Just after 1 p.m. ET Monday, news broke of a stunning trade: Myles Garrett is headed west to join the Los Angeles Rams, who are sending back 2024 first-rounder Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 third-round pick in exchange for the two-time Defensive Player of the Year.
It had been roughly 16 months since Garrett first requested the Browns deal him elsewhere, an ask that preceded the market-resetting four-year, $160 million contract extension he signed in March of 2025. And while the new money seemed to address Garrett's prior discontent, speculation about a possible move out of town never fully dissipated.
The rumors returned with force Monday morning, inspiring fresh buzz that coincided with the arrival of the , which allows teams trading away players to spread the ensuing dead-money hit over two years. Mere hours later, we learned of an agreement between the Rams and Browns on a massive blockbuster.
Garrett is joining a Los Angeles team that is clearly all in on pursuing a Super Bowl in 2026. Verse will head east to Cleveland, where he'll replace Garrett on a team that is quietly assembling a promising young core, for which Verse should serve as a pillar going forward.
As the dust settles from the explosion ignited by general managers Les Snead of the Rams and Andrew Berry of the Browns, we're left only to analyze what happened and what it means going forward.
WINNERS
1) Chris Shula, DC, Los Angles Rams: Los Angeles' heartbreaking defeat in the NFC Championship Game was largely pinned on the defensive failures exhibited in the 31-27 loss to Seattle. The main culprit was the Rams' secondary, a position group Snead upgraded aggressively via a trade for corner Trent McDuffie and the addition of McDuffie's fellow former Chiefs corner Jaylen Watson.
That alone would have been enough to generally satisfy Rams fans. Monday's trade, however, no doubt pushed the optimism over the edge.
Garrett's arrival supplies Shula -- a defensive coordinator whose successes nearly landed him a head coaching job in 2026 -- with a game-wrecking force uniquely skilled enough to create mismatches anywhere along the defensive front. Instead of watching his pass rush register pressures but fail to get home, Shula can now deploy Garrett wherever he prefers and create advantages elsewhere. If he gets Garrett in a one-on-one matchup, he can smile as he watches Garrett destroy a tackle before swallowing up an opposing quarterback. Garrett joins Los Angeles fresh off a record-setting 23-sack campaign and has recorded at least 10 sacks in each of the past eight campaigns (he had seven in his 2017 rookie season).
That 346-yard, three-touchdown performance Sam Darnold authored in the NFC title game? Shula will now have the tools necessary to prevent something like that from happening again. Even if Garrett isn't reaching pay dirt, his mere presence should free up others along that talented front toward clearer paths to the quarterback. In fact, add Byron Young, Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske to the group of winners here, too. Everybody should expect to eat in Los Angeles in 2026, thanks to Garrett's arrival.
2) Myles Garrett, DE, Los Angeles Rams: Over the last two seasons, Garrett wasn't bashful about how the Browns' frequent losses . Nothing is quite as rejuvenating as an ocean breeze, sunshine and a legitimate chance to win a ring.
Garrett will pack up and leave Cleveland -- his football home for the majority of the last decade, for better or worse -- for a consistent, stable winner in Los Angeles. He'll arrive to great expectations and will be fully equipped to deliver on them under the direction of Shula. And for the first time since the 2023 season, Garrett can expect to play meaningful football in December and January.
If anybody deserved a breath of fresh air in his career journey, it's Garrett. He'll find that and more with the Rams. Even better: After signing an extension and toning down his discontent over the last year, he probably won't leave Cleveland as a villain, either.
3) Andrew Berry, GM, Cleveland Browns: Berry despite Kevin Stefanski's departure as head coach in January, with the GM figuratively clinging to his productive 2025 draft class like a life raft floating on an angry sea. Berry followed that up with another promising draft in 2026, no doubt buying himself more optimism that likely increased with Monday's deal.
Yes, it isn't common for a GM to receive positive marks after trading away a generational player, but in this instance, it makes plenty of sense. Garrett is 30 years old and has five years remaining on his lucrative deal, one that includes an escalating cap number that nudges up against $50 million in 2030, at which point he'll be 34.
Cleveland isn't likely to be contending in the next year or two, at least not seriously enough to justify holding onto an aging superstar. If Berry was going to receive a maximum return on Garrett, the time was now. And to Berry's credit, he structured Garrett's extension with the flexibility to make such a deal without ruining Cleveland's cap situation.
NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero, along with ESPN's Adam Schefter, reported Berry repeatedly rebuffed the Rams' persistent offers for Garrett to the deal. That's when the vision became clear to Berry: receive a haul of picks that includes a first-rounder in the loaded 2027 draft class and add a younger, cheaper replacement who fits the franchise's long-term timeline better than Garrett.
Verse is not Garrett. Nobody is Garrett. But Verse is a proven commodity with a bright future and the crown jewel of an excellent return that includes the 2027 first-rounder, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 third-round selection. If Berry continues to find success in his rebuilding efforts, Verse's acquisition might eventually represent a crucial inflection point.
LOSERS
1) Jared Verse, Edge, Cleveland Browns: As a Northeast Ohio native, former Los Angeles resident and current occupant of Cleveland, I feel I'm qualified to make this statement: It's going to be tough for Verse to trade the sunny skies of L.A. for the Forest City.
And the adjustment will be about more than weather. Sure, the Florida State product hasn't seen winter in awhile, but he should be accustomed to it, having been born in Dayton, Ohio, before playing high school ball in Pennsylvania. Perhaps harder to handle will be the Browns' competitive timeline.
Cleveland is in the midst of a multi-year reconstruction that produced positive results in 2025 and carries promise into 2026 thanks to another encouraging draft. It also doesn't signal immediate contention. As a rookie, Verse reveled in playoff villainy in Philadelphia. Last season, he fell one win shy of a Super Bowl appearance. He will likely have to accept less in Cleveland -- for now.
If all goes according to plan, Verse might be in his prime just as the Browns are mounting their own title pursuit. Plenty has to break right before then, though, and it will be difficult for Verse to pack up and move away from a legitimate chance to win a title in favor of joining a team still working toward contention.
2) Browns fans who own Myles Garrett jerseys. It's not often a player ends his career as a one-helmet guy, but after Cleveland ponied up the big bucks to appease Garrett and set a new financial standard for the edge rusher position last offseason, it felt as if Garrett might finish his career with the Browns. At the time of that deal, his agent, Nicole Lynn, even charted a direct, 60-mile course south , home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, when commenting on the new contract.
So much for that idea. The trade to Los Angeles ends Garrett's tenure in Cleveland after nine seasons, 125.5 sacks, seven Pro Bowl nods, five first-team All-Pro selections and one record-setting campaign in 2025.
Browns fans got their final moment in the (Cincinnati) sun in January when Garrett took down Joe Burrow for his historic 23rd sack, breaking a record that had stood since 2001. Little did they know those cinematic final six minutes of a comeback victory would be Garrett's last in a Browns uniform.
Now Garrett's brown and orange No. 95 jersey will go into the mothballs for a lot of fans, only to return when Garrett takes the stage in Canton one day.
