The NFL world is waiting to see whether Aaron Donald will play in Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday, but the Los Angeles Rams star defensive tackle — fresh off his return from retirement — isn’t ready to give an answer yet.
The Rams are set to travel to Melbourne for the season opener on Tuesday night, and Donald wouldn’t commit to saying whether he’ll be on the flight.
“Taking it day by day. Come up with a game plan to see what’s going on,” Donald told reporters Monday. “Feeling good, feeling really good. Come up with a game plan and see.
“Honestly, man, I really do feel good. Things are clicking faster than I thought it would be. Even my first day out there, with 11-on-11, things would be a little all over the place. Settled in. A couple of plays a little rusty. It ain’t where I want it to be, but it’s pretty damn good if you ask me. To not play football in two years, to be moving how I’m moving, it’s really no dropoff. It’s not where I want to be. I can see it. I know there are things I want to clean up, that I’m going to clean up. The more reps I do, the more I play, it’ll get there.”
Donald hasn’t played in an NFL game since 2023, and he didn’t officially sign with the Rams until two weeks ago. A quick ramp-up time would make playing a game in a different time zone after a lengthy flight quite difficult.
Donald has been getting into NFL shape since June, so he wouldn’t be going into the game completely out of shape. Still, he’s no spring chicken.
The Rams, of course, want Donald on the field as soon as possible, but they have plenty of talent on the defensive line, so there’s not exactly a huge rush to have him.
Whether the three-time Defensive Player of the Year will begin his season in Week 1 should become clearer by Tuesday evening.
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