Unlike the A.J. Brown trade -- which we had anticipated for months before the news broke on Monday -- the deal that sent that sent reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett from the Cleveland Browns to the Los Angeles Rams (which also happened Monday) was a complete shocker. Garrett had recently signed a four-year, $160 million extension with Cleveland that included a no-trade clause. Ultimately, he waived that clause to make the move across country to Los Angeles.
You can get an insightful breakdown of the winners and losers of this trade, including Jared Verse's potential impact in Cleveland. Now, let's explore the analytical breakdown on how Garrett fits into the Browns' defense and what you can expect from him statistically in 2026. Coming off a record-setting 23-sack campaign, it's going to be tough to improve, but can Garrett remain just as dominant with his new team? Should we expect to see regression in the five-time All-Pro's production?
Let's dive into the data, informed by Next Gen Stats insights on , which can be accessed with an Â鶹ąú˛ú Premium subscription.
Fit on the defensive line
On the surface, it might seem like Garrett will simply fill the hole left by Verse in his departure to Cleveland. There are aspects of that assumption that could be true: Garrett primarily aligned as a right edge rusher in 2025 (82.9% of snaps), and Verse did the same on the majority of his snaps (66.5%). However, from that right side, Garrett almost exclusively aligned as a 9-technique (81% of snaps) -- meaning he was positioned extremely wide, outside the opposing tight end. While Verse did align as a 9-technique on 65% of his right-side snaps, he slid into more interior positions far more frequently than Garrett, taking 10% of snaps as both a 7-technique (just inside the tight end) and a 5-technique (on the left tackle's outside shoulder).
In terms of technique, Rams outside linebacker Byron Young, who led the team with 12 sacks last season, would be the better comparison to Garrett. Young played 81% of his snaps as a 9-technique, yet he took just 20.7% of his snaps on the right edge, instead heavily favoring the left edge (71.3%). Ultimately, this presents defensive coordinator Chris Shula and the Rams staff with an interesting decision. They'll likely keep Garrett on the right, where he's strongest, but will they shift him inside more often, as they did with Verse? Do they adjust their scheme to keep both Garrett and Young at the 9-technique as often as possible? Will they do some combination of that or an alternative? We might learn a bit more in OTAs and the preseason. Either way, it should be fascinating to watch.
What Garrett brings to Rams
It's not hard to portray what Garrett does for a defense. He just recorded an NFL-record 23 sacks, won Defensive Player of the Year for a second time and earned his sixth straight Pro Bowl selection after an eighth consecutive season with double-digit sacks. Specifically over the last five years, no player in the league has more sacks (83), QB hits (156) or tackles for loss (107) than Garrett, and only Micah Parsons (418) has more quarterback pressures than Garrett's 401.
The face value numbers don't even tell the entire story. Consider Garrett's get-off -- the time it takes for a pass rusher to cross the line of scrimmage after the snap. His average get-off of 0.7 seconds last season was the fastest by any player with 200+ pass rushes. Moreover, that enabled Garrett to generate 31 quick QB pressures -- pressures within 2.5 seconds of the snap -- the fifth-most in the NFL, despite facing the most chip blocks in the league (139). To summarize, that means Garrett was consistently drawing extra attention from a route runner at the start of the play and was still getting to the quarterback as quickly -- and as often -- as anyone. Meanwhile, Rams edge rushers recorded an average get-off of 0.96 seconds last season, second-slowest in the league (ahead of only the Bears). Make no mistake, Garrett will be bringing the "rush" to the Los Angeles "pass rush" in 2026.
Oh, and just when you thought Garrett's game couldn't get any more impactful, he also recorded 17 run stuffs from edge alignment -- run tackles that resulted in a loss of yards or no gain -- last season, the second-most in the NFL behind only Maxx Crosby. And Garrett's 28 run stops from edge alignment -- run tackles that resulted in a "success" for the defense, per NGS -- were fourth-most, behind Crosby, T.J. Watt and Young. The 2025 Rams were the only team in the league to have multiple players (Young and Verse) with 50+ pressures and 25+ run stops from edge alignment, and it will remain that way heading into 2026 with Young and Garrett.
Ultimately, Garrett brings many of the same strengths to the Rams that Verse did, while adding aspects of the pass-rush game L.A. was lacking. He should make Shula's front even more well-rounded -- which is saying something -- while also elevating its ceiling for disruption and destruction.
Projecting Garrett's 2026 stats
With all this in mind, what kind of production can we expect from Garrett in 2026? Let's start with a realistic historical outlook: No player has recorded 20+ sacks in consecutive seasons, since the stat was first individually tracked in 1982. Only two of the 13 previous players to record a 20-sack season logged more than 15 sacks the ensuing year: Reggie White in 1988 (18) and J.J. Watt in 2015 (17.5). The average for those 13 previous players the following season is 12, with nine of them recording between 10 and 14 sacks. That said, none of the players in those instances changed teams the following year. You could argue that few -- if any -- were set up to play for a Super Bowl contender after upgrading a new defense, just as Garrett is with Los Angeles. Also, there's an intriguing possibility that Aaron Donald comes out of retirement for one last hurrah with the Rams. If that happens, this defensive line would be absurd.
Plus, there's an underrated aspect of this transition that plays in Garrett's favor. Last year, Rams' opponents dropped back to pass 661 times, seventh-most in the NFL. Defenses facing the Browns dropped back just 566 times, fourth-fewest for any defense. Applying Garrett's career pressure and sack rate numbers, that gap of 95 dropbacks would theoretically create an additional 16 pressures and three sacks. Garrett should see a relatively high number of pass rushes, likely close to 500, and should be able to maintain extremely high efficiency, given the level he's playing at and the excellence of the roster around him. With a pressure rate in the 17-18% range and a sack rate around 3.5% (both slightly above his career averages), that could translate to 80+ pressures and roughly 17 sacks. In logging 25+ QB hits and 25-30 run stops, Garrett would lock in another incredibly well-rounded season, similar to his 2023 DPOY campaign. That level of production again should put him in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year and would position him alongside White and J.J. Watt for the best season following a 20-sack year we've ever seen.
