Aaron Donald is ready to return, but lingering skepticism surrounds what the 35-year-old defensive tackle can realistically deliver for the LA Rams. After all, he is returning after more than two years of absence from the NFL. Due to this, NFL legend Cris Carter believes Donald’s physical ramp-up is one of the biggest question marks right now.

“A lot of eyeballs are going to be on the LA Rams,” Carter said on Inside Football. “Their acquisition of Aaron Donald, bringing him out of retirement, a couple years in retirement, trying to ramp him up to see not only the role that he’s going to play, but how much can he actually play? And I was somewhat surprised by him not being able to play in that first game because when you target offseason, it’s amazing. You get an ACL in October, November, December.

“We’ve seen all kind of guys with ACL’s. It’s amazing how all their doctors released them to play week number one. It’s that that is the target date when you are an NFL player. So, to me, not only they are an aging team. They have some aging players, but how many plays will Aaron Donald play when he plays? What’s the role he’s going to play? And can they keep Matthew Stafford healthy? So, the overall health of the Rams, Aaron Donald’s role – you have to have your eyeballs on that in Los Angeles this season.”

Cris Carter’s assessment comes after Aaron Donald was held back from traveling with the team for their season opener game against the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday in Australia. Since he has been out of the league for two seasons, the Rams head coach Sean McVay chose a cautious approach to condition Donald’s fitness before providing in-game exposure.

“I think he’ll be ready to go sooner rather than later. But we’re making a decision that we think is best for him and for our team,” McVay said Tuesday. “He’s as great a competitor as there is. Wants to be out there. Wants to influence and affect positive change for us. But I think he also understands there’s a necessary ramp up.”

In his first stint in the league, Aaron Donald spent 10 seasons, racking up 543 total tackles and 111 sacks in 154 regular-season games. On top of that, he also won the Defensive Player of the Year title three times (in 2017, 2018, and 2020). However, in 2024, Donald lost his drive to continue.

He announced his retirement on March 15, 2024, explaining the reasons behind the decision.

“I’m complete, I’m full,” Donald said at the time. “I think the passion to play the game is no longer there for me. I will always love football, but to think about going through another camp and another 17-(game) season, I just don’t got the urge to want to push myself through that no more. I’m just, I’m burnt out. The best way to say it is I’m full, I’m complete.”

But when his former team, the LA Rams, traded for the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett, it somewhat enticed Aaron Donald to come out of retirement.

First off, the Rams are widely considered to have a championship-caliber team. They rebuilt their defense by adding star cornerbacks like Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson alongside existing key players. On top of that, with Myles Garrett leading the defense and reigning MVP Matthew Stafford leading the offense, Donald seemed happy to be back.

“Seeing what was being done with this team, the pieces that were getting brought here,” Donald said. “I was like, ‘OK, it’s a complete team.'”

However, Cris Carter remains openly skeptical about whether a 38-year-old Matthew Stafford and a 35-year-old Aaron Donald can make it through the grueling 2026 season without running into severe injury complications.