New Rams defensive end Myles Garrett had to pay to continue wearing the No. 95 jersey he wore on the Browns.
Rams defensive lineman Poona Ford already wore No. 95, and Garrett was asked at his introductory press conference how he got the number from Ford.
“Just a conversation,” Garrett said. “It didn’t take too much.”
That led Rams coach Sean McVay to ask Garrett, “Conversation and a couple bucks?”
Garrett answered, “Maybe more than a couple, but he was open to it.”
Garrett said he knew as soon as the trade happened that he’d want to contact Ford about buying the number from him.
“I understood there had been some number trades before me,” Garrett said. “He understood, and I’m glad to be sticking with No. 95.”
Garrett getting No. 95 from Ford created a domino effect on the Rams, with Ford switching to No. 97, defensive lineman Bill Norton switching from No. 97 to No. 93, and defensive lineman Payton Zdroik switching from No. 93 to No. 62.
Patriots wide receiver A.J. Brown passed his physical and practiced with his new team for the first time on Tuesday. The Patriots have no concerns about Brown’s health, and Brown doesn’t either.
A report in April indicated the Rams had interest in trading for Brown until concerns about his knee prompted them to pass.
Brown injured his right knee in the 2020 season opener against the Broncos and missed one game. He had minor cleanup surgery on both of his knees in 2021.
Brown said his knees are fine.
“No injury, nothing to worry about,” Brown said, via Sophie Weller of USA Today. “You got to understand where I came from, so any conversation about anything is going to come up. So maybe in what, four years, I’ve missed one game from a shot to the knee.
“So that’s nothing to worry about. I’m good. I’m ready to go.”
Brown, who turns 29 this month, enters his eighth season unconcerned about the future. He was asked Tuesday how much he thinks he still has left in his career.
“You’ll see,” Brown said as he left the podium at the conclusion of his news conference.
After the Browns hired Todd Monken to be the team’s new head coach, incumbent defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz decided to move on.
In an appearance with Ryan Ripken, Schwartz addressed his decision to resign from the team after he didn’t get the head-coaching job following the firing of Kevin Stefanski.
“We had a lot of success on defense, and the Browns made a change at head coach, and they passed over me, with all the success that we had and the ability to develop players, our best players had their best years, all those different things,” Schwartz said. “And that was the decision they made. They wanted to go with an offensive guy. They chose Todd. I’m fine with that.
“They can make, you know, decisions that they want to make. But they can’t expect me to stay on board for that. Anybody that’s in any business, you get passed over for a promotion, when you’ve done a really, really good job in your job, and you think you were in line for that promotion, it’s time to go.
“And Todd deserved his own guy. A forced marriage isn’t gonna work in the NFL. And, you know, like having command of the players and having command in a locker room, all those things are extremely important, and I didn’t feel like I could do my job after getting passed over for that coaching job. It sort of, you know, just put me in a tough position. ‘Hey, we want you to listen to this guy, but we didn’t think — we didn’t want to make him that coach.’
“So I made the decision to resign, and I have to sit out this year as a result, but I think anybody that’s been in any business when you’ve done a good job when you mentioned those numbers — we weren’t one of the best defenses in three years. We were the best defense in three years. And the decision they made, that’s their decision.
“But to expect me to stay and to be on board for that, that’s just a tough situation. And it wouldn’t have been good for me, and it wouldn’t have been good for Todd. So it was best for him to get his own guy in there, and to move forward with him, as opposed to just having an arranged marriage, and having me there, and maybe having some players more loyal to me than him. It can just be a bad situation. Thirty-three years in the NFL, I’ve never been around that before. So, you know, that all went into decision.
“I wasn’t upset about it. I was disappointed about it. I wasn’t upset about it. I wasn’t mad about it, but it’s just, you know my experience told me that wasn’t gonna be a situation that was gonna work.”
The most obvious question is whether defensive end Myles Garrett would have wanted to stay with the Browns, if Schwartz had become the head coach. Regardless, it’s better for the Browns to have gotten significant value for the 30-year-old Garrett. With each passing year, that would have been harder to do.
Aaron Donald told Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report that he is considering a return.
“I’m for sure flirting with the idea,” Donald texted Schultz on Tuesday night. “Helluva an opportunity with the Super Bowl in SoFi this year. If I can find the fire, it’s a possibility.”
Donald, 35, has not played since 2023 but started considering a return when the Rams traded for reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett on Monday.
Rams coach Sean McVay was asked Tuesday about the possibility of Donald coming back.
“Listen, if he’s interested,” McVay said during Garrett’s introductory news conference. “Here’s what I’ll say: You talk to Aaron, and you see what he’s saying about that.”
McVay admitted he has talked to Donald since the Rams traded for Garrett.
“Here’s what I would tell you guys overall, too: Aaron is a guy that I stay really close in touch with, and I know the respect that he has for Myles,” McVay said. “Talked to him about the opportunity to bring [Garrett] on board. If Aaron decides he wants to dust ‘em off at the age of 35, I bet you he can still do it at a pretty high clip.”
The biggest problem for the Rams would be fitting Donald under their salary cap. But you can bet they would figure out a way to get the three-time Defensive Player of the Year on the roster if he wants to return.
On Monday morning, before the Browns traded defensive end Myles Garrett to the Rams, Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer flagged the Rams, Cowboys, and Eagles as potential destinations.
Multiple reports have indicated that the Browns wanted defensive tackle Jalen Carter from the Eagles, but that the Eagles weren’t interested in that.
Via Jeff Kerr of SI.com, the Eagles offered Nolan Smith or Jalyx Hunt instead.
The Eagles’ insistence on keeping Carter is a bit confusing, given that the forward-looking Eagles have yet to sign Carter to a second contract. In March, after the Eagles signed defensive tackle Jordan Davis to a new deal, it was leaked that they have gotten calls about Carter, which often is part of a strategy aimed at getting more.
The challenge for the Eagles as to Carter is his fifth-year option salary of $27.1 million in 2027. Given that number, he may be looking for a market-level deal well in excess of $30 million in new-money average.
For 2026, Carter is due to make only $3.723 million in the fourth year of his first-round rookie deal. He shouldn’t set foot on a practice field until he gets his second deal. The team’s refusal to include him in a trade package for Garrett should only strengthen Carter’s resolve in that regard.
