Los Angeles Rams, Sean McVay officially rule Aaron Donald out against Indianapolis Colts

As expected, Aaron Donald will not play for the Los Angeles Rams against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1.

Despite all of the hype surrounding the Los Angeles Rams during their first year under Sean McVay as head coach, the one frustrating factor the team has been forced to deal with is the absence of Aaron Donald. The Rams defensive superstar has been missing in action since the start of training camp while holding out for a new contract, and with the team’s first game of the season against the Indianapolis Colts less than 48 hours away, McVay confirmed on Friday what most fans expected about Donald.

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Speaking to the media, McVay made it clear that Donald will be out for Sunday’s game, which sadly shouldn’t come as a surprise since the former first-round pick has been absent from practice all week. Still, there seemed to be the slightest bit of hope that Donald would possibly show up this week after missing all of camp and preseason due to the holdout, but even if that was the case, he would still have seen limited action against the Colts.

Only time will tell when it comes to how much longer this holdout with Donald is going to last, but at this rate, it’s not looking good for Los Angeles. Normally, most players, such as Le’Veon Bell, tend to give in by putting an end to their holdouts, but not Donald.

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When looking at his production (led the league with 31 quarterback hits in 2016, 28 sacks over his first three seasons) from over the years, it’s easy to understand why Donald is so frustrated over his contract situation since he clearly deserves to be one of the league’s highest paid players. A few months ago, the Rams’ defense was expected to be one of the top in the NFL, but with Donald out of the picture at the moment, Wade Phillips has quite the work cut out for him heading into his first game with his new team on Sunday.