Rams exercise 5th-year option on Aaron Donald

The Los Angeles Rams exercised their 2018 fifth-year option on star defensive tackle Aaron Donald, the team announced Wednesday.

The Rams are the first team in the NFL to officially take up a fifth-year option on a player's rookie contract this year.

Donald is now under contract in 2018 for $6.892 million, a source told ESPN's Field Yates.

The decision to add the extra year onto Donald's deal was likely an easy one. The 25-year-old has quickly become one of the league's premier defenders over his first three seasons. He's been named to the Pro Bowl in all three years and was a first-team All-Pro in 2015 and 2016.

A long-term extension isn't likely to be far off, and that deal is all but certain to require the Rams to make Donald one of the highest-paid players in the NFL.