Aaron Donald has returned to the Los Angeles Rams on a one-year, $20 million contract, despite the team already carrying a host of expensive deals. Veteran sports agent Leigh Steinberg has explained how the Rams managed this through what he calls "caponomics" — restructuring existing contracts to free up cap space rather than cutting spending. The move matters because it allows the Rams to pair Donald with newly acquired defensive star Myles Garrett, potentially creating one of the most formidable defensive lines in the league.

The Rams achieved this by pushing money into future years through void years and backloaded deals: quarterback Matthew Stafford's contract now stretches to 2031, cornerback Trent McDuffie's cap hit rises from $10.8 million this year to around $30.8 million next season, and Myles Garrett's five-year, $208 million deal has cap charges spread out through 2034, starting at $8.4 million and peaking at $48.17 million in year five. This financial engineering enabled the Rams, already Super Bowl favourites after acquiring Garrett, to also bring back Donald, a 10-time Pro Bowler. Steinberg argues the pairing creates a defensive line that is "impossible to double team," and believes Donald would only have come out of retirement if confident he could still perform at an elite level.