I woke up this morning wondering what in the world I was going to write about. There isn’t a whole lot of NFL news circulating right now (or at least there wasn’t when I woke up this morning), so I was struggling to come up with some ideas. That is, until the Los Angeles Rams handed me one on a silver platter by trading for arguably the best football player in the world, Myles Garrett.

That’s right, folks. If you didn’t hear, the Cleveland Browns have traded the best defensive player in the league to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for two-time Pro Bowler Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 third-round pick. That’s quite the haul, but man, it’s hard to lose a player of Garrett’s caliber.

The Rams were already 99 percent in on winning a Super Bowl before Matthew Stafford retires, but this move signals that they don’t give a damn about the future. They’re trying to win one (or two) right now.

What Does Myles Garrett Bring to the Team?

Myles Garrett is, at the worst, the best defensive player in the league. There’s an argument to be made that he’s the best player in the league, regardless of position. Whenever you have the chance to add a player like that to your team, you have to consider it, no matter the cost.

The Rams already had a terrific pass rush. Last year, they totaled 372 pressures as a team and had three players – Jared Verse, Kobie Turner and Byron Young – total 50+ pressures. Only 35 players in the league had 50+ pressures last year, and the Rams had three of them. It’s hard to get much better than that up front. The only way to do that would be to add someone like Myles Garrett. Oh wait, they did.

I’ve seen a ton of people online saying “how did Cleveland only get one first rounder in return for Garrett?” and I think that’s the dumbest question I’ve ever heard. Parting with Jared Verse was not an easy decision for LA. Verse is 25 years old (five years younger than Garrett), has three years left on his rookie contract and has finished top-six in pressures in each of his first two seasons. That is a fantastic piece to have on your roster. Any team that wanted to trade for him would’ve had to pay at least two first round picks, and likely more to get him. I don’t even think LA would’ve considered trading him if they weren’t getting Myles freaking Garrett in return.

But even though they’re losing one of the best young pass rushers in the league, they’re still getting better up front. Myles Garrett just set the single-season sack record last year with 23 while recording 84 pressures and a 24.6 percent win rate. And he did that while being double teamed almost every play.

What Garrett does is take this pass rush from great to elite. Last year, only the Houston Texans and Denver Broncos had a better pass rush than Los Angeles. Now, that’s not a guarantee. The Rams might have the best pass rush in the league in 2026. That’s what Garrett does to this defense.

LA’s Defense is Now Complete

The Rams had one of the best offenses in the league last year and didn’t lose many pieces this offseason. Offense wasn’t going to be the reason they miss out on the Super Bowl again, it was going to be their defense.

This offseason, the Rams have put a major focus on upgrading their already pretty strong defense, particularly in the secondary. After they lost the NFC Championship game, if you had to point at any one area on their team and say it was a weak point, it would’ve been the cornerback room. So what did they do? They traded a first rounder for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie and then spent big money signing the best free agent corner available in Jaylen Watson.

After those two moves, I already thought the Rams had the most complete roster in the league, but now they add the best pass rusher we’ve seen in a long, long time. The rich just keep getting richer.

Trading for Myles Garrett doesn’t necessarily complete their defense. It was already pretty complete with Jared Verse lining up off the edge. But this is the type of move you can afford to make when you have literally no holes on your roster. You can give up a top-five defensive asset in the NFL plus a bunch of draft capital to add the best defensive player in the league.

The Rams have ballers on all three levels of their defense. Their pass rush is elite, their secondary is going to be well above average, and while their linebacking core doesn’t have a ton of household names, Omar Speights and Nate Landman are two very solid players.

The Rams identified the defensive side of the ball as their glaring weakness this offseason, and they were ultra aggressive in adding superstars to that side of the ball.

How Does This Trade Effect the Ty Simpson Pick?

While the Rams have nailed free agency and their two trades, they made one of the biggest head scratching decisions on draft night by selecting Ty Simpson with their first round pick. There are two very different ways to look at this pick, and it’s impossible to tell which one is right.

Let’s look at it with a glass half full. The Rams have reportedly stressed that, if they didn’t pick Simpson in the first round, this trade would not have happened. Because they feel like they have their quarterback of the future in the building, they felt comfortable trading future assets for a player like Garrett, who will be able to help them out long after Matthew Stafford retires.

If Simpson is an average quarterback in the NFL, the Rams have extended their Super Bowl window by another 5+ years. They’d have a ton of young talent, the best defensive player in the league and arguably the best receiver in the league. That’s how Sam Darnold won a Super Bowl last year, but the Rams are really betting on a guy with under 15 college starts to become a franchise quarterback.

The other way to look at it is glass half empty. If the Rams are truly all in on winning at least one Super Bowl before Stafford retires (which is what all these trades and signings have signaled), why not use their top-15 pick on a player that would help them right now? If they had Makai Lemon in the slot alongside Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, they would have a case for being the best offense and defense in the NFL right now. Now, they’re one wide receiver injury away from it all falling apart.

I understand the idea of extending your Super Bowl window 5+ years is very attractive, but you haven’t even won one in this window yet (I know they won in 2021-2022, but they’ve gone through a whole new roster basically since then). Why not worry about winning one (or two) while you know the window is open instead of trying to extend it?

You need a quarterback to win a Super Bowl, I get it. I also get that the Rams don’t believe they’ll have a good enough pick to find their quarterback of the future any time soon. All of that makes sense. But I, and many others, are not convinced Ty Simpson will be a good NFL quarterback. If I’m the Rams, I’d rather try and sign a veteran or trade for a promising quarterback in a couple of years rather than spend a premium pick on a backup quarterback when I’m the Super Bowl favorites.

It’s a hot topic, and I understand both sides, but can you imagine this roster with a weapon like Lemon or even Kenyon Sadiq? Might as well hand them the Lombardi today.

There is No Reason the Rams Shouldn’t Win it All

I was on record as saying the Rams have the best roster in the league and should be the overwhelming favorites to win the Super Bowl before they traded for Myles Garrett. Now that they’ve added the best defensive player in the league, I’m doubling down on that statement.

The only thing that should be able to stop the Rams from winning the Super Bowl is themselves or injuries. If they catch a bad case of the injury bug, there’s nothing they can do about that. But if they’re mostly healthy come playoff time, there is absolutely no reason they shouldn’t win it all.

Offensively, they have a top-three quarterback in the league, two elite receivers, an above average running back and a really solid offensive line. Add in one of the best play callers in the league, and you have a pretty elite offense.

Defensively, they had a hole in the secondary and plugged it with an All-Pro cornerback and the best corner in free agency. And then they went out and added the best defensive player in the league. If that’s not enough to “fix” what was wrong with their defense (which wasn’t much), they have bigger problems.

I’m planting my flag. As long as the Rams don’t catch the injury bug, they are going to win the Super Bowl. And it might not be much of a competition.