ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio has cooked up a way for former Pitt and Penn Hills standout Aaron Donald to come back to Pittsburgh to finish his career as a Steeler.

Or as one of their chief rivals.

If he wants to, that is.

That’s despite the fact that Donald just reworked his contract with the Los Angeles Rams to become the highest-paid non-quarterback in the National Football League to the tune of $95 million over three years.

Here’s Florio’s theory:

“The structure (of the new contract) allows Donald to play for L.A. through 2023, at a total payout of $65 million. At that point, he can retire with no financial consequences of any kind. And if he retires following the 2023 season, the next move could be to try to unretire with a new team,” Florio said.

This wouldn’t be incredibly different from what another former WPIAL alum, Rob Gronkowski (Woodland Hills), did when he left the Patriots after 2018. He then came out of retirement following the 2019 season and played in Tampa Bay during the 2020 and 2021 campaigns.

“At that point, Donald could try to leverage a trade to a location closer to his hometown of Pittsburgh,” Florio continued. “If the Rams will get no further services from him either way, they could secure some amount of value in exchange for swapping the final season of his deal to another franchise.

For Donald, an annual commitment that entails spending so much time so far from home was one of the reasons he considered retiring after the 2021 season. After 2023, his mindset could be very simple. Happily retire from football altogether or keep playing in a city far closer to the city where he’d prefer to spend as much time as possible.

It could be Pittsburgh. It could be Cleveland. It could be Cincinnati. It could be Baltimore. Really, any of the AFC North teams would put him far closer to home, if he decides to keep playing after 2023. The Rams would have to decide whether to take what they can get for the final year of Donald’s deal and let him finish his career elsewhere, or the Rams can watch him retire without ever playing for another team. And get nothing in return.

If he’s determined to end his career closer to home, at that point Donald simply needs to play one more year for the Rams (at $30 million) and then, given the unique structure of his new deal, become a free agent after the 2024 season.”

OK. Fair enough. But I guess I’m having trouble buying into how much an alleged desire to get closer to Pittsburgh really factored into Donald’s retirement thoughts.

After all, I’m skeptical of how much he was really considering retirement in the first place. A lot of that talk felt like a negotiating tactic to me more than anything.

And if such a consideration is in play, why not play that card this year when Donald is younger and healthy and still has all the leverage in the world? A bunch of wide receivers bullied their way into new deals in different cities this past offseason. Why wouldn’t Donald just employ that tactic instead of the retirement/unretirement shenanigans a few years from now?

I mean, if he wanted to leverage a trade, wouldn’t those four divisional rivals have fallen all over themselves to outbid one another for his skills, let alone pony up the compensation to get him out of Los Angeles in the first place?

Plus, the outline of this plan feels a little bit more like Pittsburgh-or-bust to me than it does anywhere in the AFC North. Or Buffalo. Or Detroit. Or Philadelphia.

Hey, if we are going to throw Cincinnati or Baltimore into the mix, why not those cities, too? Given that Donald pretty much just got paid enough for himself to charter a private plane for the rest of his life, does he really need to be within a 4-6 hour drive of Penn Hills?

If he is still working NFL hours, on an NFL schedule, he could be in Los Angeles or Cleveland, he’s still not in his hometown. There will still be plenty of times when he might feel as if he is 2,500 miles away with those demands and commitments.

So maybe by the end of the 2023 season, it’s a question of how good the Steelers are with (presumably) Kenny Pickett in charge. Has Mike Tomlin still never had a losing season? What’s the cap situation in Pittsburgh? And are the Steelers — or any of those AFC North foes — close enough to a Super Bowl for Donald to want to leave Los Angeles?

In all, I get the execution of what Florio is talking about, I’m just dubious of how important of an agenda this would really be for Donald. And if it was, why wouldn’t he have tried to do something about it as he has been in the prime of his career so he could play a longer stretch of time closer to home, instead of waiting for his swansong seasons?

Not that I wouldn’t like to see it. Look, I like Chris Wormley and Tyson Alualu as much as the next guy. But I think I’d be a touch more comfortable with Donald replacing Stephon Tuitt than them.

Or anyone else in the NFL, for that matter.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)