Rams better hope Khalil Mack doesn’t impact Aaron Donald’s contract

If the Los Angeles Rams plan on making Aaron Donald the league’s highest-paid player, they may have to wait and see what happens with Khalil Mack of the Oakland Raiders.

Since the middle of last season, there’s been plenty of discussion over when the Los Angeles Rams would finally reward Aaron Donald with the hefty contract he clearly deserves to avoid another situation in which he missed all of training camp and preseason. When looking at how dominant he’s been throughout the first four NFL seasons of his career, it’s easy to understand why Donald has been fighting so much to be the league’s highest-paid defensive player.

While Les Snead continues to claim he has a plan in place, it will be interesting to see if Khalil Mack changes the situation after the linebacker failed to show up to voluntary workouts this week, leaving many to believe that it’s contract related. Just like Donald, Mack is due for quite a hefty payday entering his fifth year in the league, and if he is in fact seeking $65 million guaranteed as reported by Steve Wyche of the NFL Network, it will be interesting to see what kind of approach the Rams may take with their defensive superstar.

Obviously, if Oakland does end up rewarding Mack with a hefty deal at some point this offseason before Donald, the Los Angeles star could easily use this to his advantage to fight for more money. So if Mack does in fact end up holding out for a new deal, it will be interesting to see if Donald and his representatives wait to see how that situation plays out before coming to any sort of agreement with the Rams.

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Either way, as long as Los Angeles takes care of their defensive superstar at some point from now until the start of training camp with a hefty new deal he clearly deserves to avoid another holdout situation, that’s all that really matters. When looking at all of the key moves made over the last few months to build off last year’s success, the Rams have put together an amazing team that seems capable of being a serious Super Bowl contender for years to come, and there’s nothing they would love more than to make sure Donald continues to be part of it.