Los Angeles Rams

The narrow gap between the Seahawks and Rams may have been closed, and then some, with this week’s acquisition of defensive end Myles Garrett by L.A.

Meeting with reporters on Wednesday, Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold was asked about the move.

“Myles is a great player,” Darnold said. “Shoot, Jared Verse is a great player as well, but I don’t think we see them until Week 16, so we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

He’s right. Arguably the best current rivalry in football won’t be renewed until Christmas, with a prime-time game between the two best teams in the league from 2025.

That gives Darnold and the Seahawks 15 weeks of the regular season to not have to worry about Garrett. After a Saturday, December 19, game at the Eagles, the Seahawks will have six days to get ready for the guy who managed to rack up 23.0 sacks in 2025.

Myles Garrett was so dominant last season that he earned all 50 first-place votes for Defensive Player of the Year. He also won the award in 2023, becoming one of only nine players to win multiple DPOY awards.

Only Aaron Donald, Watt and Lawrence Taylor have more with three each.

In nine seasons, Garrett has earned seven Pro Bowls, five first-team All-Pro honors, the single-season sacks record (23 in 2025) and 125.5 career sacks.

He is only 30, with a lot of career left as he embarks on a new chapter with the Rams.

Garrett wants more despite a near certainty that he will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

“I see a position to solidify myself here, as well, among the very greats,” Garrett said at his introductory news conference. “I still have plenty of great years in front of me and being able to cement that legacy, not only as a football city here in L.A., but as an individual and winning DPOY and a Super Bowl or more. Those things are definitely pressing on my mind, and I have a definite bit of urgency to do it and do it right away.”

A Super Bowl ring is the one thing missing from his resume, and Garrett should have chances to accomplish that.

Myles Garrett went from the Browns to the Rams this week. While the AFC North celebrated, the NFC West went to work.

49ers offensive line coach Chris Foerster admitted the trade took him by surprise, prompting him immediately to start watching film of the reigning Defensive Player of the Year.

“I just wanted to remind myself because it kind of came out of left field,” Foerster said Tuesday, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com.

In the 49ers’ 26-8 win over the Browns last season, Garrett had a sack and three quarterback hits. He did not have a sack and only one quarterback hit in the Browns’ 19-17 victory over the 49ers in 2023.

“He made a couple plays, and then you’re like, ‘Let me go back and look at the tape and see what it really was,’” Foerster said. “And he’s a great player. He got after us, yeah, but we did have a plan. The plan was somewhat effective, and so, there’s other ways to do things as well.”

The 49ers play the Rams in Week 1 in Melbourne, Australia, in Garrett’s debut with his new team.

The 49ers were getting a plan ready for Jared Verse. Now, they have to contend with Garrett.

“I think Myles Garrett, he’s an all-time great pass rusher,” Foerster said. “He’s an unbelievable talent, but it’s still an edge rusher that you have to take care of.

“He’s an outstanding football player, and he’s going to be a challenge for us to take care of. But we had a plan last year. You’re going to do the best you can, and everybody has good players, and he’s a great player. And it’s good for them, helps them, and it’ll be a good challenge for us.”

In 2025, Myles Garrett set the single-season sack record. Not many (if any) of his 23.0 sacks happened when the 5-12 Browns had a multi-score lead in the second half of a game.

With the Rams, Garrett should have plenty of chances to chase quarterbacks who are desperate to move the ball through the air late in a losing effort.

“That did play into the decision as well,” Garrett told reporters on Tuesday. “Knowing I’ll have the ability late in games to pin my ears back, not just because we need a play to be made, but because we have the lead and it’s obvious passing downs. Being able to make plays to win the game for us, those are things that appeal to me and I’m sure appeal to all of us as D-linemen. That is something I really look forward to.”

It should happen. The Rams have a great offense. The defense should be better in 2026. They should be in position, on a somewhat regular basis, to let Garrett turn himself loose in an effort to chase (and possibly pass) the record he set last year, in his final stint with the Browns.

When the Rams traded for Myles Garrett, they sent one of their top young players to Cleveland as part of the deal.

The 2024 AP defensive rookie of the year, Jared Verse had been making a name for himself in Los Angeles. But now that he’s no longer with the club, the Rams are offering fans a little bit of consolation.

The Rams announced on Wednesday that the club is offering a free exchange for recently purchased Verse jerseys.

The announcement notes that if you purchased a Verse jersey in person at the team’s draft party or official team store since the club launched its new uniforms in April, you’re eligible to exchange that jersey for another one of your choice.

Additionally, if you purchased any Verse jersey in the past 90 days from ramsfanshop.com, nflshop.com, or fanatics.com, that jersey may also be exchanged for free.

Visit the Rams website for additional details on the exchange process.

The Rams’ trade for pass rusher Myles Garrett included parting ways with pass rusher Jared Verse. It wasn’t easy for the Rams to do it.

“Sometimes we have to be able to make decisions that are best for the collective,” McVay told reporters on Tuesday. “This is what we thought was best for our team. Even though it affected somebody that’s been a significant part in a negative way that we do love. But really it was a football decision and that’s what guides our overall approach and our compass, if you will.”

McVay said he spoke with Verse before the trade happened.

“We talked to him about the appreciation, the gratitude,” McVay said. “I think when you have to have those hard conversations, you just let him know. ‘We just executed a trade where we’re acquiring Myles Garrett and you’re going to Cleveland. I know it doesn’t feel great right now, but there’s a lot of love. There’s a lot of appreciation and gratitude for our relationship, the two years and the impact that you’ve made. I can’t wait to watch you go shine in Cleveland.’

“But I will say this, what a stud with the way that he handled it. I don’t want to say that I was surprised, but I was so impressed. When [my sons] eventually go through a challenging conversation, I hope they handle it the way that Jared Verse did. I’m a big fan of his. I know you guys know that. I’ll wish him the best and watch him do his thing but we are really excited, with respect to Jared, about being able to get this guy. It’s a big deal for us.”

The transaction underscores the reality that teams will always do what’s best for them. Players, when they have the ability to do so, should always do the same.

Verse didn’t really have any options. He was drafted by the Rams, and no rookie contract includes a no-trade clause. If the team decides to make a deal, the player has to follow his contract, with the only option being retirement.

If Verse continues to be a Pro Bowl talent, he’ll eventually have the kind of power that Garrett now enjoys. For now, Verse (like the vast majority of players) is a piece in a machine that can be removed at any time, with or without notice — and regardless of whether he wanted that outcome.

When Myles Garrett made his case to be traded out of Cleveland in February 2025, the Browns responded by throwing money at the problem.

The end result was a new contract that made Garrett, at the time, the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL at $40 million per year in new-money average.

The market has since spiked by 25 percent, starting with Packers linebacker Micah Parsons and continuing most recently with Texans linebacker Will Anderson Jr., whose deal pushed the bar to $50 million per year.

Rams G.M. Les Snead touched briefly on the issue of Garrett’s deal during his introductory press conference on Tuesday.

“I will say this for [agent] Nicole [Lynn],” Snead said. “We wouldn’t have been able to get this done without us working pretty tirelessly since the weekend. We didn’t have a lot of time to discuss contract, but thank you, Nicole.”

They have the time to talk about it now. Will the Rams, who gave up three draft picks and Jared Verse to get Garrett, give him a sweetener? If they value him the way they clearly do, that value needs to reflect itself in his compensation package.

So, yes, that’s the next topic to address. Will the Rams give Garrett a new deal now? Will they kick the can for a year and pay him $30.5 million for 2026?

The market is the market. Last year, Garrett reset the market. The market has since been reset, multiple times. And while Garrett (whose career earnings through 2025 passed $150 million) has finally gotten his chance to play for a winner, there are plenty of reasons for Garrett to attempt to get full and fair value while he can.

That said, Garrett could have insisted on a new deal on his way through the door. He could have hinged waiving his no-trade clause on a contract that moved his new-money APY to $50.1 million, or more.

Now that the deal is done, it becomes a little trickier for Garrett to get the Rams to tear up the existing deal. Garrett is happy to be with a contender. Taking a stand for an adjustment could disrupt that vibe, and sacrifice some of his fresh SoCal goodwill.

Still, Garrett’s contract can’t be ignored. He’s 30. He’s signed for five more years. He likely has one more bite at the apple. The sooner he takes it, the more likely he’ll become once again the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league.

The Browns added a little extra protection for themselves to complete the Myles Garrett trade to the Rams this week.

While Cleveland received edge rusher Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick from Los Angeles in exchange for Garrett, the league’s daily transaction wire noted that the final pick was conditional.

According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the condition on that 2029 third-round pick is that it will become a first-round pick in the event that the Rams trade Garrett to a team in the AFC North.

It doesn’t seem likely that the Rams would even want to trade Garrett at any point in the future.

But just in case they do, the Browns have at least made it unlikely that they’ll ever see Garrett twice a year on the opposing sideline.

In late February, the Browns proposed extending the window for trading future draft picks from three years to five. In March, the Rams made it clear that they supported the proposal.

Although the Browns ultimately withdrew the proposal (which means they knew it wouldn’t get 24 “yes” votes), the recent trade of Myles Garrett from the Browns to the Rams adds more context to the effort.

It’s clear that the trade was months in the making. The deal, as done, takes full advantage of the current three-year limit (the picks come from 2027, 2028, and 2029). If the Browns’ proposal had been adopted, would the Rams have added more picks beyond 2029? Could it have allowed the Rams to keep two-time Pro Bowler Jared Verse?

Regardless of what would have happened if the five-year proposal had been adopted, the Garrett trade further explains why both teams wanted to do it. It’s entirely possible that, on Monday, the Browns’ proposal would have been utilized by both teams, in connection with the Garrett trade.

Rams General Manager Les Snead says the Myles Garrett trade was months in the making.

Snead said at Garrett’s introductory press conference in Los Angeles that he and head coach Sean McVay started talking about making big moves to improve the defense as soon as the offseason started.

“How did we end up with Myles Garrett sitting between Sean and myself? When Sean and I met for the first time to talk about the offseason, we did discuss how we could add to the defense,” Snead said.

Adding to the defense is one thing. Adding the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year is something else, something that Snead first thought would be possible in March, when Garrett and the Browns modified Garrett’s contract in a way that made him easier to trade. Snead says he called Browns General Manager Andrew Berry as soon as that happened to get a sense for whether the Browns were signaling with that contract change Garrett would be available in a trade.

“When Cleveland made the adjustment to his contract, not sure if it was a signal, they made an adjustment,” Snead said. “I’ve got a good relationship with Andrew Berry, thought I’d just check in. Let’s check in. Myles, he’s a Cleveland Brown, he’s on their Mount Rushmore, so they were a no. But Andrew and I have a good relationship, we like talking about football a good bit, so I would pester him a little bit, probably jokingly at first, then we began talking a little more seriously.”

Snead said Berry turned down his offers of a package of draft picks for Garrett, but the Browns were willing to consider it if the Rams would trade Jared Verse, a talented young pass rusher.

“We tried to do this with draft compensation, then the draft came and went,” Snead said. “We picked talks back up, we tried to discuss more draft compensation. At the end of the day, and where it got a little tough for us, is they asked for Jared Verse in return. And similar to Cleveland at first, we were a no, based on all that Jared’s done for our organization. During May, we kept trying, we tried to figure out a solution, but as the June 1 date came, as it was getting closer, probably some time late May, we had a decision to make. We knew where Cleveland stood, they knew where we stood, and we proceeded to make the trade.”

Snead said he was also aware of Garrett’s no-trade clause, which would have allowed him to refuse the trade.

“Myles had a no-trade clause,” Snead said. “I remember asking Andrew after about a month of talking, ‘Myles has a no-trade clause, are we going to have gone through all this and he’s going to say no?’”

Garrett didn’t say no, and Snead finally made his long-awaited trade.