Rams Secure Garrett
Los Angeles Rams acquire top pass rusher Myles Garrett in major trade, continuing decade of bold moves
Anonymous
The Los Angeles Rams landed the NFL's most dominant pass rusher on June 1, 2026, trading for Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett in one of the league's biggest deals in years. Associated Press reports the Rams sent edge rusher Jared Verse plus a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick to Cleveland in exchange for Garrett, who set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 sacks in 2025.
The price is steep, but the cap hit is not. Garrett will cost the Rams just $8.14 million against the salary cap in 2026, rising to $16.06 million in 2027, according to Reddit/Spotrac. For a player with 125.5 career sacks — the most among all active players — that is an extraordinary bargain. "To acquire a player like this, these things don't come up often," Rams head coach Sean McVay said, per Newsday. "This feels very similar to when we were fortunate enough to acquire Matthew Stafford."
A Decade of Going All-In on Veterans
The Garrett deal is the latest move in a long line of bold trades under GM Les Snead and coach Sean McVay. Since 2016, the Rams have consistently traded away draft picks to get proven stars. They got Jalen Ramsey in 2019, brought in Von Miller in 2021, and swapped Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford that same year. The Stafford trade led directly to a Super Bowl LVI title at SoFi Stadium, per LA Times.
The Rams did not slow down heading into 2026. In March, they traded for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie from the Kansas City Chiefs, according to CBS Sports. Then came Garrett. Snead has now stripped his roster of almost every first-round pick. Just one first-rounder, rookie quarterback Ty Simpson, currently sits on the roster, per Newsday. Snead himself summed up the tension: "You're always threading that needle for sustainability, trying to win consistently... but it's a hard one to thread," he told AP News.
A 2025 NFC Title Loss Lit the Fuse
The Rams did not make this move out of nowhere. The trigger was their 2025 NFC Championship loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold drove the field in the final four minutes without being stopped. According to LA Times, Snead left that game convinced the Rams needed a "closer" — a player in the mold of the retired Aaron Donald who could end drives and end games.
Snead began calling Cleveland after the NFL Draft in late April 2026. The Browns said no. NFL.com reported that Cleveland initially insisted Garrett was a "career Brown." The Rams kept calling anyway. By May 20, ESPN reported the Rams had shifted to a "persistent pursuit" strategy, refusing to accept any rejection. It worked. The deal closed at 1:00 PM ET on June 1, timed to the league's financial checkpoint so Cleveland could split the dead-cap hit across 2026 and 2027.
Garrett Sees Los Angeles as His Path to a Title
Garrett arrived at the Rams' training facility in Woodland Hills, California, on the morning of June 2. At his introductory press conference alongside McVay and Snead, he was direct about his reasons for embracing the move. "I see this as the path to the postseason success that has eluded me," Garrett said, per Associated Press. In nine NFL seasons with Cleveland, Garrett never won a playoff game.
The 2026 Rams will now field a historic roster. CBS Sports research shows they will be the first team in NFL history to have both the reigning league MVP — Stafford — and the reigning Defensive Player of the Year on the same squad at the same time. The Rams also have a league-record seven primetime games on the 2026 schedule, including a Christmas Day matchup with Seattle, per Front Office Sports.
Cleveland Gets Youth, But the Debate Rages On
Browns GM Andrew Berry defended the trade as a pivot toward long-term rebuilding. "We remained convicted in our position, but as discussions intensified we were stuck at a legitimate crossroads," Berry said. He called Verse, the 2025 Pro Bowl edge rusher the Rams sent back, a "pillar going forward" for Cleveland's young core, per NFL.com.
Not everyone bought it. Cleveland analysts on shows like WKYC's Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show questioned whether three picks — none arriving until 2027 — was enough for a 30-year-old Hall of Fame talent still in his prime. Meanwhile, analyst Sam Monson of The 33rd Team argued the Rams clearly won the trade, calling Garrett an "incredible bargain" given his contract structure. The NFC West rival Seahawks offered a blunter take. Their fans described June 1 as a "hard pill to swallow," per the Seahawks Draft Blog, acknowledging that the power balance in the division may have just shifted back to Los Angeles.
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