Rams Exercise DT Aaron Donald’s Fifth-Year Option

Field Yates of ESPN reports that the Rams have exercised DT Aaron Donald‘s fifth-year team option for the 2018 season.

The fifth-year option will run the Panthers around $6.892 million for the 2018 season, but is guaranteed only for injury and won’t prevent them from working on a long-term extension over the next year.

This is as easy of a decision as any when it comes to exercising a fifth-year option. The Rams are expected to open extension talks Donald at some point over the next year or so, so it wouldn’t be all that surprising if he didn’t play out the 2018 season under the option.

Donald, 25, is a former first-round pick of the Rams back in 2014. He was in the final year of his four-year, $10.136 million and set to make a base salary of $1,802,250 for the 2017 season.

In 2016, Donald appeared in all 16 games for the Rams and recorded 47 tackles, eight sacks, two forced fumbles and five pass defenses.