Given the Rams’ aggressive pursuit of a Super Bowl ring in recent years, more than a few people thought they might need to step back and pay their debts sooner rather than later. Following a 5-12 season in 2022, that’s exactly what the Rams did this offseason, ridding themselves of some high-priced veterans to clear cap space in 2024 and beyond.
Though some folks saw this coming, Aaron Donald wasn’t necessarily one of them. He said in an interview with ESPN LA that he didn’t expect the Rams to be rebuilding like this in Year 10.
He was asked what his approach is going into this season, knowing the Rams have such a young and unproven roster, and while he’s as motivated as ever, he knows it’s hard to predict how Los Angeles will do this year.
“It’s a young team. We don’t know what to expect, right? All you can do is work,” he said. “All you can do is make sure the young guys know what they’re doing, even though you want to make sure everybody’s clicking, understanding how to play with each other. You never count a team out. Obviously, it’s not what you expect. Me personally, being in Year 10, I didn’t expect this to happen but we’re here now so just trying to find a away to be a good leader, a good player for this team and try to bring the young guys along. And hopefully we have the year we want.”
Donald has always been the Rams’ most important defender, but he’s the unquestioned centerpiece this year following the departures of Jalen Ramsey, Bobby Wagner, Leonard Floyd, A’Shawn Robinson, Greg Gaines and several others.
It’s a different feeling in Thousand Oaks and Irvine without those marquee veterans in the locker room and on the field, which Donald can’t help but notice. He admits he wishes players such as Robinson and even Michael Brockers were still with the Rams, having built great relationships with them on and off the field.
“It’s different, man. I’m not going to lie. It is really different and you kind of…obviously we’re here now, and you kind of wish some of them were still here, but it’s just the nature of the business I guess, right? So they’re gone,” he told reporters on Saturday. “Again, those are my brothers for life. You miss those guys definitely when you had so much success with them and you’ve been working on them so long. But now obviously it’s a new chapter for the next young guys to come up and you’re trying to build that bond, that relationship with them. So come game time, you want that same feel, that same confidence when they are next to you that they’re going to do their job and they’re going to help do what we need to do to be successful as a team. But again, that’s what camp is for. It’s a process, a different process than what I’m used to but I’m willing to put the work in.”
While Donald isn’t saying he’s upset about the situation the Rams are in right now after the success they’ve had, it’s obviously not the collection of players he expected to be around 17 months after winning a ring. But he’s not going to stop working as hard as he always does, whether the Rams go 12-5 or 5-12 again.
