Rams Clips
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.
Myles Garrett learned a week ago that a trade to the Rams was a possibility. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year held his breath until it came to fruition on Monday.
“I was surprised,” Garrett said, via video from the team. “It was a bit of excitement, being in L.A., a lot of roots here, and knowing there’s a winning culture and some great teammates and great coaches here. You know I was definitely looking forward to the opportunity, God willing.”
In Garrett’s nine seasons in Cleveland, the Browns went 58-90-1 with two playoff appearances and one playoff win. The Rams have 10 playoff wins in that time with two Super Bowl appearances and a Super Bowl title.
“Since the very beginning, it’s always been about winning,” Garrett said. “It just breaks down to the timing of everything. What does it realistically look like to be a winner now? To have an opportunity to do that immediately, that was an opportunity that was just too difficult to pass up. I’ll always have love in my heart for Cleveland, the city, the community, all the players and everything else, but the opportunity to come here to have an immediate and profound impact on this team, it was something I just had to move forward with.”
Garrett, 30, has double-digit sacks every season except his rookie season of 2017. He has 125.5 career sacks, including an NFL single-season record of 23.
The Myles Garrett trade can be fairly characterized as a win-win for the Rams and the Browns. It’s also a win for the NFL and the TV audience.
Garrett’s former team, the Browns, has one prime-time game in 2026, on a Thursday night in Week 4 against the Steelers. All of Cleveland’s other 16 games start at 1:00 p.m. ET on a Sunday.
Garrett’s new team, the Rams, has seven prime-time games. They could be flexed into another, per league rules.
Beyond that, the Rams have a pair of significant 4:25 p.m. ET games: Week 14 at the 49ers on Fox and Week 15 vs. the Cowboys on CBS. Both will likely be televised in most American markets.
It means that, thanks to the trade, millions more will see Garrett play this year, in both night games and high-stakes, big-platform Sunday afternoon windows.
Currently, the Rams are scheduled to play only twice at 1:00 p.m. ET on a Sunday. At the Eagles, and at the Commanders.
After the Rams traded for defensive end Myles Garrett, a recent workout video posted by retired Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald sparked speculation that he’d end a two-year retirement and return to the NFL.
Pat McAfee texted Donald to take his temperature. Said Donald, per McAfee, “It for sure got me thinking.”
Thinking and doing are two different things. Added Donald, “Thirty-five, removed two years ago, gotta see if that fire can light back up.”
Based on the video of Donald doing his thing, he won’t have to rub the sticks together for very long. Throw in the fact that Garrett will command the kind of attention Donald used to get all the time, and Donald could welcome the chance to face something other than triple-team blocks on every single snap.
Donald is on the Rams reserve/retired list. It would be easy to return. His 2024 salary would be reinstated. (He’d possibly want an adjustment.)
The Rams would have to want it, too. That’s the far easier part of this. Of course they’d want him back.
When Donald retired, his explanation to coach Sean McVay was, “I’m full.” Donald explained in a video posted at the time he walked away that he was burned out.
So, yes, it’s possible the fire will return. And the prospect of playing with Myles Garrett could be that splash of lighter fluid on the glowing embers at the bottom of a pile of charcoal.
The Rams have relished the periodic “eff them picks” vibe of the past several years. On Monday, L.A. applied a twist to that mindset.
Eff them picks that panned out.
Every unused draft pick is an unscratched lottery ticket. The possibilities are limitless, but the reality is there’s a chance the player won’t fulfill his NFL potential. Defensive end Jared Verse has.
He was the 2024 defensive rookie of the year. He’s a two-time Pro Bowler. He’s not a guy you usually trade.
For the Browns, Verse is a first-round pick plus. He’s a lottery ticket that you know is a winner. And he’s five years younger than Myles Garrett.
Verse also has a low (relatively speaking) slotted rookie deal. He’ll make $2.1 million in 2026. He’s on the books for $2.8 million in 2027.
That said, things get interesting next year. First, the window will be open on a second contract for Verse. Second, Verse’s pair of Pro Bowl appearances will unlock a much higher fifth-year option.
So, yes, at some point the Browns will have to give Verse the financial reward that the Rams won’t be financing. Still, the Rams have paid the bulk of Verse’s four-year, $15.1 million rookie deal. The Browns will get him for two years, at less than $5 million.
Bottom line? Getting Verse is better than getting a first-round pick. Which gives the Browns a first-round pick, a second-round pick, a third-round pick, and a recent first-round pick who has proven to be a winning lottery ticket.
Myles Garrett will be wearing a new uniform in 2026, but it will have a familiar number.
The Rams announced on Tuesday that Garrett will be wearing No. 95 this season. Garrett joined the Rams in a trade with the Browns on Monday.
Garrett wore No. 95 throughout his nine seasons in Cleveland. He wore No. 15 at Texas A&M.
Defensive lineman Poona Ford wore No. 95 for the Rams last season and was set to wear it again before Garrett joined the team. He will now wear No. 97 with defensive lineman Bill Norton switching to No. 93 and defensive lineman Payton Zdroik moving from No. 93 to No. 62.
