Sean McVay seems hopeful Aaron Donald will report on time for Rams training camp

Will Aaron Donald be present when the Los Angeles Rams officially begin training camp later this week?

Later this week, the Los Angeles Rams will finally begin training camp for the 2017 NFL season after keeping busy over the last few months to make sure the team does everything in their power to improve from last year’s 4-12 finish. One of the top stories from the offseason surrounding the Rams has been whether defensive superstar Aaron Donald will report for the start of training camp, but according to Sean McVay, the new head coach seems confident that won’t be an issue.

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Donald has made it clear this offseason how unhappy he is with his current contract situation, and when looking at how productive he’s been during his first three years with Los Angeles, it’s easy to understand why he’s pushing so hard for a new deal. As a surprise to no one, McVay was asked about the situation surrounding Donald during Thursday’s session with the media, and believe it or not, the Rams coach seems to be hopeful about the former first-round pick showing up on time.

For months, Les Snead has made it clear that rewarding Donald with a new deal to make him one of the league’s highest paid defensive players was one of the top priorities for the organization to take care of. But with the official start of training camp getting underway this upcoming weekend, it’s not a good sign for the Rams to be at the end of July, and the two parties seeming to be at a point where no deal is even close to being in place.

After leading the league last season with 31 quarterback hits despite receiving plenty of extra attention from defenders, Donald doesn’t need to do anymore to prove he deserves to be one of the league’s top paid defensive players. And the longer Los Angeles waits, the more frustrating this situation is going to become.

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A team like the Rams simply can’t afford to let Donald’s frustration drag on heading into training camp since the last thing a team coming off a four-win season needs to deal with is their best player holdout while missing valuable practice time with his teammates and new coaching staff. In other words, here’s to hoping Snead and Los Angles can workout a new deal with Donald sooner rather than later so McVay ends up being right about the superstar reporting to camp on time.