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Aaron Donald on his 2022 return: I thought I wanted to be done, but I got addicted to it

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By: Kenneth Arthur

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Donald says he’s faster than ever

Tom Brady played better in his thirties and forties than ion his twenties. What if we still haven’t seen the best of Aaron Donald?

After speculation before the Super Bowl that Donald could retire from the NFL if the Los Angeles Rams ended up winning (Narrator: They did), the future Hall of Fame pass rusher eventually put those thoughts to rest after weeks of uncertainty. Now both Donald and Sean McVay are back in L.A. in an attempt to be the first team to repeat since Brady’s 03-04 Patriots, and Donald told the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast that he’s got three to five more years left in his body.

“Yeah, I’m faster,” Donald said. “I was just with my guy Wednesday training and I always ask after I work, ‘What do you think?’ And he [said] back, ‘You’ve got about three, five more years in you with how you’re moving.’ So, I feel good, I really do feel good. I feel quick, I feel explosive. I don’t feel like I’m slowing down — if anything I feel like I’m getting faster. I feel like I’m in better shape. I keep telling people, I get better with age, man. I don’t slow down. I just feel like I’m getting that much stronger. I look better with age and all that.”

It was only last week that Donald revealed he’s only 260 lbs, which begs to ask the question of whether or not he’s faster than every draftee entering the NFL this year at his position. Is he faster than the linebackers in the 2022 NFL Draft? Some of the cornerbacks? Maybe a receiver or three?

Donald says that he is “hungry” to win another Super Bowl, probably motivated by the fact that his Hall of Fame teammate Von Miller now has two rings of his own. Could it be Rams vs. the Buffalo Bills in next season’s Super Bowl to see if Miller gets three before Donald gets two? Donald made it clear that he was motivated to return because he sees L.A. as having a real chance to repeat and given the mass exodus of talent from the NFC to the AFC over this offseason, it’s not hard to see why.

“Why not come back and play? That’s all it’s about. I experienced this, I thought I wanted to be done, but I got addicted to it.”

Donald is entering his age-31 season having made the Pro Bowl in all eight of his campaigns, as well as first team All-Pro in the last seven. He is a three-time Defensive Player of the Year and he played in a career-high 1,041 snaps in 2021.

What do you think Donald has in store for us in 2022?