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The Los Angeles Rams made the biggest defensive splash of the 2026 offseason.
On June 2, they acquired edge rusher Myles Garrett from the Cleveland Browns in a blockbuster trade that immediately shifts Super Bowl conversations across the NFC. Garrett, the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year and one of the most disruptive forces in football, is heading west to join a roster already built for deep playoff runs.
The Browns, meanwhile, received young edge rusher Jared Verse plus a haul of future draft capital as they continue their rebuild.
This wasn’t a quiet Tuesday move. This was the kind of deal that makes front offices across the league pick up the phone and start making calls of their own.
The Full Trade Breakdown
Here’s exactly what changed hands:
| Rams Receive | Browns Receive |
|---|---|
| Myles Garrett (Edge) | Jared Verse (Edge) |
| 2027 First-Round Pick | |
| 2028 Second-Round Pick | |
| 2029 Third-Round Pick |
The structure gives Cleveland immediate help on the edge and multiple high picks to accelerate their rebuild. Los Angeles gets the proven superstar who can terrorize quarterbacks for the next several seasons.
Why the Rams Made the Move
Los Angeles has been knocking on the door. Adding Garrett turns that knock into a battering ram.
He brings elite pass-rush production, leadership, and the kind of presence that forces offensive coordinators to game-plan around him every single week. Pair that with the Rams’ existing talent and the result is a defense that can dominate in January.
Front offices don’t make moves like this unless they believe they’re one or two pieces away from a Super Bowl. The Rams clearly believe they are.
You could almost hear the excitement in the building when the deal closed. This is the kind of addition that changes the energy around a franchise.
What It Means for the Browns
Cleveland is in full rebuild mode and this trade reflects that reality.
By moving Garrett, they clear significant cap space and future commitments while landing a promising young edge player in Jared Verse and three premium draft picks. Those assets give them flexibility to reshape the roster around a younger core.
It’s never easy to trade a player of Garrett’s caliber. But when the goal is sustainable contention rather than short-term contention, sometimes the hard calls become the necessary ones.
The Browns didn’t just shed salary. They acquired the building blocks for their next chapter.
The Bigger Picture in the 2026 Offseason
This deal didn’t happen in isolation. Just a day earlier, the Eagles sent wide receiver A.J. Brown to the Patriots in another significant trade. The league is clearly in a period of aggressive roster retooling.
For fans, these moves deliver exactly what they want: clarity, stars in new uniforms, and fresh storylines heading into training camp.
For the Rams, the message is simple. They are not waiting. They are loading up.
The rest of the NFC West — and the entire conference — now has a much tougher road ahead.
