Is Garrett the final piece to the Rams’ puzzle?
Chris Simms and Mike Florio unpack the Rams acquiring Myles Garrett from the Cleveland Browns, examining how Les Snead and Sean McVay aren't afraid to put all their cards on the table.
Video Transcript
You know, he gets the sack record.
It wasn't the fact that he got his 23rd sack.
Watch the teammates celebrating and how happy they were around him.
That tells me a lot about him.
and he is a pain in the ass to game plan against, and I'm glad we don't have to do that anymore.
Sean McVay suddenly a little more lively.
A little more chipper.
Right.
No hands jammed in his pockets- as he sat in the spot where he sat after they drafted Ty Simpson in late April.
A much better day for him, obviously, now that Myles Garrett is a member of the Los Angeles Rams.
That was the trade on Monday we didn't expect.
The one we did expect happened.
The one we didn't expect did, and that's driven the conversation in the NFL for the past couple of days.
Not much else can pierce through that.
Chris, who was out yesterday, has yet to have a chance to weigh in on either of the trades.
Ooh.
We will be folding his thoughts in with the additional bits of news that emerged yesterday as everyone is getting their brains around what this means for the NFL, what it means for the teams involved, what it means for the players.
And obviously, we'll start with the Myles Garrett trade, because that's the thing that was truly size-making.
Chris, I said yesterday, because I, I'm not stunned that the trade happened once they changed Myles Garrett's contract to push the $29.2 million option bonus from- Yeah the middle of March until a week before the start of the season.
That's when- We talked about it the actions superseded any words.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
anything else that Andrew Berry says, Jimmy Haslam says, is just words.
Actions matter.
Once they did that, the stage was set for the trade to happen.
But the thing that really stunned me was the Jared Verse part of it.
When I saw that, I thought it was a typo.
Like, Jared Verse, holy crap.
Ascending star, two-time Pro Bowler, Defensive Rookie of the Year.
It's a lot to give up.
It's giving up, in my opinion, more than a first-round pick, because a first-round pick, you don't know if it's going to pan out before you use it.
Jared Verse is a first-round pick that's worked, and you're letting him go after two years.
But it shows you how badly the Rams wanted Garrett, and it shows you how badly the Browns wanted to maximize the haul if and when they decided to do the trade.
Yeah, no, I, I mean, there, there, there's a lot, right?
And it is unbelievable, like you said.
I mean, it's the Los Angeles Rams, who we've said a, I feel like about 50 times over the last three weeks, was really the second-best team in the NFL last year.
It was them and the Seahawks, and then you coulda got into the Patriots and whatever else.
But I give the Rams a lot of credit, as always.
McVay, Les Snead, the Kroenke family, they have no fear.
They go all in.
And I mean, I The biggest thing to me with a move like this, Mike, with the Rams, is just that, it gives the whole organization such confidence now, you know?
N- even the h- y- the GMs, the, the front office people, everybody there, everybody there, "Hey, we got, we got really good players now.
We, we should feel good about ourselves.
We should win."
And then I think the other side of the, the, the story is the players in the locker room.
The players in the locker room take this as, you know, a, a- as like a badge of honor, right?
Like, "Man, they think we're so good that if we just get him, we're gonna win the Super Bowl."
That's what they think, right?
We just They think, "We're good.
If we have him now, we go to the Super Bowl."
And that does boost up your locker room a lot.
E- like, "Boy, the organization believes in us, and we got this freak of nature coming through the l- the locker room door every day.
Damn, we're a t- we're a squad."
And then of course, that's gonna translate to the field when he gets out there and the presence he has there.
But the s- the respect I have for the Rams, and then, you know, the other part of just them going all in on a year where they have the Super Bowl back in their city once again, where they've already won it in their city, and they're trying to lay down the train tracks to take over that city in LA and be the team there.
I mean, that, that to me is where the, the move is awesome with, with everything I said there.
I don't think they're gonna catch the Dodgers or the Lakers.
No, I mean, just to take over- But they will the Chargers and do that, but at least make some moves there- Well to maybe where they can get up there with the Dodgers and Lakers.
But they can, like, clearly supp- you know, supplant the Chargers and go, "You're second.
We own football in LA," and really build something.
And that's where, you know, I think it's kinda cool for, for the future.
I think the Rams don't even want to acknowledge there's a competition between themselves- Yeah, you're right and the Chargers, frankly.
They're just Their attitude is the Chargers are the, the outcasts that They're the, they're the tenants at SoFi Stadium.
They pay rent, or they get whatever they get to be there, but they don't own the place.
And I think the Rams knew what they were doing.
They got to LA a year or two before the Chargers did, tried to reestablish the fan base.
But hey, winning is what will ultimately determine the extent to which there's a connection between the Rams and LA.
They do have the one Super Bowl.
The last time it was at SoFi Stadium, and now when they were just a fluky two-point play away potentially from winning this year's Super Bowl.
Because if you go back and change that one moment, the Rams- Yeah, that's right likely win the Thursday night game against the Seahawks.
They likely win the division.
They're likely the number one seed.
If there is a rematch in the NFC Championship, they don't have to go to Seattle.
They have a better chance of winning.
And if they had been the representatives in Super Bowl 60, they likely beat the Patriots based upon the gap between the Seahawks and Rams and the Patriots.
Yeah.
So.
Right, right.
Yeah.
They're not far away.
They're not far away, and this is a huge move.
Let's hear a little more from Happy Sean about the addition of Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams.When you look at being able to acquire a player like this, these things don't come up often.
and so when you do have a chance, you're saying, "Hey, can we have the best of both?"
Where you're able to get Miles and still keep a player that you love that's been an instrumental part of the last couple years.
That was the hardest part of this decision, is parting ways with somebody that we love and care about.
wish him the best in Cleveland and, and he's done an amazing job for us each of the last couple years.
Brought an energy, a production level of toughness.
but the opportunity to be able to get, a chance to be able to work alongside Miles, he knows the respect and reverence I've had for his game, just getting to know him over the course of, you know, his career and, and my coaching career.
and we feel like he can upgrade our football team.
Oh, he'll definitely upgrade the football team.
The question is, how much will the upgrade be?
And he's better than Jared Verse right now.
That's where this thing becomes- Well, yeah, it's a good conversation more complicated.
Right.
I keep coming back to Jared Verse.
Verse isn't Miles Garrett, but Verse is five years younger than Miles Garrett.
Verse is just getting started.
We don't know what Verse's ceiling is going to be.
Now, is he ever gonna be Miles Garrett?
Probably not.
But, but as of right now, Jared Verse is younger, cheaper, and ascending.
With Garrett, he's in the prime.
How much longer does the prime last?
Yeah.
We don't know.
Rams don't know.
No one knows.
So that's the, the difference here, and this is clearly a right now move for the Rams.
This is let's do what we have to do to supercharge.
It's like a cheat code.
It's like the button you press when you're playing the video game that hits the nitrous if you're playing a racing game.
Makes your guy a lot bigger- You mean the nitric oxide?
and stronger if you're playing some other game.
That's what you meant there?
Like, where the nitro- Nitro- Yeah, yeah nitrous.
Yeah.
I think it's the same thing.
Is it?
Nitrous, nitrous oxide.
Okay.
I think it's nitrous oxide.
Yeah.
Nitric oxide.
Right.
Either way.
I think nitro- nitrous oxide is laughing gas.
I think you're right.
So either way.
Sean, Sean must have had a little nitrous oxide yesterday as he put the nitric oxide in the tank for the Los Angeles Rams.
Th- the only, the only downside here, and you mentioned this, the confidence it shows in the players in the locker room.
Yeah, right.
Because hey, they believe we can win the Super Bowl.
They went out and added the missing piece.
They went out and added the guy who upgrades us.
They went out and brought in a guy that allows us to get over the top.
I have a very bad memory of having that same feeling in October of 1989 when the Minnesota Vikings added Herschel Walker, and we know how that went.
Yeah.
So granted, the, the Vikings got fleeced 10 different ways in that deal by Jimmy Johnson.
Not Jerry Jones, it was a Jimmy Johnson deal.
Jerry Jones can take credit for it, but Jimmy Johnson concocted that deal where he got a bunch of draft picks and a bunch of players, and if the players weren't on the roster, he got a bunch of draft picks.
So he cut all the players at the end of the season and got all the extra draft picks.
And it raided the Vikings ability to build a team for several years, but Herschel Walker never lived up to the hype.
That was the problem.
I think we've seen enough sustained performance from Miles Garrett at the NFL level to believe that- Yeah, right a guy who rarely was playing with a lead, who, who got those 23 sacks the hard way last year.
You put him in a scenario where they might actually be ahead by a couple of scores in the second half, and the other team may be predictably throwing all the time, and it might be a little bit easier for Miles Garrett to be even better than he's been.
So I think it's easier to look at Garrett as the team that pushes the Rams over the top, or the piece, excuse me, that pushes the Rams over the top versus a, a, a trade like Walker.
Who was supposedly the missing piece for that Vikings team too, but, but again, it didn't work out.
Much greater chance that Garrett's gonna come in and, and be the difference the Rams are looking for.
Yeah, I mean, we got, we have no questions about Miles Garrett.
Nothing really That's what's great about a defensive end, like nothing changes.
It's just like, "Hey, wait, get over here and rush the quarterback."
And you know, "Hey, we might have this blitz or this defense," or you gotta remember this rule or whatever else, but nothing gonna be groundbreaking or, like, mind-blowing that way.
So yes, trading for a defensive end's kind of one of the, the safest trades you can make.
And you know, you, to your Browns point, you're, you're saying it exactly right.
Jared Verse is a, he's a phenomenal football player.
I don't know if he'll ever be the pass rusher Miles Garrett is, but he's great in all areas.
He's physical as hell.
He's awesome in the run game.
He's what you want being a leader of your defense.
So I'm sure that wasn't easy for the Rams to let him go.
And the Browns, as we know, and Andrew Berry play analytics a little bit more.
Where they are for their team right now, I, I totally understand them taking this deal.
They got a haul.
They got a really good player.
Their team is, is starting to be formed around a young nucleus right now.
Jared Verse is the perfect guy to kind of usher them into a new era here.
So makes sense for the Browns and everything they wanna do there as well, you know?
And then you talk about, you know, what Garrett does there to the Rams.
Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a next to, next two to three years type of thing.
The Browns are playing, hey, you know, he's broke the sack record.
From here on out it's gonna go slowly downwards.
Okay, but the, the risk is gonna be how downwards, you know?
Yeah, Browns, you're gonna hear about it if he gets 20 sacks again this year, that that'll be a problem.
But, but totally understand it to where he's at in his career.
Now, the other aspect of this to me that's just, I kind of find fa- fascinating, you said it, it's like that's a play for now.
Stafford signed up for two more years.
You know, might be three with a guy like Miles Garrett there before it's all said and done.
And that's what makes the 13 pick for Ty Simpson to me still a head scratcher.
'Cause we're going all in here, but yet we went there to look three years down the road with a guy who hasn't really played much, and now he's gonna wait probably another four years before he plays again.
And that's the only thing that doesn't make sense to me about the Rams, but regardless, they like Ty Simpson, they got Miles Garrett, and we know the Rams are gonna be one of the best teams in football.
And just to be clear, Stafford is committed for a year.
The Rams are committed to him for a year.
If he chooses to play in 2027, the Rams control his rights.
Yeah.
It is a year-to-year arrangement, play or not play.
It's not year to year from the standpoint of Stafford can go somewhere else, and I don't think he wants to go somewhere else.
He continues to do these deals where he's committed to the team a year longer than the team is committed to him.
Right.
But he can still retire.
The way they structure it, there's not some big payment he's got to reimburse the Rams for under the signing bonus rules of the CBA.
He just walks away, and it's over, and it's done.
They don't owe him anything more.
He doesn't owe them anything more.
And, and that's that
