It’s been a week since Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald failed to report for training camp. So has anything changed in the past seven days?
“Not to this point,” coach Sean McVay told reporters on Friday. “Kind of still same as. Hopeful and waiting for some day when we get that good news, but in the meantime we move on and like we’ve said before – confident that he’s working hard while he’s not here and trust that when we do get that worked out hopefully he’ll be ready to go and there won’t be any setbacks. It’ll be good to get him if we’re able to come to that decision and get that thing done.”
Donald has two years left on his rookie contract, at $1.8 million this year and $6.8 million in 2018. If he fails to report by Tuesday (30 days before the first game of the 2017 regular season), he’ll lose a year of service toward free agency. With two years until his contract expires, however, getting a fourth year of service doesn’t matter in 2017.
What matters is whether he’s willing to continue to rack up $40,000 per day in fines and, ultimately whether he’s willing to give up game checks of more than $105,000 per week.
Donald is one of three veterans under contract to be holding out of camp. Raiders tackle Donald Penn and Texans tackle Duane Brown also are absent.