5 Los Angeles Rams facing most pressure in Week 1 against Oakland Raiders

2. Aaron Donald

As mentioned before, the holdout by Donald for a second year in a row gave the Rams an unnecessary factor to worry about throughout the month of August before the defensive star finally reached an agreement on a record-setting deal after preseason.

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Now that Donald is going to be around for the long run so Los Angeles doesn’t have to worry about any future holdouts, it’s up to him to show that he is worth every penny of that new deal, which shouldn’t be hard to do when looking at how the previous four years have gone.

Rightfully so, Donald had every reason to feel frustration towards the Rams as an organization when looking at all of the other deals they seemed to be handing out left and right to some of his teammates. Despite all of the struggles for the most part leading up to the 2017 season, Donald had been one of the few bright spots for Los Angeles, and seeing that frustration carry over into the regular season would have been a disaster, even if the argument can be made that Phillips would figure out a way to adjust.

Luckily, Donald’s potential absence will no longer be an issue for the Rams, as they look to earn their first win of the new season on Monday with a strong performance on defense keeping Derek Carr and the rest of Oakland’s offense in check. It was one thing for Carr to have to worry about Suh, but adding Donald to the mix will hopefully result in even more pressure on the Raiders quarterback.