At around 10:30 a.m. PT, panic began to set in for Los Angeles Rams fans across the country. ESPN’s Adam Schefter sent out a tweet reporting that Aaron Donald’s holdout could last into the regular season, and maybe for the entirety of it.

He’s undoubtedly their best player and a fan favorite, so this is the last thing anyone wanted to hear. Granted, it could just be posturing on Donald’s end, hoping to accelerate the process with Stan Kroenke and the front office, but it’s unsettling, nonetheless.

The Rams simply can’t afford to go into the regular season without arguably the top defensive player in the game today. Sure, Wade Phillips can work his magic on that side of the ball, but there’s only so much a coordinator can do without a player of Donald’s caliber.

Fortunately, there’s some good news: This is typically how the Rams work. As hard as that is to here, this is how they do things, and recent history is there to prove it.

Remember when Tavon Austin was sitting there last preseason entering the fourth year of his contract? Like Donald, he had his fifth-year option picked up, too, keeping him in Los Angeles for the next two years. However, the Rams extended him just before the season started – on August 27, to be exact. His four-year deal came just hours before the team played its third preseason game, putting aside any potential contract issues.

Granted, Austin wasn’t holding out like Donald is, but he was on the same timeline as Aaron is. Three years under his belt, entering his fourth season with his fifth-year option already picked up.

He’s not the only one who’s signed an extension in late-August, early-September. Back in 2014, Robert Quinn did the same. Like Donald and Austin, Quinn was entering his fourth year with the Rams and was already under control through 2015 thanks to the fifth-year option. Sound familiar? He played the first game of the season on his rookie deal, but the Rams changed that just before Week 2 kicked off.

One day before the team’s second game of the year, he signed a four-year, $66.6 million extension with the Rams. Again, he wasn’t holding out like Donald was, but it’s pretty clear the Rams prefer to get their lucrative extensions done later, rather than sooner. Punter Johnny Hekker also received an extension in-season, signing a six-year deal in December 2014.

So while this holdout is certainly concerning for the Rams and their fans, there’s still time … and hope. Donald doesn’t have much leverage and it’s hard to see him sitting out the entire season, but he could be looking at Austin and Quinn and thinking he can wait it out until the Rams cave.