Los Angeles Rams entering July without new deal for Aaron Donald concerning

Why is it taking the Los Angeles Rams so long to strike a new deal with Aaron Donald?

For months, there’s been plenty of speculation surrounding the Los Angeles Rams being one of the top teams to beat heading into the 2018 season, and rightfully so when taking numerous factors into consideration.

From the team coming off an impressive 2017 campaign in which they won the NFC West to adding key players on both sides of the football this offseason such as Ndamukong Suh and Brandin Cooks, the Rams are going to be one of the most exciting teams to watch.

However, just because Los Angeles is viewed as one of the early contenders to make a run at the Super Bowl next season doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to happen. Plus, when looking at how the whole Aaron Donald situation appears to be playing out with the defensive superstar still in search of a new deal heading into July, the Rams find themselves at risk to the same situation as last summer.

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Not having Donald present at training camp along with preseason made Los Angeles fans nervous as anything last summer since they knew the defense wouldn’t be the same without him. And even though Donald finally put an end to his holdout right before the official start of Week 1, the Rams can’t afford to go through a similar situation again.

For months, the talk has been that Los Angeles and Donald would come to some sort of agreement sooner rather than later, but here they are heading into the month that training camp begins, and there still isn’t anything in place.

Even if the argument can be made that the Rams have been waiting for the Oakland Raiders to reward Khalil Mack, the team just needs to bite the bullet at this point by making Donald one of the league’s highest paid players.

The impressive numbers (11 sacks with five forced fumbles in 14 games) alone from the 2017 season only adds to the list of reasons why Donald deserves every penny of a massive deal.

By waiting this long to reach an agreement when it was originally reported the two parties were discussing things back in the middle of last season, the Rams are only hurting themselves with this Donald situation.

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With the start of training camp right around the corner, let’s hope Los Angeles finally pays their beloved star in Donald before that first day of practice, or it’s going to be another stressful August for Rams fans.