Myles Garrett Traded to Rams in NFL Offseason Blockbuster. What Cleveland and Los Angeles Got.
The Cleveland Browns blew up the team. Myles Garrett, the two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, is officially a Los Angeles Ram after a blockbuster trade that sends Jared Verse and multiple draft picks to Cleveland.
This is the biggest defensive trade in five years. Garrett is one of the three best pass rushers alive. The Rams just acquired him in his age-30 season, with two years left on his contract, in exchange for a 25-year-old former Defensive Rookie of the Year and the kind of draft capital that signals Cleveland is in a full reset.
Why Cleveland did it: the Browns are stuck. The Deshaun Watson contract is still on the books and unmovable. The roster around him is aging out. Garrett asked for a trade in February after another losing season, and the front office finally decided that maximizing his value was better than holding on to a generational talent on a team going nowhere.
The return is solid. Verse is a 25-year-old edge rusher coming off a 14-sack season. He is significantly cheaper than Garrett and locked in through 2028 on his rookie deal. The Rams also sent first-round picks in 2027 and 2028, plus a 2026 second-rounder.
For the Rams, this completes a roster that already has Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua on offense and Aaron Donald’s heir apparent in Kobie Turner up front. Garrett gives them an edge rushing duo of Garrett and Byron Young that can win the line of scrimmage against any team in the NFC.
Sean McVay is in win-now mode. Stafford is 38. The window to compete is narrower every year. Trading future picks and a young Pro Bowler for a generational pass rusher is exactly the kind of move you make when you think you have a Super Bowl roster.
The Rams’ Super Bowl odds at DraftKings jumped from 14-to-1 to 8-to-1 within an hour of the trade going public. That is significant. The market is treating LA as a clear top-three Super Bowl contender, behind only the Eagles and the Chiefs.
For Cleveland, this is admitting the obvious. The Browns are bad. They are going to be bad next year. The Watson contract guarantees they will be bad through at least 2027. Trading Garrett for a younger version of himself and a pile of draft picks is the smartest move available.
Browns fans are heartbroken. Garrett was the face of the franchise for nine years. He was drafted No. 1 overall in 2017. He is the most accomplished defensive player in team history since Joe Thomas. Watching him put on a Rams jersey while playing in February while Cleveland plays for the No. 1 pick is going to sting.
For Garrett, this is liberation. He has wanted out of Cleveland for two years. He gets to play for a competent organization, a defensive-minded coordinator in Chris Shula, and a roster that can actually compete for the Lombardi Trophy.
The Browns mortgaged their immediate future to set up the next era. The Rams cashed in their future to chase the current one. Both bets are defensible. Both will be re-litigated in February.
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.
