Rams GM on Aaron Donald Holdout: 'Want Him to Be Here as Soon as Possible'

Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead made it clear the team wants to re-sign defensive tackle Aaron Donald. The hard part is finding the combination of years and money to make an extension happen.

"We still want Aaron, want him to be here as soon as possible," Snead said Tuesday, per the Los Angeles Times' Lindsey Thiry.

Snead added that Donald has the potential to be a future Hall of Famer and that the team has attempted to come up with "creative scenarios" regarding its impasse with the 26-year-old, to no avail, according to Thiry.

Donald has two years left on his rookie deal. He's set to earn a little over $1.8 million in 2017 and slightly under $6.9 million in 2018 before becoming an unrestricted free agent.

He began a holdout prior to training camp, though, and Rams head coach Sean McVay said last Sunday he's unsure when Donald might report back to the team, per Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio:

"We haven't received any word like that. Right now, that dialogue is ongoing. I know we had some meetings and discussions with their representation and that's something that we're working through to try and get figured out as soon as possible. If we do, we'll be excited about that and if not, we've got to be ready to adjust and move forward. That's the approach that we've taken, but certainly we're very optimistic and hopeful that we'll get that done. But we don't have any specific updates, it's kind of the same as where it's been the last couple weeks."

On the one hand, the Rams could potentially test Donald's resolve. Should his holdout carry into the regular season, he'll cost himself game checks. Over the Cap's Jason Fitzgerald wrote Donald would lose $250,000 if he doesn't rejoin the team by Week 1 and then another $106,015 for every game he's absent.

At the same time, Donald's importance to the team gives him a significant amount of leverage. Not only is he the Rams' best defender, he's also their best overall player. He finished the 2016 season with eight sacks and 47 combined tackles en route to his third straight Pro Bowl and second year of receiving first-team All-Pro honors.

In June, Pro Football Focus' Sam Monson listed Donald as the No. 1 player in the league in 2017, ahead of Houston Texans star J.J. Watt and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

The Rams can ill afford to be without Donald for any stretch of the upcoming season, and Donald is well aware of that fact.

Both parties have a strong incentive to work out at least a temporary solution prior to Los Angeles' first game Sept. 10 against the Indianapolis Colts, so it would be surprising if Donald's holdout forces him to miss any meaningful action.