Larry Fitzgerald knows exactly what Aaron Donald is capable of doing to an NFL offense. He has seen it from across the line of scrimmage, where Donald could turn any game plan into a crumpled piece of paper next to the side of a trash can in a matter of seconds. 

So when Fitzgerald sat down with the California Post for an exclusive interview during the DraftKings Invitational Championship at Pebble Beach over the weekend, he made a confession about his fellow University of Pittsburgh legend’s decision to come out of retirement and return to the Los Angeles Rams.

Selfishly, he wished Donald had stayed retired.

“I don’t want him to come back because I want him to go into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in three years,” the newly minted Pro Football Hall of Famer admitted. “That way, we’ll have 12 players from Pitt in the Hall of Fame.”

Following Fitzgerald’s induction into Canton on Aug. 8th, Pitt now has 11 Hall of Famers including Mike Ditka, Tony Dorsett, and Dan Marino. 

They’ll just have to wait a little longer for Donald. 

The 35-year-old defensive tackle announced on Sunday afternoon that he was coming out of retirement and returning to the Rams for the 2026 season, thereby delaying his Hall of Fame eligibility by another five years, but potentially accelerating the pursuit of another Lombardi Trophy.

Fitzgerald, who played the entirety of his 17-year career with the Arizona Cardinals, knows better than most what Donald’s return means for the NFC West and the NFL as a whole. 

“He’s the most dominant defensive player I’ve probably ever played against,” Fitzgerald said. “There was nothing you could do with him in the run game. He was just as dominant in the pass game.”

And when Fitzgerald played against Donald he was doing it mostly alone. Now he has reigning Defensive Player of the Year Award winner Myles Garrett beside him, creating the kind of pass-rushing partnership that is only ever assembled in video games. 

“Just having him out there, teams have to respect him,” Fitzgerald said. “Then you think about the edge rushers and the other guys they have rushing the quarterback. I mean, it’s just a murderer’s row.”

But Donald has been away from the game of football for two and a half years, which leaves the obvious question whether a 35-year-old defensive tackle can simply walk back onto a field and still terrorize quarterbacks the way he once did. 

“Do I feel like I can still be myself? 100 percent. If I didn’t feel like that, I wouldn’t be here,” said Donald after his first practice with the Rams on Sunday. 

But Donald isn’t exactly attempting an ordinary comeback. The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year established himself as one of the most destructive interior defenders the sport has ever seen. Fitzgerald faced him repeatedly during their overlapping years in the NFC West and remembers a player who could wreck both halves of an offense without needing help.

If anything, pairing him with Garrett forces offensive coordinators into a difficult conundrum: devote additional resources to Donald inside and risk leaving Garrett isolated on the edge, or slide your protection toward Garrett and hope Donald doesn’t turn the pocket into rubble up the middle. 

It’s the reloaded Rams defense, coupled with last season’s number one ranked offense that has Los Angeles entering the season as Super Bowl favorites. 

“I think that’s the best division in football,” Fitzgerald said of the NFC West. “I think they’re going to be a good football team, but we’ve got a lot to see.”

Fitzgerald spent his entire NFL career living in that division, and he specifically warned against overlooking the San Francisco 49ers.

“As long as Kyle Shanahan is calling the plays and they have anybody on the roster, they’re going to have a chance to compete,” Fitzgerald said.

He went as far as saying Shanahan deserved Coach of the Year consideration last season for keeping an injury-ravaged roster competitive, delivering perhaps his most colorful line of the interview.

“It was the equivalent of sending a chef to a grocery store after a hurricane,” Fitzgerald said. “He literally put together nothing and almost got them into the NFC Championship game.”

With the 49ers healthier and the reigning Super Bowl champion Seahawks looming, Fitzgerald sees an NFC West capable of making life miserable for everybody.

The Rams, however, just added another monster to the neighborhood.

And somewhere in all of this, Fitzgerald will have to wait a little longer for his fellow Pitt alum Donald to join him in Canton.