Cleveland Browns Trade Myles Garrett to Los Angeles Rams in Blockbuster Deal

The Cleveland Browns traded Myles Garrett — the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, the NFL's all-time single-season sack record holder, and arguably the most dominant defensive player of his generation — to the Los Angeles Rams. In return, Cleveland received edge rusher Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick [1][2].

The trade, processed as a post-June 1 designation to maximize salary cap relief for Cleveland, ends Garrett's nine-year tenure with the Browns and places him on a Rams roster that already featured the 2025 NFL MVP in quarterback Matthew Stafford [3]. It is the first time in NFL history that the previous season's league MVP and Defensive Player of the Year have been on the same roster [4].

The Terms: What Each Side Gets

The compensation package breaks down as follows:

Browns receive: Jared Verse, 2027 1st-round pick, 2028 2nd-round pick, 2029 3rd-round pick

Rams receive: Myles Garrett and his four-year, $160 million contract extension signed in 2025 [5].

Garrett, 30, carries a cap hit of approximately $23.5 million in 2026, though the structure of his deal — with a $1.3 million base salary and a $29.2 million option bonus — means the Rams absorb a significantly lower cap charge in Year 1, estimated at roughly $3.3 million after proration [6][7]. His contract includes $123.6 million in guarantees, of which $88.8 million was fully guaranteed at signing, and extends through 2029 with escalating cap hits that balloon to $20-25 million in the final years [6].

Garrett waived a no-trade clause to facilitate the deal [5].

How This Compares to the Biggest Defensive Trades in NFL History

The Garrett package ranks among the richest hauls ever surrendered for a defensive player, though its composition is unusual. Unlike the Khalil Mack trade to Chicago in 2018 (two first-round picks, a third-rounder, and a sixth-rounder) or the Jalen Ramsey deal to the Rams in 2019 (two firsts and a fourth-rounder), the Garrett trade included a proven young player — Verse — rather than raw draft capital [8][9].

Source: ESPN / NFL.com

Data as of Jun 1, 2026CSV

Verse, 25, won the 2024 AP Defensive Rookie of the Year award and earned two Pro Bowl selections in his first two seasons, recording 12.0 career sacks, 77 pressures as a rookie, and 7.5 sacks in 2025 [10]. Multiple analysts valued Verse alone as worth more than a single first-round pick, which means the total package may rival or exceed what the Raiders received for Mack [11].

The Packers' trade of Kenny Clark plus two first-round picks for Micah Parsons and the Ravens' acquisition of Maxx Crosby for two first-rounders provide more recent benchmarks. By those standards, the Garrett package — a younger starter plus three draft picks spread across three years — represents substantial but not unprecedented value [11].

A Record-Breaking Season, Then a Trade

Garrett's final season in Cleveland was historically dominant. He recorded 23.0 sacks, breaking the NFL's all-time single-season record of 22.5 that had stood since Michael Strahan set it in 2001 [1]. He added 33 tackles for loss — the second-most in NFL history since the statistic became official — and maintained the third-highest pass rush win rate (25.8%) among edge defenders since entering the league [12][13].

Source: Pro Football Reference

Data as of Jun 1, 2026CSV

Over the past six seasons, Garrett recorded at least 12.0 sacks every year, earned first-team All-Pro honors five times, and won Defensive Player of the Year twice in three seasons [1]. His 125.5 career sacks place him among the most productive pass rushers in modern NFL history. He ranked second only to Micah Parsons in both pass rush win rate and total pass rush wins over the prior four-year span [13].

Yet none of that production translated into team success. The Browns went 5-12 in 2025 and have posted a combined record that made clear the franchise was nowhere near contention, despite employing the league's best defensive player [14].

Why Cleveland Made the Call

Browns GM Andrew Berry framed the decision as an agonizing but necessary pivot. "We have long taken the stance that our goal was for Myles Garrett to be a one-helmet player for his entire career," Berry said. "After rewriting the record books and representing our organization with excellence, we were sincere in that desire as we entered this offseason and did not envision a world where Myles was not a Cleveland Brown" [15].

Berry described the moment as "a legitimate crossroads: do we hold on to a truly generational player who has become the identity of our team, or do we make the difficult decision that we think is best for the organization over the long run?" [15].

Several factors pushed the Browns toward trading Garrett. The franchise fired head coach Kevin Stefanski and hired Todd Monken, signaling a new direction. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz also departed — a move that reportedly bothered Garrett [15]. Garrett never met with Monken before the trade was finalized, suggesting the relationship was already strained [15].

The football argument for trading Garrett centers on Cleveland's offensive futility. The Browns ranked dead last in the NFL in scoring in 2024 at 15.2 points per game and 31st in 2025 at 16.4 points per game [14]. No amount of defensive dominance from a single player could compensate for an offense that consistently failed to score. Berry's offseason strategy reflected this reality: he committed massive guaranteed money to reconstructing the offensive line, signing guard Zion Johnson to a three-year, $49.5 million deal and center Elgton Jenkins to a two-year, $24 million contract [14].

The inclusion of Verse made the trade palatable. At 25, Verse is five years younger than Garrett, is not yet eligible for a contract extension, and provides immediate pass-rush production at a fraction of the cost. The Browns effectively traded peak performance for youth, cost control, and draft capital — the classic rebuilding equation [15].

The Rams' Bet: All-In 2.0

For Los Angeles, this is a familiar playbook. In the 2021 offseason, the Rams traded two first-round picks and a third-rounder to acquire Matthew Stafford from the Lions, then won Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium that February [4]. Now, with Super Bowl LXI scheduled for SoFi Stadium on February 14, 2027, the Rams are making the same type of aggressive move to chase a championship on home turf [4].

Stafford, now 38, won the 2025 NFL MVP after leading the league in both passing yards (4,707) and passing touchdowns (46) [4]. But his window is narrowing — he is taking his career "one year at a time," and the Rams clearly view this as a moment to maximize their roster while their quarterback remains elite [4].

The Rams also bolstered their secondary this offseason, adding Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson from the Chiefs [7]. Pairing that upgraded secondary with Garrett's pass rush creates a defense built to complement an already potent offense.

GM Les Snead received an A+ grade from Sports Illustrated's analysis, which noted that "30 other teams should have made a call" and that most GMs "would have backed away once forced to include Verse" [11].

The Overpayment Question

The counterargument against the Rams is straightforward: Garrett turns 31 during the 2026 season, and the historical data on edge rushers past 30 is mixed. While the very best pass rushers — players like Julius Peppers, Cam Jordan, and Von Miller — maintained productivity into their mid-30s, the typical edge rusher sees a meaningful decline after age 30-31 [16]. All ten of the top-ten scoring edge rushers in the 2024 season were between 25 and 30 years old [16].

Garrett has shown no signs of decline — his 2025 season was the best of his career — but the Rams are now paying peak prices for a player entering the phase of his career where regression becomes statistically likely. His cap hits escalate significantly in the final years of his deal, reaching $20-25 million annually in 2028 and 2029, precisely when age-related decline typically accelerates [6].

ESPN's Bill Barnwell characterized the trade as one that "increases the Rams' chances to win the Super Bowl in 2026" but is "not good team-building for the Rams that will maximize their chances of a Super Bowl over the next several seasons, and the cost to the 2027-30 Rams is too much to justify" [17].

The Rams also surrendered Verse — a 25-year-old two-time Pro Bowler on a rookie contract — along with three future draft picks. If the Rams are competitive over the next two years, those picks will land in the late rounds of each day, limiting their value. But if the post-Stafford transition goes poorly, those picks become significantly more valuable to Cleveland [17].

Historical Precedent: What Happened to Teams That Traded Elite Edge Rushers

The Khalil Mack trade offers the most instructive comparison. The Raiders traded Mack to Chicago in 2018 for two first-round picks, a third-rounder, and a sixth-rounder. Mack earned first-team All-Pro honors in his first season with the Bears, but Chicago never advanced past the Wild Card round during his tenure. The Bears eventually traded Mack to the Chargers in 2022 for a second-round pick and a sixth-rounder — a fraction of what they had paid [8][9].

The Raiders, meanwhile, used their acquired picks to draft Josh Jacobs and others, but never built a consistent winner either. Neither team clearly "won" the trade in the long run [8].

The Jalen Ramsey trade followed a similar arc. The Rams sent two first-round picks and a fourth-rounder to the Jaguars in 2019. Ramsey was outstanding in Los Angeles and helped the team win Super Bowl LVI, but was eventually traded again as his contract became unwieldy. Jacksonville used the picks to draft C.J. Henderson (a bust) and Travis Etienne (a solid contributor) [9].

The lesson from these precedents is not that trading for elite defenders is always wrong — the Rams did win a Super Bowl with Ramsey — but that the window of return is narrow, and the long-term cost is real.

AFC North: A Division Transformed

Garrett's departure reshapes the AFC North's competitive landscape for the foreseeable future. Over his career, Garrett was a consistent source of misery for divisional opponents:

• vs. Baltimore Ravens: 14 sacks, 16 tackles for loss, and 23 quarterback hits in 16 career games. The Ravens will not face the Rams in 2026, meaning they avoid Garrett entirely for at least one season [18].
• vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: Garrett recorded a sack or more in four of his last five games against Pittsburgh. Steelers quarterback Will Howard reacted to the trade news with visible relief [18][19].
• vs. Cincinnati Bengals: Head coach Zac Taylor had previously called Garrett "the best defensive player on planet earth" and "an absolute nightmare" to prepare for. The Bengals enter 2026 with an improved defense and no longer face the player Taylor most feared [18].

The Steelers may be the biggest AFC winners. Pittsburgh's offensive line, which struggled consistently against Garrett, now faces Verse — a talented but less proven rusher — twice per year instead [19]. Combined with the Ravens' acquisition of Maxx Crosby and the Bengals' defensive improvements, the AFC North's balance of power has shifted meaningfully away from Cleveland [18].

What the Draft Capital Is Actually Worth

The Browns' haul — a 2027 first, 2028 second, and 2029 third — is spread across three drafts, which limits the franchise's ability to make a concentrated rebuild move in any single year. If the Rams are a top-10 team, the 2027 first-round pick would fall in the 20-32 range, where the hit rate on franchise-altering players is significantly lower than in the top 10 [17].

Historical data on rebuilding via trade is mixed. Teams that accumulate draft picks through star trades — like the Texans after trading DeAndre Hopkins or the Lions after trading Stafford — have had success when they also had strong front-office evaluation. But the Browns' recent drafting track record under Berry has been inconsistent, particularly on offense, which raises questions about whether the organization can convert these assets into the kind of players that actually change a franchise's trajectory [14][17].

The inclusion of Verse, however, changes the calculus. Unlike a draft pick, Verse is a known commodity — a 25-year-old who has already demonstrated he can perform at a Pro Bowl level in the NFL. If Verse continues to develop, the Browns may have effectively replaced 70-80% of Garrett's production at a fraction of the cost, with three additional draft picks as a bonus [10][11].

The Bigger Picture

This trade is ultimately a story about two franchises at different stages of their competitive arcs making rational decisions based on their timelines. The Rams, with a 38-year-old MVP quarterback and a Super Bowl at home, are betting everything on the next 12 months. The Browns, with a roster that finished 5-12 despite having the league's best defensive player, are acknowledging that one transcendent talent cannot overcome systemic roster deficiencies.

Whether Cleveland's front office can execute the rebuild — converting Verse's development and three future picks into a contending roster — remains the open question. The Browns have not made the playoffs since 2020 and have cycled through quarterbacks, coaches, and strategies without finding a sustainable path to winning.

For Garrett, the trade represents something he never had in Cleveland: a genuine chance to compete for a championship. After nine seasons, a franchise-record 125.5 sacks, and a historic 2025 campaign, he leaves as the best player in Browns history since Jim Brown — traded away because the organization around him could never build a team worthy of his talent [1][15].

The Rams are betting that pairing Garrett with Stafford, Puka Nacua, and an upgraded defense will produce another championship run through SoFi Stadium. History suggests the window is narrow, the cost is steep, and the margin for error is thin. But as Les Snead demonstrated in 2021, sometimes the boldest moves are the ones that bring home the trophy.