Aaron Donald Ends Two-Year Retirement, Rejoins Rams on $20 Million Deal Ahead of Giants' Week 2 Trip

Donald's back. Garrett won't be on the field to greet him.

Aaron Donald is returning to football. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported the three-time Defensive Player of the Year signed a one-year, $20 million deal with the Los Angeles Rams, with incentives that can push the total to $30 million, according to Giants Wire. ESPN first reported the news the same day, according to Fox Sports.

Donald retired in March 2024 after the 2023 season, closing out a run that produced 542 tackles, 120 sacks, 22 forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries and 21 pass deflections, according to Sports Illustrated. He's a nine-time First-Team All-Pro in ten seasons, according to SB Nation's Big Blue View.

He didn't stay away quietly. Donald worked out with Rams staff multiple times over the summer, most recently on August 16 in Woodland Hills, California, according to Sports Illustrated. The bigger pull, by his own account, was the Rams' June 1 trade for Myles Garrett, the Cleveland Browns' two-time reigning Defensive Player of the Year who set a record with 23 sacks in 2025.

"I already thought it was a stacked D-line with Verse... then you bring a guy like Myles Garrett, a generational talent, and it's like, that could be fun, right?" Donald told reporters, according to Fox Sports.

The pairing everyone's hyping won't happen Monday

Garrett is not walking into SoFi Stadium alongside Donald for the Giants game. He's headed to injured reserve for knee surgery and will miss the Week 2 matchup, according to SB Nation's Big Blue View.

Giants Wire's preview describes Donald lining up "alongside Myles Garrett" for the New York game and treats the pairing as the central threat the Giants' offensive line has to solve. It isn't happening this week. The Rams' front will be down its highest-profile edge rusher when Donald makes his return.

The Rams also didn't open 2026 the way their Super Bowl-favorite billing suggested. Los Angeles lost to the San Francisco 49ers 27-7 in the NFL's first regular-season game played in Australia, at Melbourne Cricket Ground, according to Giants Wire. FanDuel Sportsbook still lists the Rams as Super Bowl favorites at +650 despite the 0-1 start, according to Big Blue View.

Giants arrive with momentum, and a line still finding itself

New York opened its season with a 28-20 win over the Dallas Cowboys, with quarterback Jaxson Dart completing 23 of 29 passes for 230 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions, earning by far the highest passer rating of his 13 NFL starts, according to Giants.com. He added 59 rushing yards on eight carries, and according to Giants.com he became the first quarterback in NFL history with three or more passing touchdowns, 50 or more rushing yards and a passer rating of 130.0 or higher in a season opener.

It wasn't clean. New York fumbled four times and racked up 114 penalty yards on 10 flags, the most of any team in Week 1, according to Giants.com. Head coach John Harbaugh, addressing reporters Monday, said the win "will not win the game next Monday night," and that the team has "a lot to do" before facing Los Angeles.

Harbaugh knows Donald's résumé firsthand. As Baltimore's coach in 2023, he called Donald "probably the greatest to ever play at that position" and said opposing offenses have to know where he is on every snap, according to Giants Wire. That job now falls to left tackle Andrew Thomas, right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor, guard Francis Mauigoa and center John Michael Schmitz.

New York bolstered its interior depth this week, signing defensive tackle Josh Tupou to the active roster off the practice squad and re-signing wide receiver Dalen Cambre to the practice squad, according to Big Blue View.

The Giants also carry a full-circle storyline of their own. Odell Beckham Jr. made the 53-man roster, his first Week 1 spot with New York since 2018. "I never wanted to leave; I wanted to win," Beckham told reporters, according to Fox Sports.

What Vegas and the league think

Oddsmakers still favor the Rams. FanDuel had New York as 7.5-point underdogs earlier in the week, a number that had moved to 8.5 by Wednesday, according to Big Blue View. Despite that, New York climbed from No. 23 to No. 16 in an aggregated Week 2 power ranking, with ESPN specifically slotting the Giants at No. 18, per Big Blue View.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford noticed the Cowboys result too. "Dangerous," is how he described the Giants on his SiriusXM show "Let's Go," co-hosted with Jim Gray, according to Big Blue View.

The open question heading into Monday, September 21: with Garrett sidelined, does Donald's presence alone force New York into the same doubled-and-chipped protection schemes the league expected when both stars were healthy, or does his return end up quieter than the hype suggests against a line that already has one road test under its belt.