The Rams had built a defense around the idea of Myles Garrett + Aaron Donald. It’s easy to see why. Garrett arrived after a 23-sack season and an NFL-record-setting campaign. Then Donald came out of retirement. For a few weeks, the Rams had the kind of defensive pairing that existed more naturally in Madden than in an actual NFL depth chart. PFF described it as one of the league’s most accomplished pass-rushing duos. The grand reveal, however, did not go as planned.

When the Rams walked into the Melbourne Cricket Ground for their season opener against the 49ers, Donald stayed home. McVay had already ruled him out, saying the decision was about doing what was best for Donald and the team. That left Garrett to carry the weight of the blockbuster offseason move himself, in front of 100,021 fans. The night ended with Los Angeles down 27-7 and Garrett without a single tackle. The reason for Garrett’s “worst version” of himself has now become a much bigger problem for the Rams. 

As per Tom Pelissero on X, “Rams star Myles Garrett will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his ailing knee and is headed to injured reserve.”
And what makes the development more concerning for Los Angeles is that the knee problem did not begin in Melbourne, but had been following Garrett through training camp already. 

The Rams had spent much of the summer managing the issue rather than ignoring it. Garrett missed most of training camp after experiencing swelling in his knee, with Sean McVay repeatedly taking the cautious route with his new defensive centerpiece. The team still believed it could get him ready for the opener, and Garrett ultimately suited up in Melbourne. But Garrett later admitted that he was not fully healthy against San Francisco. 

More revealingly, he acknowledged that his attention on the field had shifted from attacking the 49ers to protecting himself.

“I’ve got to find a way to recover and get back to the player I know I can be, and I’ve shown that I’ve been before,” Garrett said after the loss. “I wasn’t who I needed to be for my team.”

That concern showed up in the production. Garrett played 39 defensive snaps but finished without a tackle, sack or quarterback hit. It was only the fourth game of his career in which he failed to record a tackle and his first such outing since Week 11 of the 2024 season. He did generate five quarterback pressures, but against a 49ers offense that the Rams needed him to disrupt, the pressure never became the kind of game-changing play they had acquired him to produce. The matchup with Trent Williams made the problem even more visible. 

Garrett was still capable of creating pressure, but his own comments suggested that the physical calculation behind each rush had changed. He was trying to stay healthy while playing through the knee rather than attacking every rep without hesitation.

“When I was out there, I was a little bit more focused on myself and trying to stay healthy than what they were doing, and that showed,” Garrett said. “I wasn’t who I needed to be for my team.”

Now, the Rams have to deal with the version of the problem that they had been trying to avoid. Garrett will undergo arthroscopic surgery and be placed on injured reserve, meaning he will miss at least four games. If his recovery stays on schedule, the earliest he can return is Week 6 against the Arizona Cardinals.

That creates a particularly difficult stretch for Los Angeles. Garrett is set to miss games against the Giants, Broncos, Eagles and Bills, four opponents that will test a defense that was supposed to be the foundation of this roster. They had traded Jared Verse and three draft picks, including a 2027 first-rounder, to bring in the reigning Defensive Player of the Year.

The timing also matters because Garrett’s absence exposes just how much of the Rams’ defensive construction was tied to having him available. Aaron Donald was supposed to make life easier for Garrett, while Garrett’s presence would have prevented offenses from simply loading protection toward Donald. Instead, the Rams opened the season without Donald and now have Garrett heading to IR.

Michael Strahan believes the Rams’ preparation for the Australia trip may have contributed to how badly the opener unfolded, particularly with Garrett already carrying the knee issue into the game.

“This team lost by 20 points. This team, last year, lost five games by a combined 17 points. It was hard to get on the plane and fly to the West Coast and play,” Strahan said on FOX NFL Sunday. “I think Sean McVay is kicking himself for deciding to fly at the last minute.”

Strahan nevertheless pointed to Donald’s return as a potential reason for Los Angeles to avoid panicking. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year did not travel to Melbourne, but his eventual arrival gives the Rams a player capable of drawing the kind of attention that could help compensate for Garrett’s absence.

Byron Young will now have to shoulder more of the edge responsibility. He is coming off a 12-sack season, while Kobie Turner gives Los Angeles another interior pass-rushing threat after producing seven sacks and 55 pressures in 2025. Josaiah Stewart and Desjuan Johnson are also likely to see their roles increase. But replacing Garrett’s snaps is not the same as replacing Garrett’s impact.

That is especially true because the 30-year-old had been unusually durable in recent years. From 2021 through 2025, Garrett missed only two games, appearing in 83 of a possible 85. Even when his body gave him reasons to slow down, he repeatedly found ways to stay on the field. His 2024 season, for example, included foot issues and Achilles soreness that he played through before going on to produce another elite campaign.

That history makes the current situation stand out. For Rams defense the first month of the season will be about finding out whether Donald can carry enough of that defensive weight until Garrett is ready to carry it again.