Will the Rams kick the can down the road with Aaron Donald?

How long can Los Angeles Rams General Manager Les Snead wait to get something done with Aaron Donald?

The big fish in the pond for the Los Angeles Rams come the offseason will be All Everything Aaron Donald. But to listen to General Manager Les Snead, the defensive tackle is on the “to-do” list, but may not be at the top of it.

Smart, or not so much?

The Rams have crossed the Rubicon with Donald going back to whatever kind of gentleman’s agreement the two sides had when the DT reported after a relatively brief holdout last summer. A scenario the team knows won’t likely happen this time around.

But should Los Angeles get into another game of chicken with perhaps the best defensive player in the National Football League, and their best player on the roster?

I don’t doubt the sincerity that comes from Snead when he speaks of Donald and his desire to get that situation resolved. But I also don’t sense it’s keeping him up at night.

And that’s ok, seeing as any holdout by Team Donald pushes back his free agency eligibility for one year. So Snead and the organization have some leverage to slide him down the priority list in 2018, but how far down can the Rams afford to go before irreparable damage is done?

Ultimately, LA knows they’ll have to dig deep as Donald isn’t flattening out as a player. He’s getting better and better on a defense that is still the crown jewel of the Rams. At some point, the bill will come due and each day they wait, the price goes up a little bit more.

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They also know that the odds of him getting out of town are perhaps remote as the franchise tag option is another avenue they could go.

But at what cost to the relationship between Donald and the Rams? Money definitely solves a lot of problems, but it’s also a drama that will play out for all to see, not just players in Los Angeles.

Bottom line, Snead has some time to cross a lot of names of his “to-do” list. He just can’t afford to wait on the biggest one before real damage is done.