Sean McVay is Super Bowl or bust the second that Aaron Donald joins greatest defense in NFL history
Aaron Donald will walk directly from retirement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But if one of the best defensive lineman in NFL history suddenly unretires to team up with Myles Garrett in Los Angeles, the 2026 Rams will officially become ‘Super Bowl trophy or bust.’
Factor in that Super Bowl LXI will be held inside SoFi Stadium near LA, and the increasingly loud Donald chatter has become impossible to ignore during training camp.
The Cleveland Browns have no idea who they want to pick as their quarterback, despite knowing for a year that Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel would all be competing for the same starting job.
The Houston Texans added Jadeveon Clowney, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2014 NFL Draft, to one of the best defenses in the league.
But Donald rejoining the Rams will easily trump that surprising move and place the NFL’s 2026 spotlight on Los Angeles, SoFi Stadium and head coach Sean McVay.
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The Rams will instantly become the must-watch team of the season.
The Rams — not the Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots or Seattle Seahawks — will leap to the forefront of the daily NFL conversation across the globe.
“Did it come across as a tryout?” McVay told NFL Network, after Donald went through an informal workout with the team. “Best tryout we’ve ever had.”
Garrett is the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, a five-time All Pro and has 125.5 career sacks.
Donald won three Defensive Player of the Year awards, earned eight All Pro selections and collected 111 sacks before walking away from the NFL in March 2024.
‘Legends Live Forever,’ posted the Rams.
“There will never be another Aaron Donald,” Los Angeles general manager Les Snead said.
It wasn’t that long ago in NFL history that McVay kept teasing retirement.
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He was burned out at a young age and didn’t want to deal with rebuilding a losing team.
“In the midst of so many good things going on here, I lost my way a little bit,” McVay told the Green Light podcast after a frustrating 5-12 season.
“Where the results weren’t what we wanted, I was exposed, in terms of my shortcomings, some of my insecurities, and I really had to address that.”
Now, McVay is teasing a blockbuster script that Hollywood would reject because it would be too unbelievable.
Veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford, the NFL’s reigning MVP, could be backed by the recently acquired Garrett and recently unretired Donald on defense.
The Rams already won a Super Bowl in 2022 and super-fancy SoFi is hosting the big game in February.
If Donald officially puts on yellow and blue again because he can’t resist wrecking QBs with Garrett, the best defensive line in NFL history will instantly make the Rams Super Bowl trophy or bust.
McVay can’t even think about retiring with Stafford, Garrett and Donald repping the same team in LA.
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