The Los Angeles Rams will gladly welcome Aaron Donald back to the starting lineup on Sunday against the Washington Redskins, and Wade Phillips can’t wait to deploy his two-time All-Pro. After an outstanding performance in Week 1, the defense can only get better with the addition of a dominant player like Donald.

Phillips isn’t the only one who can’t wait to see No. 99 back on the field, either, as his return has provided a spark of energy to the whole team.

“I think the first thing Aaron brings is just him being back, everybody is excited about it,” Phillips said during his press conference. “Now, how much he can play and what a big difference it’ll make in the first ball game, I don’t know that. But, I think it just kind of energized our team and our players that he’s back playing football. He is a great player, but the mental part of it I think helped everybody.”

Having missed all of training camp and the preseason, it’d be unreasonable to expect Donald to be in perfect game shape right away. Sure, he was working out in Pittsburgh and staying healthy, but there’s a difference between being healthy and being ready for a game – something he admits, himself.

As a result, Phillips will keep Donald on a “pitch count” against the Redskins.

“It’s a number of plays and we’ll see how he is. He looked to be in good shape,” Phillips said. “You know, football shape and shape are two different things because you’re carrying a lot more weight with pads on and so forth. But, he doesn’t seem to be bothered too much by the reps we’re giving him in practice. It’s not wearing him out, so we’ll make sure in the ball game that we watch him.”

Donald is already listed as a starter at defensive tackle, and has been a full participant in practice all week. That’s a good sign for the number of snaps he’ll play on Sunday, but it’s difficult to predict just how much he’ll be out there.

Phillips said Robert Quinn and Mark Barron would be on snap counts in Week 1, and they wound up playing 25 and 41 snaps, respectively – or 50 and 82 percent. You should expect Donald to be closer to Quinn’s number, likely playing about half of the team’s defensive snaps.