How the Rams’ Myles Garrett Trade Will Motivate Other NFL Teams & Players

The way a sports story marinates is half the fun, and Rich walked through the stages with the Myles Garrett trade to the Rams. First comes the shock. Everyone was watching for an A.J. Brown trade that day, and instead Garrett got dealt to Los Angeles on June 1st for Jared Goff and three draft choices spread across three seasons and three different rounds. Nobody saw it coming.

Then comes the ripple. Garrett landing with the Rams was big enough that it surfaced as an overreaction Monday topic, the idea being that his arrival could lure Aaron Donald back out of retirement. Donald, who put a ring on his own finger with a sack of Joe Burrow and helped win one for Cooper Kupp in a game where Kupp was Super Bowl MVP, supposedly had no desire to keep playing. Then the reaction from the media took over. Suddenly the Rams are clearly the best team in the NFL and should win the Super Bowl, and that all goes into what Rich called the sports media meat grinder.

The quotes pile on from there. Cooper Kupp came on the program and joked that he had already texted Donald to tell him he was not allowed to come back, that he was staying home. Terron Armstead came on and said the Rams could go 17 and 0, then landed on 16 and 1 in the win-loss game because he figured they would rest starters in week 18. The subtext underneath all of it, Rich said, is good luck to the defending champs and everyone else trying to beat the Rams.

Here is where it gets fun, because the NFL is full of prideful men who do not want to hear that narrative. Dan Campbell got asked in Detroit what he made of the acquisition, and his answer was a sarcastic "good for them, they've won it now, right." As Rich put it, the subtext of the question is that you are asking because you think the coach will admit the Rams are now better than his Lions. That is exactly why Campbell shrugged it off.

Then there is Mack Wilson Sr., a 2019 fifth round pick now in Arizona, who resides in the same division the Rams occupy. Asked how he felt about Garrett, Wilson said, "They got to deal with us. At the end of the day, they got to deal with us." Rich loved it and wondered aloud whether the Rams tape department might clip that one before the week six Cardinals at Rams game on October 18th. You cannot blame him, though. What is he supposed to say when the question itself carries the implication that his team has no shot?

Rich admitted he does the same thing. He set George Kittle up by asking about his comeback, telling him it was too bad his season was over, and Kittle just stared off into space knowing exactly where Rich was going. Any time you ask a player not on the Rams about this, the question is loaded with "you've got no shot, so what's your reaction to that?"

Rich walked through the Rams schedule, the trip to Melbourne, a Monday night meeting with Jackson Dart, then Denver, Philly, the Bills on Monday night, and a potential 5 and 0 start walking into Wilson's SoFi welcome while the Cardinals sit at 3 and 2. If that zooming start happens, every opponent will be answering the same question. It is already happening, and Rich cannot wait to watch it play out.