Aaron Donald isn’t going anywhere – except maybe to the bank.
After considering retirement and walking away from the sport that he’s dominated for the last eight years, Donald is officially coming back for another season.
The Rams have signed Donald to a reworked contract, ensuring their seven-time All-Pro defensive tackle will remain in Los Angeles for at least a couple more years. According to reports, it’s a three-year deal worth a whopping $95 million. Previously, Donald was set to earn $55 million from 2022-2024, so he’s getting a $40 million raise on this new contract.
He’ll earn $65 million in the first two years alone, and that figure is fully guaranteed. After the next two years, Donald will have the option to either retire or come back in 2024 and earn an additional $30 million guaranteed.
The #Rams get their Super Bowl hero back for a guaranteed $65M over the next two seasons with the contract structured to allow Aaron Donald to retire or return in 2024 for an additional guaranteed $30M. https://t.co/Gsq6lYCQmV
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 6, 2022
At that point, Donald will have finished 10 seasons in the NFL, so he’ll have to decide if he wants to return for an 11th season in 2024. For a player who said he originally set out to play only eight years, that could be a tough decision for him to make.
But the important thing is that he’ll be with the Rams in 2022 and almost certainly 2023, too. That’s plenty of time for them to win another ring or two with the way their roster is currently structured.
Albert Breer noted that there are void years on the back end of Donald’s contract, which allows the Rams to spread out his cap hits – which are bound to be quite large. He’s making $31.6 million per year, and he has $65 million guaranteed in the next two years alone.
So the Rams needed those additional years tacked on to help spread out the money, saving room for other players in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
There are void years on the back end, but sources say this deal is just for three years, which is what he had left on his old deal. So Donald basically gets a straight-up $40 million raise over the next 3 years at 31 years old.
This breaks precedents like the Watson deal did. https://t.co/EMD1T6e3ZY
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) June 6, 2022
According to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk, Donald has base salaries of $1.5 million (fully guaranteed) in 2022, $13.5 million in 2023 and $30 million (fully guaranteed) in 2024. There are two void years at the end of the deal in 2025 and 2026.
He gets a roster bonus of $5 million in 2022 and 2023, which are both fully guaranteed. His signing bonus, which is prorated over the duration of the contract, is $25 million.
