LOS ANGELES — As far as a fashion statement goes, Myles Garrett picked an appropriate one for his first press conference as a Ram.
Following Monday’s stunning, blockbuster trade that sent Garrett from the Cleveland Browns to Los Angeles, the two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year wore a black graphic T-shirt with Godzilla rampaging through a city, a good metaphor for the chaos Garrett has caused on NFL fields throughout his career.
When it came time to make his opening remarks to his new fan base, Garrett was more soft-spoken but no less definitive.
“I’m looking forward to help bring a championship here to L.A.,” he said.
While head coach Sean McVay tried to downplay those kinds of expectations, there’s no question the Rams only made this trade because of their intention to win a Super Bowl this season in their Inglewood home at SoFi Stadium.
You don’t trade a 25-year-old, Pro Bowl edge rusher like Jared Verse, along with a future first-round draft pick and two other future selections, to get incrementally better. You do it to put yourself over the top, to avoid another painful January exit and a spring full of what-ifs.
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General Manager Les Snead said he and McVay discussed improvements they could make to the defense at the beginning of the offseason. When the Browns restructured Garrett’s contract to move his bonus to the late summer, Snead took it as a signal they might be willing to trade the five-time All-Pro defensive end.
He called his counterpart in Cleveland, Andrew Berry, and was promptly told no. He kept pestering Berry, first in jest but with increasing sincerity. The Rams first tried to get the trade done with just draft compensation both prior to and after April’s draft. Then the Browns asked for Verse, the 2024 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.
At first the Rams said no. Then as time wound on, the Rams decided to make the trade.
“That was the hardest part of this decision is parting ways with somebody that we love and care about,” McVay said of Verse. “To be able to get something great, unfortunately we had to give up something great. … When you do look at [Garrett’s] body of work, what you envision in terms of the fit and how that can help the other 10 guys around and what are the different types of things that he elicits attention-wise? Where are some opportunities that we can free him up or that he can offer opportunities for other guys to get the man-side of the protection?”
As good as Verse might one day be, Garrett has been one of the most dominant figures in the NFL for his nine-year career. The kind of game-wrecking force that the Rams enjoyed playing behind during Aaron Donald’s tenure, and one the defense has missed since Donald’s retirement prior to the 2024 season.
Or, as McVay said of Garrett, “a pain in the ass to game plan against.”
But the Rams were also sold on Garrett’s reputation as a teammate, both from conversations with coaches on staff such as Bubba Ventrone, who overlapped with Garrett in Cleveland, and by the reaction of Garrett’s teammates when he broke the single-season sack record last year.
“The teammates celebrating and how happy they were around him, that tells me a lot about him,” McVay said.
It wasn’t until a week ago that Garrett was informed that a trade to the Rams was a possibility. He was surprised at first, but then began to get excited about the possibility – a team renowned for its culture, for a players’ coach in McVay, for its burning desire to win.
Still, after nine years in Cleveland, Garrett had to think before ultimately waiving his no-trade clause to go to the Rams.
“Definitely had to sleep on it,” Garrett said. “I did love being there and my family had become really a part of the community.”
But ultimately, Garrett said yes. Yes to the chance to win big and compete for a championship for the first time in his career. Yes to joining an ascending defense with young pass rushers around him and an All-Pro corner in Trent McDuffie behind him.
And yes to getting the consistent opportunity to pass rush with a lead with a quarterback like Matthew Stafford handling the other side of the ball.
“I mean, that did play into the decision as well,” Garrett said. “Being able to make those game-changing plays, to win the game for us, those are things that appeal to me.”
It’s a new start for Garrett, but one that he will have some comfort level with. His father is from Los Angeles, and his girlfriend – Olympic gold medal-winning snowboarder Chloe Kim – is a Long Beach native who grew up in Torrance and is still based in the L.A. area.
He only arrived in the city on Tuesday, going straight from the airport to get his physical done to complete the trade. Garrett arrived after Tuesday’s OTA workout, but he had already made contact with at least one of his new teammates, procuring his traditional jersey No. 95 from Poona Ford.
“A conversation and a couple bucks?” McVay asked Garrett of the exchange.
“Maybe more than a couple,” Garrett said smiling.
Garrett also smiled and nodded when McVay was asked about the possibility of Donald unretiring to join the party this year, to which the coach said, “If Aaron decides he wants to dust them off at the age of 35, I betcha he can still do it at a pretty high clip.”
But the Rams believe they already got their kaiju on the defensive front, Godzilla coming to tear down offensive linemen and quarterbacks with abandon. And Garrett hopes this change will finally mean his opportunity to play on the sport’s biggest stages nine years after Cleveland took him No. 1 overall.
“Since the very beginning, it’s always been about winning,” Garrett said. “It just breaks down to the time I have left in this league. What does it look like for me to be a winner now? And to an opportunity to do that here, that was an opportunity that was just too difficult to pass up.”