It took time, but Donald finally got the contract that he wants and deserves. Is the Rams' DT setting a new precident for elite players? We’ll wait and see what Khalil Mack does. Aaron Donald changed the market for defensive players on Friday with a record-setting six-year deal worth $135 million. If you believe the initial wave of minutiae, and the practical guarantees are indeed practical, this is the most significant non-quarterback contract in NFL history. This summer, Donald and the Rams in particular have shown that teams can be reasonable when it comes to non-traditional player value (see: Todd Gurley and the pass-catching running back). But the end of this holdout also gives us insight into something else brewing at the top of every market: Holdouts work if you’re good enough, and every player at the top of their position should do it. Aaron Rodgers, along with every other top-10 quarterback, should hold out. Tom Brady should hold out every year. Antonio Brown should hold out whenever another receiver gets more money. No one was better at this than Darrelle Revis, who understood his personal value to a team and matched himself with a set of agents dogged enough to make it happen. The visual of a coach like Rex Ryan physically boarding a private plane to fly a thousand miles away just to beg Revis to come back is one of the few glimpses at absolute power a player has had in a league that historically viewed the owner-player relationship as one between ranchers and cattle. For Sean McVay, Work-Life Balance Is a Work in Progress While all eyes are shifting to Khalil Mack as a cautionary tale against this strategy since he’s losing gobs of money now with no end in sight, remember that sometimes there is a slow-burn effect at play. How long before the rest of the Raiders wonder about the man pulling the strings, who already has a guaranteed 10-year, $100 million deal of his own? If talented, hard-working guys don’t get taken care of, the locker room has a way of letting management know about it. Worst case, Mack can eventually force his way to a team that has a heightened value of his skills before turning 30. As former Eagles and Browns executive Joe Banner put it Friday, “You don’t need to be free to have leverage. The desire to keep [the] locker room happy, key players happy and the threat to withhold services allows you to create a perception of leverage which is all you need.” There are myriad forces working against the players who are both talented and stoic enough to do this. Imagine practicing your craft every day to the background noise of people calling you selfish and greedy and other stuff. Imagine the militaristic pull of the locker room—the coaches and players you actually do like. The ones who have helped you achieve all this success in the first place waiting for you to get there so they can have a better season. All of this is used against them on a daily basis in an effort to get them to take less than fair market value for their services. As we’ve talked about before, it’s hard to understand this at the fan level because of the salaries we’re discussing. But if you were producing more than 99% of your co-workers but got paid half as much, you’d try and find a way to correct it, too. That’s all Donald was doing, and that’s all Mack wants, too. Both pilot defenses that are markedly worse without them. Both deserve the kind of money befitting of that stature. Both were willing to dig in to get it.<doc-sep>The Los Angeles Rams finally gave Aaron Donald his long-awaited deal. The extension locks Donald in for six years, and is worth $135 million, making him the highest paid defensive player in NFL history. The Los Angeles Rams finally ended the drawn out saga that lasted all offseason on Friday, as fans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing arguably their best player, Aaron Donald, is here to stay. The Rams will now boast a defensive line that consists of Donald, Ndamukong Suh and Michael Brockers. I’d hate to play offensive line or quarterback in the NFC West, so best of luck to the other three teams. What does the deal mean for the Rams? Well, it puts the icing on the cake that Sean McVay has turned the Rams from a 4-12 team, to a true Super Bowl contender in just two years. It also goes to show how inept Jeff Fisher was at building a complete roster. Fisher was terrible enough to make us believe Todd Gurley wasn’t good, they didn’t have their guy at quarterback in Jared Goff, and that they didn’t have a playoff roster assembled. After a long drought, McVay proved that wrong by taking the Rams to the playoffs last year, in his first season. This is McVay’s first full offseason as head coach of the Rams. It’ll be interesting to see how the Rams build on a successful season in their first year under the new regime. McVay knew he had to start shaping the roster as he saw fit this off-season. There was some work to do to truly make this roster well-rounded and ready to take that next step. To truly take a glimpse into the amount of moves the Rams made, let’s recap all of the key moves they manufactured. The Rams have had a very busy offseason, making moves like the league was their personal game of Madden. They began the offseason by trading for Marcus Peters from the Kansas Chiefs. Soon after, Aqib Talib followed Peters from the AFC West, to the NFC West. Talib felt comfortable with the move from the beginning, as he’s played under Wade Phillips before in Denver. The Rams weren’t done yet though. Sammy Watkins was expected to walk in free agency, so the Rams wasted no time in finding his replacement. Trading for Brandin Cooks was their solution to replacing Watkins, adding a dynamic weapon to an already loaded offense. Later on, they added Suh and Sam Shields in free agency. McVay was starting to make the roster how he liked it and made it his own. Then, the Rams started extending a lot of their key players. Nickell Robey-Coleman signed a three-year, $15.7 million extension. Los Angeles then extended Cooks (five years, $81 million) and Gurley (four years, $60 million) on offense. Rob Havenstein was next on the list, signing for four years and $32.5 million. This was all getting done while their main focus was to extend one of the best players in the NFL in Donald. Rams fans went through a roller-coaster of emotions this offseason, hoping a deal would get done. Just yesterday, Donald signed off on a deal that would make him the highest paid defensive player in NFL history (for now) at six years, $135 million. Donald definitely deserves every penny of that and some. Under Fisher, who knows if this deal gets done. This deal capped off an offseason for the Rams that put a stamp on their label as true contenders for years to come. It’s crazy to think how quickly the Rams have turned things around. From 2003-16, they failed to post a record above .500 and failed to reach playoffs in any of those seasons. The Rams have also gone through six different head coaches since 2003, trying to find someone to lead them to the promised land. It hasn’t happened since Dick Vermeil in 1999 when the Rams won the Super Bowl. This was when the Rams were located in St. Louis and boasted one of the best offenses in NFL History, called the Greatest Show on Turf. The last decade or so, the Rams struggled mightily to make everything go according to plan, frustrating Rams fans around the globe. If Fisher were still head coach would they have been able to put together the elite roster they have now? Absolutely not. The move to Los Angeles could’ve blown up in the Rams face had Fisher still been calling the shots. With McVay, it seems the move to the “City of Angels” will go as smoothly as one could hope. Fast forward to today, the Rams are seemingly building a well-oiled machine that will last for years to come. McVay was the youngest head coach ever hired in NFL History last year, fitting right in with a young, hungry roster that’s ready to accomplish one goal: win a Super Bowl. Now with McVay at the helm and Les Snead pulling the strings, Rams fans patience will payoff as the Rams are here to stay for many years into the future. Buckle up Los Angeles fans, it’s going to be an exhilarating season from start to finish after this Donald signing.<doc-sep>Getty Images With so much sudden optimism flowing from the Rams regarding a new contract for defensive tackle Aaron Donald, here’s a fair question: Is the deal already done? Not “done” in the sense that it’s signed, sealed, and/or delivered. “Done” in the sense that the terms have been agreed to, that the paperwork is being drawn up, that cap space is being cleared, and that it’s just a matter of time before i’s dotted and t’s are crossed. Personally, I think (I don’t know, I think) it’s already done. But the Rams won’t be leaking or announcing news of a done Donald deal as Labor Day Weekend approaches. They’ll want it to be the top story as Labor Day Weekend concludes, generating 2-3 days of coverage and siphoning attention away from the Falcons-Eagles regular-season opener. These are no longer the St. Louis Rams. These are the L.A. Rams. Sharing a city with the Chargers and a national stage with too many other teams that have a bigger footprint. As one league source predicted on Wednesday, the Rams will find a way to unveil the Donald deal in a manner that makes maximum impact, not just for the purposes of generating P.R. but also with the goal of making money by inspiring people to buy PSLs and season tickets and other things that will help pay for that multi-billion-dollar hole in the ground in Inglewood. So here’s the prediction. Someone will leak that a deal is done on Monday, the press conference will happen on Tuesday, and Donald will be ready to go when the Rams open the season as the last game of Week One, on Monday night against the Raiders.<doc-sep>Aaron Donald is not publicly sentimental or emotional. But the reigning NFL defensive player of the year broke a bit Friday. It was only a few hours after the Rams gave Donald the richest contract for a defensive player in NFL history, a six-year, $135-million extension with $87 million in guarantees. The tackle said his “ultimate goal” had been to earn enough money to enable his parents to retire. So calling them to tell them they no longer had to work was the “best feeling ever.” “I told them they can just relax,” he said. “It’s on me now.” Advertisement The signing of Donald ends a saga that lasted more than a year. The four-time Pro Bowl player stayed away from training camp in 2017 and again this season to coax the Rams into compensating him for outperforming his rookie contract. Donald, the 13th pick in the 2014 draft, has amassed 39 sacks and is regarded as perhaps the most disruptive defensive player in the NFL. He earned $1.7 million in 2017 and will earn $6.9 million this season before the extension kicks in. “Guy deserves to be — and he’s earned it — to be on Rams Mt. Rushmore,” general manager Les Snead said, adding, “That was our goal when this started about 18 months ago.” Coach Sean McVay endured queries about Donald nearly every day during two training camps and preseasons. Now Donald finally has joined a remade Rams defense that features new cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib, and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. “This has been a long time coming,” McVay said, adding, “This is a player that from a production standpoint really played unbelievably since he’s been here. … He’s a pro’s pro.” After news about Donald’s extension broke, quarterback Jared Goff tweeted, “LET’S GO!” Suh tweeted a picture of him, Donald and Michael Brockers in uniform. “As @mbrockers says WE COMPLETE NOW!! WE COMPLETE NOW! !” he wrote. Donald looked fit as he went through a one-hour workout with teammates for the first time since before last January’s playoff loss to Atlanta. Wearing a white No. 99 jersey over a blue hoodie, he joked with other defensive lineman between reps. Donald took his turns from the back of the line, allowing rookies and players that have been with the team since offseason workouts to go ahead of him. Advertisement Afterward, he smiled broadly as he approached a podium to take questions. “I feel good right now to be back out here playing football again,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.” For much of the last 18 months, the subtext to everything regarding Donald was money, specifically how much the Rams were willing to spend on a player seemingly bound for the Hall of Fame and beloved by teammates for his personality, talent and work ethic. “Everyone with common sense knew Aaron was, at minimum, going to be the highest-paid defensive player in football,” Snead said. “And from there you had to figure it out. … That was the base.” Advertisement Snead said that Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ vice-president for football operations and chief operating officer, and Tony Pastoors, vice president of football and business administration, made trips to Atlanta to meet with Donald’s agents. “[Demoff] will get on a red-eye Southwest Airlines middle seat to get to Atlanta and drag Tony with him,” Snead said. “They did that a good bit through that whole process. They were very proactive in trying to get this thing completed.” Donald did the same thing he did last year: He worked out in hometown Pittsburgh and waited. “A lot of things go through your head,” he said. Advertisement Rams defensive end Aaron Donald did not suit up until the second week of last season but ended up the NFL’s defensive player of the year. (John Froschauer / Associated Press) This summer, while Donald waited for his deal, the Rams signed Brandin Cooks, Todd Gurley and Rob Havenstein to extensions worth a combined $172.5 million. Before a preseason game in Baltimore, Snead said the two sides were “in the same ZIP Code, area code, ballpark.” This week they inched closer to reaching an agreement, so close that McVay hinted a deal was close to done. The final elements were in place late Thursday night and completed Friday. Advertisement “Growing up, thinking about playing in the NFL, you never think that big and expect something like that,” Donald said of being the highest-paid defensive player in history. “But like I said, my dad told me since Day 1, ‘Hard work pays off’ and just putting the body work in, continuing to put the body work in. I’m going to continue to work nonstop.” Cuts The Rams released 22 players as they trim the roster from 90 to 53 by Saturday. Offensive tackles Cornelius Lucas and Darrell Williams and kicker Sam Ficken were among the cuts. Defensive lineman/linebacker Ryan Davis and defensive end Morgan Fox were placed on injured reserve. gary.klein@latimes.com Advertisement Twitter: @latimesklein<doc-sep>
With Los Angeles Rams DT Aaron Donald signing a new deal, here is a brief history to place this signing in context of the bull market of the NFL. Fans got what they wanted Friday as the news spreads that All-Pro DT and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald signed a six year contract extension. (Pro Football Talk has the full details of the contract here.) This contract situation had led him to hold out last year missing the first game of the season and this year as well, missing training camp. Both sides were able to agree to a deal that will have Donald on the field for week one in Oakland. Here are a few points to consider regarding this deal and the recent history in the NFL. This is a time that business gets done! In the same week QB Aaron Rogers signs the largest contract extension in NFL history, Odell Beckham Jr. signs the largest WR contract in NFL history, and Aaron Donald signs the largest contract for a defensive player in NFL history. Right before the season starts is a busy time in the front office, and then when the first kickoff happens, the focus shifts to football. Could the Rams work out another extension in the next week? Candidates: CB Marcus Peters, S Lamarcus Joyner. Donald signed for more than expected a year ago. I wrote an article last year that predicted that Donald’s deal would be just under what OLB Von Miller had signed for in 2016 ($114.5 Million total, $19M/year avg). As it turns out, the deal surpasses it by over $3 million per year (avg). That is the difference a year makes. The longer the player waits to sign and the closer they get to unrestricted free agency, the higher the numbers go. Remember when DT Ndamukong Suh signed the massive deal with the Dolphins? It was because he was an unrestricted free agent. By comparison, the Rams were smart to sign RB Todd Gurley, WR Brandin Cooks, and RT Rob Havenstein early. Gurley, for example, despite the unprecedented numbers for a running ack, set the market for future star running backs. If Snead and company had waited two years to sign Gurley, they price would have been higher. The NFL is still huge. Despite the concern over head injuries and terrible rules about tackling that have fan screaming about a diminished product, the NFL remains healthier and more lucrative than ever. Consider the of the 100 most watched telecasts in 2017, 71 were NFL games. 71! That is what dominance of a market looks like, folks. Lastly, the Rams shrewdness in signing Donald and the other stars mentioned frees them up to deal with the other looming free agents. This has some analysts praising the Rams as the most well set up team not only this year, but long term, to compete for a Lombardy Trophy. How do you engage an LA Fan base? Sign a young exciting head coach. Draft, trade for, and sign talented players. Score points. Build a hard hitting defense. Win games. Advance in the playoffs. The Rams are doing all of these things. Enjoy this, Rams fans. It is a good day.