well this past season. They’re going to have to look around in free agency now that we’re in the second to third wave of free agency.

Retirement surprises many

They’re going to, of course, look in the draft. You know, I go back to more than a year ago when the Rams were trying to trade for Brian Burns, then a 25-year-old edge rusher, pass rusher, not that interior guy, even though Aaron Donald, of course, lines up a little bit more on the outside than what we have typically seen from a defensive tackle in years past.

That said, they were anticipating, ‘Hey, we’re going to need some young pass-rush help sooner rather than later because we don’t know how long we’re going to have with Aaron Donald.’ And so, now the end is upon us if you are the Rams, something that surely you have been bracing for, knowing that it could happen, hoping that it would be after the 2024 season. But now, of course, happening today.

End of an illustrious career

Aaron Donald hanging up there, Hey, don’t forget, the conversation we continue on the Pick Six Pod. I’m pretty sure a lot of rumbling with Aaron Donald set to hang it up, Hall of Famer for sure, with 10 seasons, and over 100 sacks. Very few people can say they’ve done that. By the way, when it comes to those Defensive Player of the Year’s, JJ Watt, Lawrence Taylor, and of course, Aaron Donald, all have three. That’s it, that’s the list. But dial into the Pick Six, you’ll see all those guys talking about everything from the combine up to now in free agency. Coming up, the conversation continues. We’ll get LeDoyen in on this, of course, maybe one of his goats when it comes to AD, is set to hang it up.