The Los Angeles Rams restructured the contract of superstar defensive tackle Aaron Donald on Friday morning, according to Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com. The move saves the team $9.2 million against the cap this season.
Donald held the biggest cap hit on the team, coming into the year with a $34.2 million price tag. His cost will now drop to $24.95 million this season, however it will bump his 2025 cost up to $38.5 million.
This is great for the Rams for two reasons, one is the obvious goal of clearing cap space for the incoming rookie class, as well as any additional free agent additions. LA will now have around $19.2 million in open space, but that does not include the contracts of Colby Parkinson, Darious Williams or Kamren Curl yet, so a good chunk of the new space is already accounted for.
Secondly, and arguably the more important reason this is a notable move, is that it might mean that Donald will be returning to the Rams for 2024.
There have been rumblings about Donald potentially retiring this offseason, especially back in February when GM Les Snead said the team was “hoping” to have Donald back, but did not completely rule out the idea that he could step away.
“You know, we’re definitely hoping Aaron is (back),” Snead said. “I know Aaron is spending time away with the goal of being revitalized.”
The Rams have been very active this offseason, resigning G Kevin Dotson and WR Demarcus Robinson, then bringing in G Jonah Jackson, TE Colby Parkinson, CB Darious Williams and S Kamren Curl. It will remain to be seen if the Rams will also try to restructure QB Matthew Stafford and WR Cooper Kupp’s contracts, they could potentially free up another $32.3 million by doing so.