Rams coach Sean McVay has proven that he’s nothing if not straightforward, so when he announced that the players would be voting on their own team captains this week, he didn’t shy away from the questions about whether Donald would maintain his status as a defensive captain.

“The situation is complicated in a lot of ways. While I have a lot of respect for what Aaron represents as a leader, haven’t been around him as much as these other guys,” said McVay. I think the team will do a good job of picking guys who represent who they want to be their captains and lead us.”

McVay added that he believes it’s a great honor to be voted by your teammates to be a captain, and he’s certainly got the right idea. It’s a great way to help a young team to come together and exercise some autonomy as offensive, defensive and special teams units.

The tenor of an NFL locker room is something that really is up to the players most of the time, so it will be interesting to see whether they think Donald should maintain his status as a captain despite having been MIA for the bulk of their off-season rebuild.