Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay appears to have known for some time that Aaron Donald had played his last game for the team.
McVay suggested Donald told him within 24 hours of the Rams’ playoff loss to Detroit that he was planning to retire, according to Albert Breer of The MMQB. As McVay told the story, Donald simply walked into McVay’s office one day after the loss and told his coach “I’m full.”
“I’m just like, And you should be. You have every right to feel that way,” McVay recalled. “What an amazing thing. The words won’t do justice to the way that he so eloquently articulated it to me and just put it in a way that, as a human being, all you’re really looking for is to be at peace and to be happy. He was full. And, man, did you feel that. You’re just so happy because he earned it too.”
McVay was presumably not surprised by Donald’s decision. After all, he came close to retiring two years ago after the team’s Super Bowl win, though he ultimately came back and played two more years.
The Rams and McVay will have their work cut out for them to try to keep the defense stable without Donald. For McVay, however, it sounds like a challenge he’s happy to take on because of what he got from the future Hall of Fame lineman.
