Aaron Donald played his first NFL game since 2023 on Monday night against the New York Giants. It didn't take long for the Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle to shake off the rust.
Over a productive 32 snaps, Donald tallied three tackles, including one for a loss, and a pressure in the 28-6 win. The speed of NFL football is usually an adjustment for those coming back from time away, but for the 10-time Pro Bowler Donald, he had to slow himself down.
“The game really wasn’t as fast as I thought,” Donald said, per the Rams' website. “It was more of me calming myself down, overrunning stuff or just my feet not being in the ground how they supposed to be, not trusting my eyes, little stuff like that. But playing the game, when I held out in ’17, ’18
it was the same way when I came back, it took a couple games to get going. It’s a little different. I ain’t played in two years, so I gotta watch the film, see what I did good, see what I did wrong, and just clean it up.”
The numbers are in: Aaron Donald is still Aaron freakin' Donald.@BenjaminSolak #NFL #AaronDonald #LosAngelesRams pic.twitter.com/C0BTTticn5
— ESPN Australia & NZ (@ESPNAusNZ) September 22, 2026
Donald's return comes at the exact right time for the Rams, who are without defensive end Myles Garrett. The Rams' prized offseason acquisition, Garrett underwhelmed in the season opener and got knee surgery afterward, landing on the injured reserve.
The Donald-Garrett pairing made Los Angeles' defensive front one of the NFL's most fearsome coming into the season. Donald is living up to his end of the bargain, and Garrett will have a chance to do the same once he gets back onto the field.
When is Myles Garrett returning for Rams?
The earliest Garrett can return to the Rams is Week 6 against the Arizona Cardinals.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Aaron Donald unfazed by NFL speed after two-year retirement
