Aaron Donald: Game wasn't as fast as I thought

SoFi Stadium got 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 “kind of amped me up a little bit” as he ran onto the field for the first time since deciding to end the retirement that started after the 2023 season. Donald did not travel to Australia for the opener and took more time to ramp himself up for his return to game action.

The result was three tackles and a tackle for loss while playing 33 of the team’s 58 defensive snaps. Donald said he would like to win “a little faster” when he’s blocked one-on-one and that he feels like everything will feel more natural with a little more playing time under his belt.

“The game really wasn’t as fast as I thought,” Donald said, via the team’s website. “It was more of me calming myself down, overrunning stuff or just my feet not being in the ground how they supposed to be, not trusting my eyes, little stuff like that. But playing the game, when I held out in ’17, ’18 it was the same way when I came back, it took a couple games to get going. It’s a little different. I ain’t played in two years, so I gotta watch the film, see what I did good, see what I did wrong, and just clean it up.”

The plan was for the Rams to team Donald with Myles Garrett, but Garrett’s knee injury leaves that on hold for the time being so all involved will hope that the weeks to come find Donald recovering even more of the game that made him a three-time defensive player of the year.