Rich: Myles Garrett Trade Is Further Proof That Rams GM Les Snead “Is a Very Bad Man”

Rich has a new favorite way to describe the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams. Les Snead, he announced on the show, is "a very bad man." It is the highest compliment he knows how to give.

The trigger was a detail Albert Breer dropped earlier in the day. The Rams did not just start calling the Cleveland Browns about Myles Garrett this spring. According to Breer, their first call came at the trade deadline in 2022.

"Four years ago," Rich repeated, letting it sink in. "They started asking about is Garrett available."

That, to Rich, changes how the whole deal should be read in Los Angeles. He wants people to understand exactly who is sitting in the general manager's chair.

"When we talk about Howie Roseman, we talk about John Schneider, we talk about other general managers in this league," Rich said. "Les Snead is a very bad man. Because he's been hunting this whale."

The timing of that first call is what really got him. The 2022 deadline came right after the Rams had won the Super Bowl, with Aaron Donald pointing to his ring finger and a fresh trophy in the case. Rather than coast, Snead was already asking about Garrett. Rich noted he was checking in on A.J. Brown around the same time, and that landing Garrett back then would have meant looking Davante Adams in the eye and telling him, "Thank you for your service. But we're sending you somewhere else."

Rich drew a line between the two faces of the organization. Sean McVay is the one "calling up players and sitting down with Verse and making sure this guy's good." Snead loves his players too, Rich said, but "he is generally managing what is best for the franchise. And he is going for it. And he is nailing it."

Then Rich connected it to the draft. When the Rams took a player 13th overall whom a lot of people did not have a first-round grade on, the question everywhere was why they passed on Reuben Bain, a pass rusher who could help Matthew Stafford win another trophy in what could be his last year. Rich imagined Snead's answer: the Rams liked the kid as the next quarterback, and they would rather grab him now than wait for a draft where they would be picking too low to land one.

"You don't like the fact that I left Reuben Bain on the board? How does Myles Garrett sound to you?" Rich said, still in Snead's voice. "At age 30 where he's making $30 million a year this year."

There was one more layer, and it came from another piece of Breer's reporting. Rich pointed to how Roseman works the draft in Philadelphia, collecting third-round picks when players like Jaelan Phillips and Milton Williams walk and moving them around the board. Draft capital is how teams answer each other.

Which is exactly why the date matters. "Do you know who doesn't have the draft now to react to Myles Garrett showing up in the division? John Schneider, John Lynch. They do not," Rich said. "How do you counter what the Rams just did on June 2nd? You don't."

The result, as Rich laid it out, is a team that added an elite pass rusher after its rivals lost their best chance to counterpunch, while keeping a young quarterback in its back pocket and letting Stafford stay as long as he wants.

"There's dimensions of chess," he said. "Off the charts."

Someone in the studio had a simpler summary: cold Batman, sitting up there in Thousand Oaks.