All signs point to Aaron Donald’s return this season, though the defensive tackle has not officially announced his decision.
Donald had another workout at the Rams’ team facility on Monday, Nate Atkins of TheAthletic.com reports.
Defensive linemen Braden Fiske and Desjuan Johnson worked out alongside Donald. Johnson played with Donald in 2023, Donald’s final season before he retired.
Donald, 35, worked on speed and footwork with cones and ladders in a video posted by 2Tenths Speed & Agility.
“It didn’t feel like he missed a beat at all,” Johnson said, via Atkins. “It feels like he even got a little bit faster, a little bit hungrier in a way.”
The three-time Defensive Player of the Year began considering a comeback after the Rams traded for two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett.
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Tuesday’s announcement that Kyler Murray will be Minnesota’s starting quarterback means that 2024 first-rounder J.J. McCarthy won’t be.
What else does it mean for McCarthy?
He’ll speak to reporters on Wednesday. Everything he says, and doesn’t say, will be scrutinized. What he says and does away from the cameras and microphones will be far more important.
Will McCarthy willingly accept his new role? Will he bristle about it? Will he make snide comments to teammates, sowing potential dissension and discord?
Will he want out?
Although card-carrying Michigan man Adam Schefter is being justifiably dragged for carrying McCarthy’s water, Schefter’s pro-McCarthy take carries a distinct message: McCarthy, whether he admits it or not, likely wants out.
We caught a whiff of that vibe a year ago, when the Vikings were considering veteran options to pair with a roster into which the team had poured plenty of cash. If Sam Darnold or Daniel Jones had stayed, or if Aaron Rodgers had arrived, McCarthy possibly would have asked to be traded.
Now, after 10 games, McCarthy is being relegated to the bench. Although he won his final four starts in 2025, McCarthy finished the year with 11 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions, and a passer rating of 72.6.
It wasn’t good enough to get the Vikings to not pursue a veteran in 2026. To acquire Murray with a hint that it was his job to lose from the get-go. And to eventually make Murray the starter, despite the fact that the Vikings traded up from No. 11 to No. 10 to get “Nine” only two years ago.
The literal ball is out of McCarthy’s hands. But the figurative ball is now in his court. Will he ask to be traded?
Even if he does, who will trade for him? On one hand, his pay for the next two years is favorable. After receiving a $1.7 million roster bonus, he’s owed only $1.075 million in salary. Next year, he’ll make $3.775 million. On the other hand, there’s currently no obvious spot.
If his former Michigan coach loves McCarthy as much as he claims to, the Chargers and Jim Harbaugh could trade for McCarthy and make him the backup to Justin Herbert, bumping Trey Lance down a spot — or off the roster altogether. For the other L.A. team, where the Rams have no current backup to Matthew Stafford who has played in a regular-season game, McCarthy becomes a more affordable alternative to Jimmy Garoppolo.
The more likely outcome is that McCarthy and the Vikings will wait for a potential opportunity arising from an injury before the Tuesday after Week 9. If it never comes, McCarthy could remain in Minnesota for the full season, waiting for a chance to play if Murray is injured.
Regardless, it’s a setback for McCarthy. And the Vikings have chosen not to try to justify the 2024 draft-pick investment at the risk of not being a contender in 2026.
Pro football is the ultimate meritocracy. Nothing is given to anyone. Everything must be earned. McCarthy’s best play will be to not behave as if he was entitled to be the starter this year — and to focus on improving his skills and abilities in a way that will give him a chance to get back on the field again, in Minnesota or elsewhere.
But here’s the thing to remember. Although Schefter has already compared McCarthy to other first-round picks who found success in their second (or third . . . or fourth) career stops, those players were drafted by chronically dysfunctional franchises without a head coach who has shown that he can get the most out of the talent the quarterback possesses.
As to McCarthy, some may conclude that, if O’Connell can’t get him to play consistently at a high level, no one can.
Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua left practice early on Tuesday, but his injury is not a significant concern.
Nacua is just dealing with minor soreness in his groin, according to Ian Rapoport.
The Rams’ training staff took Nacua off the field out of an abundance of caution, but from all accounts he’s going to be OK.
Through three seasons, Nacua is averaging 95.3 receiving yards per game, which is the highest per-game average of any receiver in NFL history. He has decided to keep practicing even though he’s heading into the final year of his rookie contract, at a time when many NFL stars entering their fourth seasons choose not to practice until their teams give them a new deal. Even a minor injury scare could be a major concern for Nacua until he has a long-term contract.
Everyone is waiting for Aaron Donald to decide whether he’ll end a two-year retirement and return to football.
Everyone, including coach Sean McVay.
“He’s going through his process,” McVay told reporters on Tuesday. “I’m hopeful. I don’t even want to put a timeline on it because what I don’t want to [do is] rush this.
“There are conversations we’ve had. Hopefully [something happens] sooner than later, but there’s no new news. He is continuing to go through his process.”
A decision had been expected early this week. That was nudged back to the end of the week. It could still be bumped deeper into August.
The Rams will need a few weeks to get Donald ready to go. They plan to utilize the same approach that was employed in 2017 and 2018, when he held out over his contract.
The goal continues to be Week 1, with an expected range of 30 to 40 snaps.
Before that can be activated, Donald has to make a decision as to whether he’ll return.
Matthew Stafford is neither a trainer nor a doctor. But as a quarterback entering his 18th pro season, he has an idea of what a serious injury looks like.
Head coach Sean McVay did not have a real update on why Puka Nacua left Tuesday’s joint practice with the Cowboys, and Stafford didn’t know much about it either. But he also did not get any indication that Nacua’s injury was significant.
“I did not [see what happened],” Stafford said, via Lindsey Thiry of ESPN. “I’m not really sure what the issue was, but nobody ran up to me in a panic, so I don’t think it was anything too major.”
That’s not confirmation that nothing serious happened to Nacua. But it is a positive signal when there isn’t any other concrete information.
Nacua caught 129 passes for 1,7115 yards with 10 touchdowns last season.
The Rams’ first preseason game is set for Saturday afternoon against the Chiefs. Given McVay’s history, starters are highly unlikely to play for Los Angeles.
Myles Garrett missed his second consecutive practice, standing and watching the Rams’ joint practice with the Cowboys on Tuesday.
Coach Sean McVay revealed after the practice that the pass rusher is dealing with swelling in his knee.
McVay said Garrett is at “85 percent” with no setbacks in his rehab, but the Rams chose to err on the side of caution by holding him out.
The reigning Defensive Player of the Year missed four practices last week with what McVay called “lower-body soreness.”
Garrett played all 17 games each of the past two seasons and has missed only four games over the past six seasons.
The Rams acquired Garrett in a blockbuster offseason trade with the Browns, set the NFL’s single-season sacks record with 23 last season. He has 125.5 sacks in his nine NFL seasons.
The Rams may have an injury concern with one of their top offensive players.
Via multiple reporters, head coach Sean McVay said after Tuesday’s joint practice with the Cowboys that receiver Puka Nacua had to exit the session early with the team’s training staff.
McVay was not sure of the reason for Nacua’s exit when he spoke to the media.
Entering his fourth season, Nacua led the league with 129 receptions and 107.2 yards per game last year. He finished with 1,715 yards and 10 touchdowns in 16 games, receiving first-team AP All-Pro honors for the first time.
Additionally, McVay noted that edge rusher Myles Garrett did not participate on Tuesday because he is still dealing with some swelling in his knee. McVay said that Garrett is at about 85 percent and has not had a setback.
The Rams’ first preseason game is set for Saturday afternoon against the Chiefs. With McVay’s history, starters are highly unlikely to play for Los Angeles.
Myles Garrett missed four practices last week with “lower-body soreness” but insisted he was good.
The Rams pass rusher is out again this week.
Garrett is not participating in the joint practice against the Cowboys today. He walked onto the field in street clothes to watch the first-team defense, according to multiple reports.
It is the second consecutive day he has missed practice.
Garrett played all 17 games each of the past two seasons and has missed only four games over the past six seasons.
The reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who the Rams acquired in a blockbuster offseason trade with the Browns, set the NFL’s single-season sacks record with 23 last season. He has 125.5 sacks in his nine NFL seasons.
Matthew Stafford is practicing against the Cowboys.
The Rams brought in a new cornerback on Monday.
They announced the signing of Zech McPhearson to their 90-man roster. They did not need to make a corresponding move to bring McPhearson on board.
McPhearson entered the league as a fourth-round pick in Philadelphia in 2021. He played in 34 regular season games and four playoff contests over his first two seasons, but tore his Achilles ahead of the 2023 season. He spent the 2024 season on the practice squad with the Jaguars and was cut by Jacksonville last August.
McPhearson had 32 tackles, a sack and two passes defensed during his 38 appearances for the Eagles.
Aaron Donald continues to ponder whether he’ll return to football after two years of retirement. And his play-or-don’t-play decision is indeed coming soon.
But apparently not quite as soon as recently expected.
Donald’s target, we’re told, has shifted from early this week to the end of this week. (Given the ramifications of a decision to return, Donald could take a little more time before making the decision to take the pigskin plunge.)
The Rams have plenty of time to get Donald ready to go. They’d deploy the same plan utilized in 2017 and 2018 to ramp him up after protracted contract holdouts. The Rams would want Donald to have a few weeks of football activities before playing, with the goal of 30-40 snaps in the Week 1 game against the 49ers in Australia.
Unless Donald’s workouts include the equivalent of football sparring sessions, he won’t know how he moves in relation to other players until he’s back on the practice field.
Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor retired after realizing that the younger players seemed to be getting faster. His coach, Bill Parcells, told Taylor that he was getting slower. Unless and until Donald is practicing against other players, he won’t be able to make that assessment. And that’s an important factor, because Aaron Donald wants to be sure that he’ll still be the Aaron Donald of old.
Still, Donald currently seems to be planning to make the decision on whether to play before officially rejoining the Rams and participating in practice. And he’ll be taking a bit more time to make that call.
It remains hard to envision Donald putting in so much work only to not play. Until he decides to do it, however, there’s a chance he’ll decide not to do it.
