SoFi Stadium received a jolt of energy before Monday night’s game when Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald was the final defensive starter announced to the home crowd. Donald said the response from that crowd “cheered me up a little bit” as he ran onto the field for the first time since deciding to end the retirement that began after the 2023 season. Donald did not travel to Australia for the opener and took more time to prepare for his return to action. The result was three tackles and one tackle for loss while playing 33 of the team’s 58 defensive snaps. Donald said he’d like to win “a little quicker” when locked down one-on-one and that he feels things will feel more natural with a little more playing time under his belt. “The game really didn’t go as fast as I thought it would,” Donald said, via the team’s website. “It was more about calming down, getting over things or just my feet not being on the ground like they were supposed to be, not trusting my eyes, little things like that. But playing the game, when I held out in 2017 and 2018, it was the same way when I came back, it took me a couple games to get started. It’s a little different. I haven’t played in two years, so I have to watch the film, see what I did right, see what I did wrong and just clean”. The plan was for the Rams to pair Donald with Myles Garrett, but Garrett’s knee injury puts that on hold for the time being, so everyone involved will hope that in the coming weeks Donald will further recover from the game that made him a three-time defensive player of the year.
