NFL Insider Tom Pelissero Talks Rams/Browns’ Myles Garrett Trade with Rich

Tom Pelissero broke down the Myles Garrett trade from an unusual newsroom: a golf cart at a charity scramble in Maple Grove, Minnesota, with a drive he was not proud of behind him. He still called in to the show to walk through the blockbuster, in between putts for the Randy Shaver Cancer Research and Community Fund.

The timeline, Pelissero said, stretched back to right after the draft. Cleveland spent the offseason insisting it would not move Garrett, but the denials never sounded as firm as a year earlier, when the Browns flatly refused to engage. No other true suitor emerged, and about 72 hours before the news broke, the framework locked in.

Cleveland's non-negotiable was the young centerpiece coming back. Once that piece was in, Pelissero said, the rest followed: a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second and a 2029 third. The 2027 first is the tell. It lands in a draft regarded as loaded at quarterback, giving a Browns team entering 2026 with Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson the ammunition to chase a passer the following year.

The Rams' motive was simpler. "They're going for it," Pelissero said. Los Angeles re-signed Matthew Stafford, traded a first for Trent McDuffie and spent in free agency, all to maximize a window with Stafford near the end of his career but close to his prime. In an NFC West that includes the Super Bowl champion Seahawks and the 49ers, he said, you need every horse you can get, and Garrett is one of the rarest difference makers in football.

Pelissero put Jared Verse's trade value in elite company. He stopped short of the two-first Micah Parsons deal, but noted Verse is the kind of young, cost-controlled pass rusher who would command a first and more on his own, citing what Brian Burns and the Max Crosby talks fetched.

The money, he explained, is the wild part. The deal became official after 4 p.m. Eastern, letting Cleveland push cap pain into 2027, with the bonus money already paid staying on the Browns' books. The Rams simply take on Garrett's roughly 31 million dollars this season. In effect, they got him for the cash they owe him.

On the other domino, Pelissero expects A.J. Brown to land with the Patriots, with a 2028 first as the centerpiece, though he allowed the Eagles could drag it toward training camp if they push for more.

Step back, he said, and the Rams' offseason is staggering: a first for McDuffie, another first on a quarterback who ideally redshirts, and now next year's first plus a young star for Garrett.

Then it was back to the course. Pelissero, who Rich joked does his best work with a very whippy pencil, took a mulligan-free wedge from 100 yards, chunked the first, and stuck the do-over on the stick.