ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler: What a Donald Return Would Mean for the Rams & Stafford

Jeremy Fowler brought two Los Angeles Rams storylines to The Rich Eisen Show, and they feed into each other. One is how good Matthew Stafford still is. The other is whether Aaron Donald really might come back to line up next to Myles Garrett.

Start with Stafford. Fowler relayed a quote from an AFC offensive coach that Stafford and Sean McVay are "now the best quarterback coach duo in the league." It was not quite a leaguewide consensus, Fowler said, but it came up repeatedly, and it was offered as both praise and a subtle knock. The knock is that Stafford operates in ideal conditions, an elite play caller in McVay, two number one receivers who are hard to double, a system that makes everything work. McVay leaned more into under-center looks and three-tight-end sets last year, in part to protect Stafford's back, and Stafford did the rest.

That "rest" was considerable. Fowler said several coaches told him it was not close who the best quarterback was last season. "Not only just winning the MVP, but just playing the position. The mastery of it, the anticipation on the throws," Fowler said. "That was all Stafford, and nobody else was a close second in that regard." At 38, with guaranteed money in hand and an MVP on the shelf, Stafford looks set to play another two to three years, and Fowler noted that if he were 32, "he might be our number one quarterback." The gap is age, not ability.

Rich ran through the reasons Stafford would keep going: McVay calling plays, Puka Nacua and Davante Adams as targets, Kyren Williams and Blake Corum in the backfield, the offensive line handled. Then he added the wild card, Garrett arriving in Los Angeles, a development that "might smoke Aaron Donald out of retirement."

On Donald, Fowler counseled patience while keeping the door wide open. The retired star has not made a firm decision, and while Donald has been spotted working out of the facility, Fowler cautioned that he has done that on and off for years and has stayed close to the organization since walking away. "He is not dispelling the rumors whatsoever," Fowler said. Some teams around the league even wonder whether Donald could return as a "mid-season sniper," showing up in Week 10 or 12, though Fowler is skeptical of that path.

The key, Fowler said, comes straight from the front office. Rams general manager Les Snead told him Donald is "a principled individual," the kind of player who will only do it if he is all the way in and confident he can be his dominant self again. "If he gets to that point, then I could see the trigger pulled," Fowler said, and the result would be, in his word, ridiculous.

Ridiculous is the operative idea, because Donald has been retired long enough that he barely has to change his routine to be ready. "He's microwaved, ready to go," Rich joked. Fowler said the possibility came up unprompted while he polled the league for his top-10 series. If the fear factor is what separates the great defenses, then Donald lining up alongside Garrett in Los Angeles would supply it in bulk.