The Rams Need to Set a Standard in the Aaron Donald Contract Negotiations

By Djack

The Los Angeles Rams and their star defensive lineman Aaron Donald, are still yet to reach a new contract extension, and it is beginning to look like he'll miss some time this season because of it. The Rams are in a tough spot right now, they're battling with the Chargers to win over the fans of Los Angeles, they need to be competitive, and having Aaron Donald on the field is essential if they want to win football games. Now, technically Aaron Donald is under contract for them this year and the following year, so the Rams should have the leverage here and they do if they aren't completely spineless. I will say they're in a tough situation due to this being by far their best and most important player, however no one player is bigger than the team unless he's a franchise quarterback. The Rams need to call Aaron Donald's bluff and not let him walk all over them, which seems to be the case right now.

The Rams should honestly just say you aren't getting a contract extension until after the season. In most cases that's what happens and that's how it should continue to happen. Most players coming off their rookie deal have to wait until after the 4th year of the deal to get their big long term extension. Obviously, Aaron Donald deserves big money, he's proved that time and time again, I know injury is apart of football, and it can ruin his chances of getting the big long term deal, but that's the nature of this business. If the Rams give in to Aaron Donald, then what's to stop every player on their rookie deal that's worth extreme value from doing this. If that's the case why did the rookie deal limitations even get implemented to begin with, let's just give them huge deals from the start again, and avoid this headache all together. Well, clearly that plan of action didn't work out so well the first time around, so why would it this time.

Aaron Donald was 16 games away from being paid, instead he decided he deserves the security blanket now for whatever reason. The Rams have held firm and they should continue to do so since they have all the power in this situation. In business leverage is everything and they have all the leverage in this situation. Aaron Donald has nothing to gain from sitting out this season. If he does so he'll still be under contract with the Rams, what is he going to do continue to miss games and lose his value since he's away from the field. This is all about money and Aaron Donald can't make money unless he plays football, meanwhile the Rams will still make a boat load of money without him, so the Rams should just take the approach of it's your loss not our's. The Rams still have Todd Gurley and Jared Goff that they can rely on to interest fans and carry the franchise. Aaron Donald on the other hand has nothing if he's not on the football field being a dominate force. 

I don't want to come off as an asshole being for the billion dollar owners and against the players who are just trying to get what they rightfully deserve, but it's a slippery slope. The last thing you want is for Donald to get an early extension and then next thing you know it's the norm around the league. Then, once it's the norm, teams can't afford to build teams the way they are now because the salary cap restrictions are killing them and they aren't getting the players on cheap rookie deals anymore. It'll make the product in the NFL much worse and then the fans will really be bitching. Everyone has to pay there dues, that's what it takes in this league, you grind on the low for 4 years, and then you break the bank. Aaron Donald acts like he isn't going to be the highest paid defensive player soon, just wait your turn big fella, your pay day is coming.

That's all, I just want the Rams to stand firm and show that this league isn't all about power of the players like the NBA because we see how that has worked out. Now, teams in the NBA get handcuffed by giving huge contracts to the wrong players because that's what it takes to keep them around. The product in the NBA is now trash because of it, there's no parity in the league, and that's exactly why. Yeah the players are happy because they're making hundreds of millions of dollars, but the people that are the reason for them making that money aka the fans, get the short end of the stick since the product is now garbage. The NFL is about protecting the shield and it's been successful, so why change that now. Rams need to keep this precedent in check and not fuck this up for selfish reasons.