Aaron Donald Skips Rams OTAs Amid Negotiations for Contract Extension

Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead confirmed on Monday that the team and superstar defensive tackle Aaron Donald are engaged in contract extension talks.

"It has something to do with the contract," Snead said of Donald skipping the team's organized team workouts on Monday, per Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.com. "We're at the serious part of [negotiations]."

Snead added: "I'm very hopeful that this will get done."

As Gonzalez noted, however, the Rams may have to get creative while working out an extension.

He wrote: "The Rams have barely any cap space right now, but there are ways around it. Any extension may have to make Donald the game's highest-paid defensive player, at least in his free-agent years. That title currently belongs to Von Miller, who signed a six-year, $144.5 million contract with $70 million guaranteed last July."

The Rams already picked up Donald's fifth-year option in April, which will pay him $6.8 million in 2018. Donald is set to make just $1.8 million in 2017, which makes him arguably the best bargain in football next season.

And Snead made it pretty clear at the NFL Scouting Combine that he was interested in working out an extension with Donald.

"It's definitely coming," he said at the time, per Gonzalez. "The guy deserves a raise, there's no doubt. Whether he gets a raise or not, he's going to show up, do the things he does. But that's coming."

It's hardly surprising that the Rams would want to keep Donald in Los Angeles for the long term. Since being the No. 13 pick in the 2014 draft, Donald has emerged as one of the most impactful defensive players in the game, registering 116 tackles, 28 sacks and four forced fumbles in three seasons. He's proved durable as well and has yet to miss a game for the team.

Those numbers don't do his impact justice, however, as Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus noted while ranking him as the No. 2 player in the NFL in 2016, behind only New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady:

Donald’s 2016 season flew under the radar a lot this year thanks to how bad the Rams were in their first season back in Los Angeles, but also because he didn’t quite generate the obvious stats to back up his consistent dominance. "Only" eight sacks is good enough for most interior pass-rushers, but a player like Donald would need to be pushing 20 to fairly reflect the consistent impact he has on games.

Donald notched 82 total QB pressures (sacks, hits and hurries), which was the third-highest figure in the entire league, despite playing almost all of his snaps inside as a legitimate defensive tackle, and not on the perimeter where pressure comes easier.

Donald generates pressure at a greater rate than any other interior defender in the league, and when he does so, it tends to be decisive pressure that makes a legitimate impact on the game. Don’t be fooled by his sack total and think that he was merely okay this past year.

In other words, the Rams would be fools if they didn't lock up Donald to a long-term extension.