NFL Notes: Aaron Donald, Odell Beckham, Sean McVay

Aaron Donald

Rams OLB Von Miller is unsure if DT Aaron Donald will retire following this Super Bowl win, despite rumors that one of the best defensive players in the league is going to walk away.

“I don’t know, man. He’s done everything you can possibly do,” Miller said, via Pro Football Talk. “But this feeling here, there’s nothing like it. It’s addictive. Once you feel this — coming to the Super Bowl is one thing. But winning it is different. And we’ll just have to see. He’s done so much. But I’ll tell you, this feeling is great. It just makes you want it more and more and more. But he’s definitely capped off a great career if he chooses to do that. But this is an addictive feeling and I can’t see him walking away from this. He’s different, man. He’s the truth, man. He does everything well. He never turns it off — on the football field, off the football field, in the locker room. Flying on the plane. To games flying on the plane, away from games. Working out. In meetings. He’s the same guy. He was determined for this moment. It feels good to be a part of this win for him.”

• Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson wonders if the retirement talk that all of a sudden cropped up around Donald is more related to his contract than any serious thought of walking away on Donald’s part. 
• Robinson points out Donald has three more years on his deal that at the time made him the league’s highest-paid defensive player at $22 million a year. Since then, four players have passed him and the bar could be raised this offseason to $30 million a year.

Odell Beckham

Rams WR Odell Beckham is feared to have torn the same ACL that he had previously injured and spoke to the media about the situation.

“We don’t know yet, we’re going to wait to hear,” Beckham said, via CBS Sports. “I was trying to go back out there. Docs are going to take care of you. There was a moment I was in the back room — they told me I was done, I couldn’t play, and I had to come back out there and be a part of this because it’s so much bigger than myself. And these boys pulled through and made it happen. So, it’s nothing but love.”

Sean McVay

There’s been quiet speculation about Rams HC Sean McVay not being a lifetime coach for a few years now, and now that he’s won his first Super Bowl and publicly broached the topic ahead of the game, expect that to ramp up. It might end up including other coaches besides McVay as well, as Saints HC Sean Payton also just stepped away from football. 

“I just don’t see in this day and age, with the money (for head coaches) the way it is and with how it’s been built up over the last 10 years … you’re not going to see coaches coach that long,” a league source deeply connected to several coaches told CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora. “Certainly, not as long as they have in the past. It’s wearing on them, the lifestyle and the grind can swallow you up, and if you are lucky enough to have won a Super Bowl, you are really ahead of the deal.”

Though coaching salaries are starting to grow, they’re not growing at a rate similar to other jobs in media that provide a connection to the game without the relentless grind coaching in the NFL demands. A source close to McVay acknowledged to La Canfora that expecting him to coach for decades might be unrealistic. La Canfora thinks it might only be five years. 

“If he didn’t have Stafford I’d say he’d probably look at it (retirement) more seriously,” they said. “Getting Stafford really changed his whole outlook. He really believes in him and it’s showing. But will he seriously coach as long as some of these other people have, I sincerely doubt it.”