Residing on the marquee will be the Donald-Garrett union, a pairing that boasts a combined 17 Pro Bowl selections, 13 All-Pro honors, 236.5 sacks and, perhaps most impressively, five combined AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year Honors.
Garrett, who won his second career DPOY last season after recording an NFL single-season record of 23 sacks, was viewed as the crown jewel of an astounding offseason for the Rams. The unretiring of Donald will take the Rams’ status as Super Bowl favorites into another stratosphere.
Alongside Donald and Garrett on the defensive front for Los Angeles will be standouts Braden Fiske (11.5 sacks in two seasons) and Byron Young (2025 Pro Bowler; 27.5 sacks in three seasons), along with run stuffer Poona Ford and defensive tackle Kobie Turner (24 sacks in three seasons).
One talented pass rusher Donald won’t get the chance to play with is Jared Verse, who was sent to the Browns as part of the Garrett trade. Verse memorably joined a retired Donald in one of the latter’s mythical workouts and called Donald a “psychopath” after losing a challenge. Donald remaining in shape has never been in question, but making sure he’s in “football shape” and whether he has any rust to shake off will now be prevalent storylines. So too will be the imagination of greatness that lies ahead.
Various defensive lines in NFL history have been adorned with the “Fearsome Foursome” nickname, but the most renowned was that of the L.A. Rams’ front of Hall of Famers Deacon Jones and Merlin Olsen along with Rosey Grier and Lamar Grundy, and later Roger Brown. That contingent has been heralded by some as the greatest defensive line ever, but in the pre-Super Bowl era, it never led the Rams to an NFL Championship Game.
For this new-era frightening front, success will be measured in February.
Super Bowl LXI will be hosted on Feb. 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California — the Rams’ home field. That was the setting for Donald and the L.A. Rams’ greatest triumph.
Donald memorably closed out the Rams’ 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI when he tossed down quarterback Joe Burrow on a fourth-down incompletion a play after he recorded a tackle for no gain on third-and-1 as part of a second-half defensive masterpiece.
Many of the Rams’ biggest contributors to that triumphant year have moved on. Odell Beckham is hoping to make the New York Giants, Jalen Ramsey is with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Ernest Jones and Super Bowl LVI MVP Cooper Kupp are reigning Super Bowl champs with the rival Seattle Seahawks, while many such as Andrew Whitworth and Rob Havenstein have retired.
Donald is coming back, though. He’ll be the only starter from that Rams Super Bowl defense on the squad, rejoining only a few teammates who won a ring with him: Tyler Higbee, Alaric Jackson, Coleman Shelton and reigning NFL MVP Matthew Stafford.