Seattle Seahawks fans have already seen the writing on the wall with Aaron Donald, and the Los Angeles Rams seem perfectly content to let everybody sit with it a little longer.
The retired star had a workout with Los Angeles this week, and he even landed on the Rams’ activity report because he wore a helmet while going through drills. That detail only added more fuel to what has become one of the NFL’s least subtle open secrets: Donald is almost certainly going to reverse course and return to the Rams for at least the 2026 season. The buzz has been building for a couple of months now, and the expectation is that he’ll be back in LA alongside Myles Garrett.
If that happens, Seattle will be staring down a defense that looks terrifying on paper when the teams meet at least twice in 2026. Donald and Garrett are the kind of names that change the temperature of a game before kickoff, and both are headed for the Pro Football Hall of Fame when their careers are finally over for good.
Still, the Seahawks don’t need to treat this like some new apocalypse. The Rams can load up all they want, but Seattle has its own top-shelf talent.
Byron Murphy II and Leonard Williams are both among the best at their positions in the league, and Mike Macdonald gives the Seahawks the kind of defensive leadership that can stand up to anybody. Sean McVay gives Los Angeles great offensive direction; Macdonald is every bit his equal on the other side of the ball.
And really, the Rams doing whatever they can to answer Seattle after the Seahawks beat them twice last season is exactly how a rivalry should look. That part makes sense. What’s harder to ignore is the long game.
Donald and Garrett are both over 30, and Los Angeles is leaning heavily into older stars. Matthew Stafford is 38 years old, while Seattle’s QB1, Sam Darnold, is 29.
John Schneider is extending young pillars of the franchise. Les Snead, meanwhile, is building a roster that keeps getting older.
That may not matter much in 2026, but it says a lot about where both teams are headed after that.
For now, the Rams can chase another title and make themselves the favorite with Donald in the mix or without him. Fine.
Seattle can live with that. In the bigger picture, the Seahawks are in a better spot, and they’ve already won the Super Bowl more recently than Los Angeles or the San Francisco 49ers.
So let Donald come back. It’s a good story. The Seahawks, to borrow the spirit of what Mike Macdonald has said, aren’t going to spend much time worrying about what the Rams or 49ers are doing.
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