Whitworth, Woods resturcture contracts

Is Aaron Donald deal already done?

Is Aaron Donald deal already done?
Posted by Mike Florio on August 30, 2018, 9:33 AM EDT

With so much sudden optimism flowing from the Rams regarding a new contract for defensive tackle Aaron Donald, here’s a fair question: Is the deal already done?

Not “done” in the sense that it’s signed, sealed, and/or delivered. “Done” in the sense that the terms have been agreed to, that the paperwork is being drawn up, that cap space is being cleared, and that it’s just a matter of time before i’s dotted and t’s are crossed.

Personally, I think (I don’t know, I think) it’s already done.

But the Rams won’t be leaking or announcing news of a done Donald deal as Labor Day Weekend approaches. They’ll want it to be the top story as Labor Day Weekend concludes, generating 2-3 days of coverage and siphoning attention away from the Falcons-Eagles regular-season opener.

These are no longer the St. Louis Rams. These are the L.A. Rams. Sharing a city with the Chargers and a national stage with too many other teams that have a bigger footprint. As one league source predicted on Wednesday, the Rams will find a way to unveil the Donald deal in a manner that makes maximum impact, not just for the purposes of generating P.R. but also with the goal of making money by inspiring people to buy PSLs and season tickets and other things that will help pay for that multi-billion-dollar hole in the ground in Inglewood.

So here’s the prediction. Someone will leak that a deal is done on Monday, the press conference will happen on Tuesday, and Donald will be ready to go when the Rams open the season as the last game of Week One, on Monday night against the Raiders.

Agamemnon wrote:

This could mean that they are giving Donald more money up front and/or they might want to sign another player.

This is the long version of my response. It’s not so much written to you ag as it is to anyone including those who don’t follow contract stuff. That means I say a lot of things I know you know. So I am writing also to posters who don’t know these details.

So agreed that this could be about AD, and then again might not be.

There’s 2 ways to do an extension like this.

First is what they did with Cooks, and what GB did with Rodgers. You just add on a new contract, and the old contract then just plays out. So with Cooks, 2018 is his old contract, and the new one starts in 2019. That’s the 5 years, 81 M.

Another way to do it is to rewrite the old contract and add it to the new one. So if they did that, 2018 would be part of a new deal for AD, which is not how they did it with Cooks. If they do it that way with AD, then, restructuring AW & RW could be part of re-doing AD’s 2018 contract (along with adding more years).

And then as I said it’s also possible that AW and RW have nothing to do with AD, but maybe that has to do with something else we don’t know about yet.

It;s all up in the air but we will know in a few days.

Hearing the Donald deal is in the 18mil range, not the 23-24mil range as suspected. 😳 Basically, 55 million, all guaranteed for three years with options after.

— Tyler Bearde (@tbearde) August 30, 2018

We can look at it this way. Or, divide it this way,
2018 – $7 million
2019 – $24 million
2020 – $24 million
and the rest are options(remaining years are always options on all contracts. They are all written like a series of 1 year contracts.). The new money is $48M for 2 years. This it is $24 million/yr. I would guess the remaining years would all be about $24M. 😉

• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by Agamemnon.

I guess that Donald is getting a new contract starting in 2018 and not an extension starting in 2019.

snowman wrote:

I guess that Donald is getting a new contract starting in 2018 and not an extension starting in 2019.

Yeah, I am with ag. It’s still 2 contracts.