The report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter regarding the pessimism surrounding the Aaron Donald holdout includes a claim from an unnamed source that the Rams defensive tackle may sit out the entire season. Regardless, there’s no way that will happen.
Apart from the fact that hardly any who huff and puff about skipping a full season ever do, Donald gains nothing by not playing this year. He gets no compensation (duh) and, more importantly, he doesn’t get a year of credit toward finishing his contract.
The Rams hold Donald’s rights for two more years. If he skips the full season, they’ll still hold his rights for two more years.
The key will be to show up on time to get the benefit of the Joey Galloway ruling from nearly a generation ago. League insiders believe eight games are the most that can be missed by a player under contract in order to comfortabley take advantage of the Galloway ruling.
Donald already has forfeited a year of service toward free agency, but that doesn’t matter since he’s under contract for two more years. If he misses more than eight games, he risks being in the same position next year that he’s in this year.