Browns Trade Myles Garrett to Rams in Stunner: Verse, Three Picks Heading to Cleveland
The Cleveland Browns finally pulled the trigger. Two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett is heading to the Los Angeles Rams in one of the biggest trades in recent NFL history.
The package coming back to Cleveland is enormous. Defensive end Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick. That is one young All-Pro pass rusher plus three future picks for a 30-year-old generational defender entering the back half of his career.
For the Browns, it is a reset they had to make. For the Rams, it is the move that could finish off a Super Bowl-ready roster.
Why Cleveland Pulled the Trigger
The Browns are not competing for a championship in 2026. They have been honest about that internally for months. The roster around Garrett has not been good enough, and his contract situation made the financial math impossible.
Verse is the kind of player you can build a defense around for the next decade. He went from rookie phenom to All-Pro candidate inside two seasons. Pairing him with Cleveland’s existing young defenders gives the Browns a real foundation while they sort out the franchise quarterback question.
The picks are the other half of the story. A 2027 first plus extra capital in 2028 and 2029 gives Cleveland the ammunition to either move up for a quarterback or trade for an established starter once they identify the right one. The Browns now have a path forward that did not exist 48 hours ago.
The Rams Just Got Scary
Los Angeles already had one of the best defensive lines in football. Now they are adding the best edge rusher of the last decade.
Garrett gives the Rams a closer on the edge. Defensive coordinator Chris Shula now has a rotation that can absolutely terrorize quarterbacks for 60 minutes. The Rams ran out of pass rush in the playoffs last year. That problem is solved.
Pairing Garrett with Aaron Donald’s legacy in Los Angeles also creates a marketing moment that the franchise is going to ride hard. Sean McVay gets a defender who can flip games on a single snap. Matthew Stafford gets to play with a defense that can shut a game down for him.
The Long-Term Implications
Garrett is going to get a new contract from the Rams. That money was always coming. The Browns were not going to be the team paying it.
The bigger question is what this means for Cleveland’s future quarterback search. The picks they have stockpiled now give them legitimate trade ammo. A young veteran QB who becomes available next offseason is in play. So is a top-three move in the 2028 draft. The Browns are no longer trapped.
The Rams are now the team to beat in the NFC. The Browns are now the team to watch in the AFC for the wrong reasons in the short term and the right reasons in the long term. Both teams just changed the trajectory of their franchises with one phone call.
It is rare to see a trade this large in June. It is rarer still to see one this clean. Both sides got what they wanted. The rest of the league should be paying attention.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
