The Cleveland Browns traded two-time AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday for pass rusher Jared Verse and three draft picks and the blockbuster deal instantly made the 2026 Rams the first team in NFL history to pair a reigning MVP quarterback with a reigning Defensive Player of the Year from separate award wins.
Matthew Stafford won his first league MVP last season. Garrett was the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year after setting the NFL single-season sack record with 23. They’ve never been teammates. That changes Tuesday, when Garrett is expected to report to the Rams’ facility.
What Happened in the Garrett Trade
The Associated Press confirmed the deal’s structure: Los Angeles sends Verse the 2024 AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year plus a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 third-round selection to Cleveland.
Garrett, 30, carries a contract with a total value of $204.8 million, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. Per OverTheCap, the Browns and Garrett restructured the deal in March, deferring option payments across the 2026–28 seasons after a roughly $10 million payment originally due March 28 was pushed to near the start of the regular season. That restructure unlocked the no-trade clause that Garrett had negotiated into the extension by converting due payments into deferred obligations and shifting the financial burden away from the current calendar. For full context on where Garrett’s deal ranks among the league’s largest, see “Biggest NFL Contracts: Top 10 by Total Value & AAV (2026),” which tracks every record-setting non-quarterback contract in the current market.
Browns general manager Andrew Berry addressed the decision Monday. As discussions intensified, we faced a real dilemma: do we keep 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? Berry said in a statement released by the team.
Owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam confirmed in a statement that trading Garrett “was never our intent” but framed Verse and the draft capital as assets aligned with a younger roster. Head coach Todd Monken, hired in late January, acknowledged two weeks ago he hadn’t yet had a face-to-face meeting with Garrett, a detail that illustrated exactly how far the relationship had drifted.
Another Huge Trade by Rams
Sean McVay and Les Snead don’t rebuild quietly. Monday’s trade is the latest in a decade-long pattern of aggressive moves that have kept the Rams among the NFL’s elite across all 32 franchises and it follows a spring in which Snead already acquired cornerback Trent McDuffie from Kansas City for four draft picks, including a first-rounder. The All NFL Teams: Complete Alphabetical List of 32 Teams (2026 Season) puts the Rams’ sustained run of contention in a league-wide perspective.
Snead picked up Jalen Ramsey from Jacksonville in 2019 for two first-round picks. He acquired Stafford in early 2021, giving up Jared Goff and two firsts. With the Rams in contention in November 2021, he grabbed Von Miller from Denver for a second and a third, nine sacks, and a Super Bowl ring later, that trade looked prescient. Now he’s handed over Verse and three more picks for the most dominant pass rusher in football.
Before this spring, the Rams had made just one first-round selection across nine drafts. That pick was Verse, taken 19th overall in 2024. Verst earned Defensive Rookie of the Year honors and went to the Pro Bowl in both of his seasons in Los Angeles, collecting 12 sacks, five forced fumbles, and 22 tackles for loss in 33 starts. Giving him up is a real cost. Snead made it anyway.
The NFL History Behind This Moment
Only twice before has a team entered a season with both the reigning MVP and the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, and in both instances, the same player won both awards. Alan Page of the 1971 Vikings won both the AP NFL MVP and the inaugural AP Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. Lawrence Taylor won both for the 1986 Giants. So technically the 1972 Vikings and 1987 Giants had both award winners on their rosters, but they were the same person.
The 1994 San Francisco 49ers are the only other franchise to hold both AP NFL awards with two different players. Steve Young was the league MVP. Deion Sanders won Defensive Player of the Year. That 49ers team won the Super Bowl. Sanders then left for Dallas in free agency, ending the pairing after one season.
The 2026 Rams are the first team to enter a season with both the reigning MVP quarterback and a separately awarded reigning Defensive Player of the Year on the active roster. The AP award framework has existed since 1971, which is 54 seasons of NFL history that the Rams have just rewritten. The Los Angeles Rams Unveil Sleek New Uniforms for the 2026 NFL Season, capturing how the franchise’s historic roster changes are being matched by a full identity refresh heading into the year.
What Cleveland Gets and What Comes Next
The Browns are 8-26 in the past two years. Per Pro Football Reference, Cleveland carries a .393 win percentage since 2017, the sixth-lowest in the league over that span. The Rams sit at .617, fifth-best, with seven playoff appearances and a Super Bowl title. Garrett spent nine seasons on the wrong side of that gap.
He’s the first player in NFL history with at least 12 sacks in six consecutive seasons, per Pro Football Reference, and the only player with double-digit sacks in each of the past eight years. His 125.5 career sacks are tied for 20th all-time. He demanded a trade after the 2024 season. He signed a four-year extension instead. The trade he wanted finally came.
Cleveland receives Verse plus three picks that could carry significant draft value depending on where the Rams land in 2027. The 2027 first-round pick from Los Angeles could arrive late in the round or climb higher if injuries or age catch a roster built around a 38-year-old quarterback. Berry called Verse “a young, elite player at a premium position who will only continue to improve in his third NFL season.” ” Per OverTheCap, Verse’s contract averages $2.5 million annually over the next two years, providing meaningful cap relief for a franchise managing a rebuild.
Monday’s activity wasn’t limited to Los Angeles and Cleveland. The Ravens signed Heisman Runner-Up Diego Pavia to a 3-Year UDFA Deal as Baltimore made its own roster moves on the same day the league’s attention was fixed on the Garrett trade.
The Rams’ 2026 roster now leads the league in yards passing, touchdown passes, total receptions, receiving touchdowns, and sacks. Garrett reports to Inglewood on Tuesday. The 49ers to Play Two International Games in 2026: Australia and Mexico City serves as a reminder that the NFC is reshaping itself on multiple fronts and the Rams just made the loudest move of the offseason.
Garrett finally gets his Super Bowl shot. Cleveland gets younger, picks up assets, and bets the rebuild can outlast the pain of watching him thrive somewhere else. If the Rams win it all in February, that question answers itself, and the Browns will need every one of those draft picks to recover.
