Welcome to the summer party, NFL.
Amid the mayhem caused by the Stanley Cup Final and NBA Finals starting up as the calendar flipped to June on Monday, we saw not one, but two (!) blockbuster deals go down in the football world, with the first sending shockwaves around the league.
From a trade request to then rescinding the request to then signing an extension in what was a long saga that stemmed from a desire for a Super Bowl ring, Myles Garrett finally got his wish when the Cleveland Browns sent him to the Los Angeles Rams for fellow pass rusher Jared Verse, a first-round pick (2027), a second-rounder (2028) and a third (2029).
Was it surprising? Yes, on multiple levels. Garrett signed a mega four-year, $160-million deal in March 2025. Plus, every NFL fan was anticipating the A.J Brown-to-New England deal on Monday because it was reported months ago (the second of two trades), so never did a deal occurring three hours earlier involving the best defensive player in the sport — the same guy who just set the single-season sack record — ever cross anyone’s mind.
Was it exciting (or frightening if you’re a Cardinals, Seahawks or 49ers fan)? Absolutely. Garrett is a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, for crying out loud. Was it necessary? Also, yes.
Let’s start with the deal from the Rams’ perspective.
Trading Verse must have been a difficult decision for general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay. It’s never easy to give up on a 25-year-old who has made the Pro Bowl in each of his first two seasons, totalled 12.0 sacks and logged the fifth-most QB pressures, with 143.
A player with that production at that age, coupled with the three early picks, is an absolute HAUL to give up for any player. But Garrett is one of a kind — worth the price, and then some.
Just last season alone, Garrett nearly doubled Verse’s career sack total with 23, passing Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt for the record.
If you want to talk pressures, Garrett’s 161 over the last two seasons also leads the league, per NFL Researcher.
And if you want to talk accolades, Garrett has taken home the honour for the best defensive player in two of the last three years, while making seven Pro Bowls and five All-Pro teams in his nine-year career.
He has shown no signs of slowing down at age 30, and although Verse has great potential, the chances of reaching a similar level to Garrett are slim.
The Rams are also in win-now mode with retirement on the horizon for starting QB Matthew Stafford as he enters his 18th NFL season.
With the uncertainty surrounding the reigning MVP’s future — although he did sign a one-year extension last month, contractually locking him in for next season — it’s now or never in Los Angeles, especially with the Super Bowl being played in its home stadium this season.
The impact player now is a better use of resources than the potential impact player(s) down the road, and if all goes to plan, the draft picks heading to Cleveland would be in the back half of the rounds. Besides, the Rams aren’t one to hold on to their premium capital.
Since making Jared Goff the top pick in 2016, Snead has constantly preferred the impact-now guys, with Verse in ’24 and Ty Simpson just two months ago serving as the lone first-rounders.
Excluding Garrett, some of the notable players acquired by the Rams in exchange for the premium picks include Stafford, Von Miller, Marcus Peters, Jalen Ramsey and Trent McDuffie.
The result? A Lombardi Trophy in 2021.
Not all those guys were acquired for that Super Bowl run. But Stafford, Ramsey and Miller were on that squad, and one ring is enough to justify the price of any trade.
But perhaps the most underrated aspect of the deal is having Garrett serve as a teacher to an already young, disruptive and productive defensive line.
Kobie Turner, 27, has 24 sacks in three seasons. Byron Young, 28, notched 27.5 sacks in three seasons. And Braden Fiske, 26 and Verse’s college teammate, has 11.5 sacks in two seasons.
Now, all three get to learn from the best pass rusher of the last decade.
If you thought the Rams moving on from their young stud rusher was a difficult choice, how about the Browns dealing away arguably their best defensive player in franchise history.
Heck, even Browns general manager Andrew Berry didn’t envision moving Garrett until the final second. But in that final second, Berry understood that the trade made too much sense for the Brownies — now and in the future.
“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 in a statement, after the trade was made official by the team on Monday. “As discussions intensified, we were at a legitimate crossroads: do we hold onto 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?
“As we embark on a new era of Browns football with a young core and a replenished asset base, we felt this move was important to our transition.”
Verse, who hails from Dayton, Ohio, joins that “young core” of Spencer Fano, KC Concepcion, Denzel Boston, Quinshon Judkins, Harold Fannin, Mason Graham, Carson Schwesinger and Shedeur Sanders/Dillon Gabriel.
The best part about that existing core? All but Verse were either selected in the 2025 or the ’26 draft.
But the real question mark is with Gabriel and Sanders. The Browns took the two QBs in the third and fifth rounds in ’25, respectively, and through one season there isn’t a whole lot of optimism that either could be the guy for the foreseeable future.
That’s not to say that neither player showed promise — both did, in fact — but little stood out to prove that they’re the franchise QB Cleveland has long been searching for.
That’s where the three picks acquired for Garrett may come into play. The Browns have a fairly talented roster, one that could, and maybe should, yield a near-.500 result despite winning just five games last season.
If Sanders or Gabriel or even somehow Deshaun Watson can do just enough, the Browns wouldn’t be in prime position for the top QBs of the draft. With the extra draft ammo, Berry has flexibility to go get who he thinks is truly the guy if need be.
Beyond what the deal adds to the Browns’ roster this season and in the future, it also was a case of the team doing right by the player.
Despite the original trade request by Garrett, he still decided to ride it out in the place he called home since being picked first overall in 2017 by signing his extension — one that came with a no-trade clause.
It’s hard to think of a better team for Garrett to go to than the Rams: loaded defence, stars on offence and the reigning MVP at the most important position. For good reason, they’re the Super Bowl betting favourites on BetMGM at +500.
It’s hard not to think of this trade as a rare everybody-wins deal.
The Rams get the best pass rusher in football, cement their status as a legitimate Super Bowl contender while Snead gets to use his favourite “f-them picks” slogan once again.
Garrett gets to live in L.A. while playing for one of the best teams in football. Verse returns to his home state.
The Browns get a legitimate emerging superstar to replace Garrett who better fits their timeline, while adding premium draft capital to the cupboard to either help flesh out the roster or find the franchise QB under centre.