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Though not very surprising, Los Angeles Rams DL Aaron Donald will again be a no-show as training camp begins tomorrow in hopes of receiving a new long-term contract one day after RB Todd Gurley and week or so after WR Brandin Cooks were rewarded (Gurley here, Cooks here).
As the #Rams report today and begin training camp, star DT Aaron Donald is not among them, per team official. They’ll have a team meeting shortly. Looks like he’s a holdout for the second consecutive season, as he awaits a new deal.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 25, 2018
It marks two years now of the Rams not paying their best player. It marks yet another defensive player having trouble getting an extension before their offensive counterparts. While this wasn’t unforeseen, it’s still quite painful that WR Tavon Austin, Gurley and Brandin Cooks, who hasn’t even played a down for the Rams, all received contract extensions while Trumaine Johnson and Lamarcus Joyner were both franchise tagged and numerous other defensive backs were allowed to hit the market. The Rams did extend Alec Ogletree...but they then traded him away just five months later. DL Michael Brockers, EDGE Robert Quinn and ILB Mark Barron remain the strong defensive deals made under VP/COO Kevin Demoff, but the fact that the best player on the Rams and perhaps the league can’t get an extension must be very hard to deal with.
For the sake of everyone, let’s hope AD and the Rams can get the deal done sooner than later so the revamped defense gets on the same page from Day 1.