Former Rams Safety T.J. McDonald Suspended For First Eight Games of 2017 Season

Free agent T.J. McDonald spent the last four seasons playing with the Los Angeles Rams.

At the beginning of free agency, early signs pointed to the Los Angeles Rams parting ways with safety T.J. McDonald after four seasons since they seemed confident enough in Maurice Alexander and Lamarcus Joyner under Wade Phillips‘ defense. Luckily for the Rams, the team made the right decision to move on from McDonald in free agency not just because of the players they could replace him with, but due to the fact the safety will miss the first half of the 2017 season.

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According to ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez will miss the first eight games of the regular season for violating the NFL Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse. McDonald was already having a tough time finding a new home for the 2017 season, and thanks to this new suspension, it’s going to be even tougher for the free-agent safety to reaching a new deal with a team.

As Gonzalez mentioned, McDonald’s suspension comes from a May 2016 incident in which he was suspected of driving under the influence of suspected drugs while out in Woodland Hills, California. It would be one thing if McDonald was only going to miss a few games at the beginning of the year, but not being able to play for the entire first half of the regular season is a major blow for the former Rams safety.

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Only time will tell when it comes to whether or not a team is going to take a chance on McDonald, but chances are he’ll end up playing when he’s eligible to return. Sadly, injuries are pretty common in the NFL on a weekly basis, and some teams could find themselves in need of a safety like McDonald in the second half of the year.