Donald's Rams Return Just Got Murkier
Three weeks ago Aaron Donald's return felt like a formality; now nobody around the Rams knows what's happening, even as the preseason closed 3-0 with the backup quarterback job still open.
Nobody knows what's happening with Aaron Donald right now
Three weeks ago, a Donald return to the Rams felt like a formality. Now, per Pro Football Talk, "nobody knows what's going on" — and that whiplash is the whole story of the week in Los Angeles.
Three weeks ago, it seemed inevitable that Aaron Donald would soon rejoin the Rams. Now? Nobody knows what’s going on.
It's a real swing from where this stood in early camp, when McVay called the arrow "trending upward" and said he just needed to see more workouts before Donald could know he's still Aaron Donald, per Fox Sports. Donald has since gone through his second workout with the team this summer, and the answer still isn't there. Part of it is money: he's still owed $30 million from the year he retired, and the Rams are working with roughly $15 million in cap space on a roster that already carries new deals for Matthew Stafford and Trent McDuffie, Yahoo Sports has reported.
The bigger piece, by McVay's own account, is Donald himself — he wants to be certain he can still be Aaron Donald before he commits to anything. With the preseason now finished and the Melbourne opener bearing down, the Rams are running out of runway to find out.
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Rams finish preseason 3-0, and Ty Simpson keeps making the QB2 job harder to hand out
The Rams held on for a 20-18 win over the Chargers on Thursday to close the preseason 3-0, and the box score belonged to Dean Connors — 18 carries for 69 yards, plus all three of his targets caught for 24 yards and a touchdown. CJ Daniels added five grabs on six targets for 42 yards, and Harrison Mevis made both his field-goal tries and his extra points.
Chargers20-18
Saints34-0
Chiefs20-12Ty Simpson got the start over Stetson Bennett again and delivered again: 18 of 23 for 119 yards and a touchdown, with three carries for 10 yards on top of it. RamsNFL's own account put a bow on his whole preseason afterward — 47 of 60 for 382 yards, three touchdowns and a 109.9 rating across three games, the kind of line a team posts because it makes its own case.
Impressive preseason for Ty Simpson 👏 📊 47/60 || 382 YDS || 3 TDs || 109.9 RTG t.co/3O4QTqD4f8
Bennett, meanwhile, didn't play at all Thursday, and McVay still won't pick a winner. "Rams remain undecided on No. 2 QB after preseason finale," Pro Football Talk reported once the final whistle blew, with McVay offering only that he feels "really good" about both guys. Somebody is backing up Matthew Stafford in Australia in less than two weeks — the Rams just aren't saying which one yet.
Tutu Atwell is back, and the timing keeps doing the talking
The Rams traded to bring back Tutu Atwell this week, and the timing did the talking: Puka Nacua is still waiting on a league decision over an offseason allegation that could carry a suspension, as our own coverage lays out. McVay says that's not what this is — "nothing to do with that," he told reporters, calling the move "exclusively" about receiver depth and the speed Atwell adds to the room.
The Nacua case itself is uglier than a routine legal note: he was sued in March over allegations he bit a woman and made an antisemitic remark, claims his attorney has called a shakedown and denied "in the strongest possible terms," per CBS Sports. No criminal charges have been filed, but the NFL's own investigation is still open, and ESPN's Adam Schefter has floated the possibility the league suspends Nacua as soon as Week 1 — against the 49ers. Maybe Atwell really is just speed insurance. But until the league rules, every rep he takes in camp is going to get read as the other kind.
The Rams open the season on the other side of the world
Next up is Thursday night vs. the 49ers, the NFL's first-ever regular-season game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. San Francisco is 0-0 like everybody else but finished its own preseason 2-1, capped by an 18-12 win at the Raiders. The two clubs are handling the trip in opposite ways — the 49ers are flying over roughly a week early to adjust, while the Rams are planning to arrive the day before and leave right after, the same approach they used for last year's trip to London.
The Rams opened as favorites, with the line set at -3.5 and the total pinned at 48.5 — a number that reads high-scoring on a Stafford-led offense that just spent three preseason games finding its rookie backup a role. It's a long flight for a division game that counts the same as any other, but there's nothing routine about playing your NFC West rival at 5:35 in the afternoon on the other side of the international date line.