The Rams will depart for Australia on Tuesday night for their season opener against the San Francisco 49ers.
Will star defensive lineman Aaron Donald be with them?
“Feeling good, feeling really good,” Donald said Monday. “Come up with a game plan and see.”
But could he say for certain he will make the trip?
“I’m feeling really good. Feeling great,” he said. “Come up with a game plan and see what’s going on but I’m telling ya, I feel great.”
Donald, 35, returned from a two-year retirement to join a Rams team that is favored to win Super Bowl LXI. But the three-time NFL defensive player of the year has gone through only one 11-on-11 practice.
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He did that on Sunday, but did not practice Monday. Donald said he did a cardio workout as part of a scheduled day off.
“I’m 35,” he said, chuckling. “You don’t play football in two years, you got to be smart. Even if I feel good, you still gotta be smart.”
Coach Sean McVay has said that Donald’s situation would be evaluated daily.
Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula, asked if a decision had been made regarding whether Donald would play against the 49ers, said “everything’s” day by day.
“We’re ready for him if he does, ready for him if he doesn’t,” Shula said, “and we’ll have a plan for however many plays he feels like he can go and we’ll go from there.”
Donald said his ramp-up has gone better than he anticipated.
“Thought I’d be a lot more rusty,” he said, adding that things were “clicking.”
Donald said that during his first full practice, he settled in after a few plays. He is not where he wants to be, “but pretty pretty damn good, if you ask me, to not play football in two years to be moving how I’m moving.”
Donald came back, in part, to team with edge rusher Myles Garrett, a two-time NFL defensive player of the year. They had been in meetings and walkthroughs together, and now practice.
“It was good to be on the grass with him and do some stuff, and get a feel,” Donald said. “Because the chemistry of playing with each other, kind of learning how each other rush, how each other play, not just Myles, just the whole front. … It’s exciting.”
Donald said he was ready for whatever role he fills, and that he was not going to worry about playing 60 or 70 snaps.
“There’s no pressure on me. I can just go out there play free, play ball, let the game come to me,” Donald said. “Play with the guys around me. Help them, they help me.”
Donald, an eight-time All-Pro, has 111 career sacks.
Star receiver Davante Adams is happy that he returned to join the Rams.
“Nobody knows exactly what he’s going to do statistically, if he’s going to be exactly what he was,” Adams said. “But … I know the type of person that he is and I know the way he’s going to work and I know the way he looks right now.
“It looks like it’s going to be a familiar picture for us all out there.”
Puka Nacua ready for opener
Star receiver Puka Nacua said he was happy to be participating in full-team drills after being sidelined for a few weeks because of a psoas injury sustained during a joint practice with the Dallas Cowboys a few days after the end of training camp.
The NFL has been investigating an incident that led to Nacua being the defendant in a civil lawsuit. If the league determines that Nacua violated the NFL’s personal conduct policy, he could be suspended.
But the league has not taken action, and McVay said he expected Nacua to play against the 49ers.
Did the possibility of a suspension before the season weigh heavily on Nacua?
“Definitely feeling emotion of some of the things that, just trying to handle that in the ways that I can and what’s in my control,” he said. “But also having a realistic understanding of the consequences of some of the things that I put myself in this offseason.
“But I feel like I’ve been able to feel grounded and feel present when I step out there on the football field. That’s been one of the positive things, of every time I step on that football field, never taking that moment for granted.”
