It’s time for Aaron Donald’s second debut with the Los Angeles Rams.

Donald will take the field with the Rams on Monday night in their Week 2 matchup with the New York Giants at SoFi Stadium, according to ESPN. It will mark the first time that Donald has played since he came out of retirement earlier this fall to rejoin the franchise. 

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Donald and the Rams announced late last month that they had reached a one-year, $20 million deal to bring him out of retirement. He missed the last two seasons after he retired in 2024 after a decade with the Rams, who first selected him with the No. 13 overall pick in 2014 when they were still in St. Louis.

Donald racked up 111 sacks throughout his career. He had 53 total tackles during his final season in 2023, and he was a huge piece of the Rams’ Super Bowl run during the 2021 campaign. 

Donald said he had been locked into his training for months leading up to the announcement, and he has been ramping back up to play again ever since. He did not play in the Rams’ season-opener against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia, and instead remained in California to keep preparing. Rams head coach Sean McVay said before that game that he thought Donald would be ready to play “sooner rather than later,” but he wasn’t sure when that would be.

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Clearly, that extra week ended up being all Donald needed. 

Donald and the Rams will attempt to bounce back from their rough 27-7 loss to the 49ers on Monday night against the Giants. They will be without fellow pass rusher Myles Garrett for the next four weeks, too, after he landed on injured reserve due to knee surgery he had to undergo after the Week 1 loss. Garrett, who the Rams traded for this past offseason in a blockbuster deal with the Browns, did not have a single tackle against the 49ers.

While Donald may not be able to fill in the gap Garrett left completely, his return comes at the perfect time for the Rams’ defensive front. Donald, after years away, is finally back.