As Trade Rumors Swirls Around Aaron Donald, Browns in Position to Pounce
Once you get past the top three players on the Los Angeles Rams, namely Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp and Matthew Stafford, it becomes clear how easy it could be for the bottom to fall out this season. That's because the team mortgaged everything for a Super Bowl and now find themselves looking more like an expansion team than a contender. As a result, if the Rams struggle, Donald becomes a trade candidate ahead of the deadline and the Cleveland Browns could be one of the teams that could make a play for him.
Jason McIntyre of Fox Sports made five bold predictions regarding the NFL this year. Arguably his prediction for the Rams is his safest pick. Meanwhile, his other four predictions are extraordinary. He has the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship and the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl for example.
"I can see them being one of the worst teams in the league, and thus they decide to pull the trigger and trade Aaron Donald, basically their only good defender. Look at the PFF stats for this defense — it is abysmal. I know that they won the Super Bowl going with the big Stafford, Kupp, Donald. But then everything fell apart. They lost Jalen Ramsey, their best cornerback, who basically shut down one side of the field. [They lose] their middle linebacker, Bobby Wagner, one of the best defenders on the team. They lose two of their top three defenders. I think you are in a window where this team … decides to just reboot and move on from Aaron Donald." - Jason McIntyre
This looks more like an inevitability than a bold prediction for exactly the reasons McIntyre lays out. Aaron Donald has an argument to be the best defender in NFL history, but he can't cover the other ten guys. It will take dramatic improvement from the rest of that group to be decent and even though the NFC is clearly the weaker conference, their best hope is a wildcard berth.
They aren't going to beat the San Francisco 49ers for the division crown and the Seattle Seahawks have a far better team as long as their outstanding 2022 draft class doesn't regress with a sophomore slump and Geno Smith can keep playing well.
That doesn't begin to address Matthew Stafford's health or the questionable offensive line protecting him. The Rams are almost certainly going to be bad and they've already unloaded pieces for the sake of building for the future. Aaron Donald is 32 years old. He's not going to be around for the next iteration of the Rams, holds little value to the organization beyond sentimentality.
Yes, he could play his entire career with one team and retire before entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame, something Browns fans are familiar with in the case of Joe Thomas. However, if Doanld wants to play for a contender, the Rams are going to be happy to get as much as possible in return to help to further jumpstart the building process they currently find themselves.
Donald has a $13.5 million base salary for this season. Every game he plays with the Rams will reduce that amount. Everything else in his contract is bonuses the Rams owe. That makes trading him possible and enable the Rams to leverage more in return.
There may be several teams that could add Donald, but the Browns are certainly one of them. They have cap space and flexibility to add more, something they are likely to do anyway with the contract of Myles Garrett. They have picks and potentially even young players if they were so inclined.
Not having a first round pick in 2024 is a potential stumbling block, but they could do what the Rams did themselves, offering picks they will have in the future. Meanwhile, they also have second and third round picks they can package over a few years if necessary.
Donald would be the last piece of a defensive puzzle for the Browns. The organization should still add a veteran such as Shelby Harris or Matthew Ioannidis, but neither would preclude the Browns from adding Donald. It simply makes the Browns that much stronger with Donald.
Donald would have the opportunity to play for a Browns defense that already has Myles Garrett, Za'Darius Smith, Dalvin Tomlinson and former Donald teammate Ogbonnia Okoronkwo. He'd also be playing for Jim Schwartz, which caters to defensive linemen.
The biggest hang-up for the Rams might be the fact they would have to go against Donald and the Browns later in the season; week 13 in LA. The Rams wouldn't be going anywhere anyway and their fans would be able to watch Donald again. It would also trade him out of the conference, which is its own appeal to the Rams.
It's one of several reasons it's prudent for the Browns not to throw a ton of money at someone like DeAndre Hopkins simply because he's an available free agent. Donald would do more for the Browns than Hopkins ever could even if the possibility of acquiring him is remote.
The Rams carrying Donald into the season allows the Browns to see how they do in that same span of time. Even as confident they are in Deshaun Watson returning to the franchise quarterback form, actually having games played where he's done it only helps them in their pursuit, if not for themselves than for Donald. Additionally, the Browns hope to avoid catastrophic injuries that would make pursuing Donald moot.
The likelihood of the Browns acquiring Donald is still low at this point, but every game the Browns win and the Rams lose only strengthens their case. But if the Browns are able to keep themselves afloat during the difficult early stretch of their season, both in terms of record and injuries, acquiring Donald might have them not simply a contender, but a favorite to make the Super Bowl.
