As the Rams head toward training camp, the biggest lingering question is still whether Aaron Donald will come back for the 2026 season. The idea has picked up steam after Los Angeles traded for edge rusher Myles Garrett, and Donald has reportedly been seriously considering a return from retirement to play alongside him.
If that happens, the Rams will sort out the money and roster side of it. The bigger football question is how Donald would fit into a defensive line that already has real depth.
Los Angeles is not short on bodies up front. Kobie Turner, Poona Ford, and Braden Fiske have been reliable starters, while Tyler Davis, Ty Hamilton, and Larrell Murchison fill out the rotation. The Rams also added Tim Keenan III in the draft.
But a Donald comeback would ripple through that group, and Fiske is the player most likely to feel it. Over the past two seasons, he has mostly worked as a rotational piece because of some limitations against the run. As a rookie, he played 59 percent of the team’s defensive snaps, then dropped to 48 percent last year.
The overlap is obvious: Donald and Fiske both do their best work rushing the passer. Donald has never been known as a dominant run defender, and after two years away from the game, that’s where most of his value would still come from. Even so, he likely brings more juice in that area than anyone else in the room.
Fiske’s production tells the story of a player who stayed active but saw the sack numbers dip. He had three sacks last season after posting 8.5 as a rookie. His pressure total and win rate held fairly steady, though, with 50 pressures and a 12.1 percent win rate last year compared with 59 pressures and a 10.4 percent win rate in his first season.
What Donald would not do is step back into the exact workload he had in 2023, when he was on the field for 81 percent of the Rams’ defensive snaps. Even earlier in his career, his snap share moved around: 67 percent as a rookie, 79 percent in year two, and 76 percent in year three.
At 35, a more realistic range for Donald would be somewhere between 50 and 55 percent of the defensive snaps. That would likely push Fiske down into a 30 to 35 percent range, with some of his work coming as relief for Donald to keep him fresh. That smaller role would not be a knock on Fiske so much as a reflection of how the Rams could best use both players.
Donald would probably see more early-down work than Fiske has handled over the last two seasons, but the real payoff would come in passing situations. That is where Donald can still be elite, and the Rams already have run-stopping depth with Davis, Hamilton, and Murchison. If they can keep Donald in a focused role, they can squeeze the most out of him.
That would come at the expense of Fiske’s workload, but it could also make the entire front more effective. A tighter rotation would help keep the pass rush fresh, and if Donald is still delivering elite production in a reduced role, the Rams’ defensive line would become a major problem for opponents.
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