Should Rams 'Give Up,' Trade Aaron Donald for Draft Picks?

Should the Rams concede that 2023 isn't going to be their year and "give up'' by trading Aaron Donald?

We get it. The Los Angeles Rams now have a "Super Bowl bloodline,'' and anything short of achieving on that level seems unsatisfactory. And at this moment, with training camp approaching, most think the Rams will not be 2023 "achievers.''

So ... the Rams should give up? And give up Aaron Donald?

Donald is arguably the greatest player in the history of this storied franchise. And he also just might be the best defensive player the NFL has ever seen. 

Prominent Seattle Seahawks media voices are brainstorming a change that would send Donald to Seattle (while, as a sidebar, cutting ties with Jamal Adams, which would be a financial boondoggle for the Seahawks).

On Seattle Sports’ “Brock and Salk,” Brock Huard and Mike Salk discussed the idea. Salk asked, “He’s a huge difference-maker. Would you trade the farm right now for Aaron Donald?”

And if you somehow got him? What about Adams?

Huard said, “You probably have to cut Jamal. You’d have to eat (Adams’) dead cap. And you’d probably need to have to free up (even more to have) enough cap space. So again, this would be an all-in [move].”

“All-in,” indeed - and also highly improbable of all coming true in a salary-cap league, as the hosts readily conceded.

Donald brings a $13.5 million base salary in 2023. He’s “worth it” in the sense that has made the Pro Bowl in all nine of his NFL seasons and he’s a seven-time All-Pro. But “worth it” doesn’t make it “affordable.”

By our calculations, this sort of trade - even though it would theoretically net the Rams a bonanza in future draft picks - would leave Los Angeles trying to massage away $41 million in dead money.

Said Salk: “God, don’t you find a way to make it work if it’s Aaron Donald?”

That question requires two answers. Yes, the Seahawks would like Aaron Donald. But no, they are not likely to find “a way to make it work.”

And then another conclusion: Yes, Seattle is good enough to want to be "all-in.'' But that the same time, Los Angeles is not locked in to being bad enough to need to "give up.''

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