Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay addressed whether there is a deadline for Aaron Donald to decide on returning to the team.
Donald is still pondering whether or not to come out of retirement after two seasons away from the NFL. McVay said the Rams are not trying to rush him and want to be respectful of Donald’s process, but do hope that they get a verdict sooner rather than later.
“I’m hopeful that it will be sooner than later, but I also want to respect when he does feel like that clarity will come,” McVay said, via Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times. “I think there’s a chance that we’ll be closer to that than not. But again, I don’t want to say too much or put some sort of invisible deadline on something that doesn’t exist in my mind for him.”
In other words, the Rams have no hard deadline, but they would prefer Donald to make a decision as soon as possible. The team does, after all, want to know whether they will have to work him into their defense or not.
Donald is giving a lot of signals that he will ultimately return, even though he has not formally made a decision yet. Still, the Rams are somewhat limited in what they can do to prepare for any potential comeback until the decision is officially made. McVay is taking care not to put any pressure on Donald, but with the season less than a month away, he would clearly prefer to know what he is working with as quickly as possible.
