The Rams have spent quite a bit of time talking about a contract extension for defensive tackle Aaron Donald over the last two years, but nothing has come to fruition to this point.
It’s always a process to hammer out a long-term deal with one of the top players in the league and it’s one that has had to go on alongside the Rams’ other moves this offseason. They’ve acquired Aqib Talib, Marcus Peters, Ndamukong Suh and Brandin Cooks since the end of last season, leading some to wonder how the shopping spree might impact their push to lock up Donald.
At a press conference introducing Cooks on Thursday, General Manager Les Snead said there won’t be an impact on those talks.
“None of it affects Aaron Donald,” Snead said, via Rich Hammond of the Orange County Register. “He’s one of 53 and he’s budgeted into the budget. We didn’t do all this and forget about him.”
The Rams have plenty of cap space in 2019 and they’ll have money to spend even if Donald is taking up a big chunk of it. Holding onto everyone would be a bit more difficult, especially with players like Jared Goff and Todd Gurley coming up on new contracts relatively soon, so Snead’s plate should remain full for quite a while.