Donald gets big raise
All-pro tackle now highest-paid defensive player
All-pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald is getting a big raise to stay with the Los Angeles Rams under a reworked contract through 2024.
The Super Bowl champion Rams announced Donald’s return Monday. The team didn’t disclose terms of the new deal, but the NFL Network reported Donald is getting a $40 million raise that will make him the highestpaid defensive player in the league.
Donald was already under contract for $55 million over the next three seasons, but he openly contemplated retirement after he won his first ring in February.
The Rams realized Donald deserved a hefty raise, and he will get $65 million guaranteed in the next two seasons.
The deal means the seven-time All-pro will be back to torment offenses at the heart of the defense with the Rams, who will be among the Super Bowl favorites again in the upcoming season. Los Angeles already signed quarterback Matthew Stafford to a contract extension during the offseason, and the rest of the team’s championship core is largely intact.
The 31-year-old Donald has stayed at home in Pittsburgh during the Rams’ offseason workout programs, but he is expected to be in attendance when the team opens its mandatory minicamp Tuesday.
Donald is widely considered the most dominant defensive player in the sport, and he demonstrated his power yet again last season. He capped four excellent postseason games by making the final defensive play to stop the last drive by the Rams’ opponents in both the NFC title game and the Super Bowl.
Texans: Romeo Crennel announced his retirement, ending a 39-year NFL coaching career highlighted by five Super Bowl titles. Crennel, spent the past eight seasons with the Houston Texans. He was the team’s defensive coordinator from 2014-16 and assistant head coach from 2017-19. In 2020 he was the associate head coach before becoming the interim head coach following coach Bill O’brien’s firing after just four games.
Browns: A 24th woman filed a civil lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct by Cleveland quarterback Deshaun Watson, who is also awaiting possible discipline from the NFL. The latest lawsuit was filed in Houston by attorney Tony Buzbee, who is representing all 24 women. Watson has been accused by massage therapists of harassing, assaulting or touching them during appointments when he was with the Houston Texans. The latest lawsuit makes similar allegations as the woman, a massage therapist, accuses Watson of assaulting and harassing her during an August 2020 session in her apartment. The woman alleges that during the massage session, Watson exposed himself and masturbated and “offered no apology or explanation for his conduct.“The woman has quit being a massage therapist because of what happened to her and now suffers from depression and anxiety, according to the lawsuit.