Which team won Myles Garrett trade? Grades for Rams, Browns in blockbuster deal

• The Cleveland Browns traded star defensive end Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams.
• In return, the Browns received edge rusher Jared Verse and three future draft picks.
• The trade signals the Rams are aiming for a Super Bowl now, while the Browns are rebuilding for the future.

As much of the NFL world waited for a potential A.J. Brown trade to materialize on June 1, another swap involving one of football's foremost stars came together, altering the league's landscape.

The Cleveland Browns agreed to trade reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for edge rusher Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, 2028 second-round pick and 2029 third-round pick.

The stunning move accelerated the trajectory of two franchises heading in opposing directions. Fresh off an NFC championship game appearance and NFL MVP Matthew Stafford's commitment to return, the Rams made it clear they would spare no expense to capitalize on the Super Bowl window of the current roster. Now, after reshaping their maligned secondary earlier in the offseason, Los Angeles has added one of the league's singular defensive difference-makers still in his prime. Cleveland, meanwhile, parts with a franchise cornerstone in its most complete embrace to date of a much more extended timeline for competing.

Los Angeles Rams trade grade: A

It sure seemed as though the Trent McDuffie trade would go down as the signature move of the Rams' offseason.

Ahead of acquiring the former All-Pro cornerback, Les Snead left a trail of breadcrumbs indicating his interest in reconfiguring a secondary that collapsed down the stretch of the Rams' disappointing season. It was easy to surmise that a general manager known for his bold approach to acquiring stars wouldn't be shy about being proactive to solve his team's most glaring deficiency, which he seemingly addressed with McDuffie and the signing of fellow former Chiefs cornerback Jaylen Watson.

Few, however, could have seen the Garrett trade coming.

Los Angeles' pass rush was hardly hurting without the five-time All-Pro. The defense ranked eighth in ESPN's pass-rush win rate metric and fifth in pressure rate (38%), according to Next Gen Stats. Yet coordinator Chris Shula's group depended on winning as a collective, with several players up front – Verse, Byron Young and Kobie Turner – all proving formidable yet falling short of dominance.

Garrett's arrival changes everything.

Forced to find an answer for the defending-champion Seattle Seahawks while also trying to fend off the San Francisco 49ers, the Rams now boast a force for whom teams reconfigure entire game plans. Even when Garrett doesn't actually corral the quarterback, as he did 23 times in his record-setting campaign last season, his mere presence forces offenses into uncomfortable spots, which became a recurring theme down the stretch last year. The Seahawks and 49ers rely on setting their own terms with their attacks. Now, Los Angeles has one of the few figures capable of making them contemplate some compromises.

The compensation here is nothing to brush off, but Los Angeles can stand to part with these pieces. Having selected Ty Simpson in April, the Rams are no longer hunting for Matthew Stafford's successor, thereby making it easier to part with a 2027 first-rounder that will almost assuredly be late in the order. Keeping Verse would have put the defense into dream-team territory, but there's still enough power up front that this won't solely be the Garrett show.

Giving up a good deal to land a 30-year-old pass rusher might be hard for any contender to stomach. By now, however, it should be clear that Garrett is no ordinary 30-year-old, and his production seems unlikely to fall off a cliff even if it wanes in the years to come. The Rams, meanwhile, leveraged their unique foresight to take on this kind of live-in-the-now move.

Cleveland Browns trade grade: A-

Kudos to Cleveland for pulling off an exceedingly difficult move.

For nearly a decade, Garrett has been the saving grace of a franchise that has done little to capitalize on his singular level of play. Even after the seven-time Pro Bowler requested a trade in February 2025, Browns brass held firm and quelled the issue by handing Garrett a four-year, $160 million extension.

Sending off the heartbeat of the team – and one of the diminishingly few reasons to tune in – could earn Andrew Berry plenty of scorn if it doesn't pan out. But with his team still reeling from the lingering effects of the ill-fated Deshaun Watson trade, the Browns general manager seized his best opportunity yet to accumulate the young standouts needed to make this franchise competitive down the line.

After three years of limited returns via draft classes that lacked first-rounders due to the Watson deal, Berry finally managed to hit it big on several young standouts in the 2025 class, including Defensive Rookie of the Year Carson Schwesinger and tight end Harold Fannin Jr. Led by receivers KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston, this year's rookies could help rejuvenate a rudderless offense. If Berry keeps unearthing gems on cost-controlled contracts, Cleveland could actually have a track back to some form of relevance.

With Garrett turning 31 this December, the Browns opted to cater their timeline to a young core. A defense that lost coordinator Jim Schwartz could have been headed for regression even had Garrett returned. Now, it should be clear that Berry is preparing for plenty of growing pains on both sides of the ball.

The short-term outlook is decidedly difficult, but Cleveland is now better prepared to address the factors that have long weighed down the franchise. Berry knows that a quarterback solution won't come easily, and even an additional late first-round pick might only do so much to help the team's positioning in a class where several teams are likely to jockey for the top signal-callers. But Cleveland's now firmly in the same category as the likes of the Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins as potential landing spots for Arch Manning and Dante Moore.

Did Cleveland get enough for Garrett? Few players truly clear the bar as demanding three first-round picks, but an all-time pass rusher surely seems like one. Even though this package fell short of that, the inclusion of Verse clearly changed the calculus a bit for the Browns, who are getting a proven edge presence as they rely on drafting and developing elsewhere on their roster. While Verse will require a massive extension in short order, Cleveland shouldn't feel as though it had to take a steep discount here.

Ultimately, this could go down as a win-win swap. For Cleveland, however, the notion of winning looks a lot different - and potentially diminished - relative to what Los Angeles is facing.