Rich: the Cleveland Browns Did “Very Well” in Their Myles Garrett to the Rams Trade Haul

The Myles Garrett trade did not blindside the show. The breadcrumbs had been on the ground for months, and Chris Brockman had been collecting them.

Back in the spring, the Browns pushed a form of payment to Garrett deeper into the summer, and plenty of people read it as a sign he might not be around much longer, the kind of move that precedes a Micah Parsons-style divorce between a generational pass rusher and the team that drafted him. Cleveland called it procedural. Brockman was not buying it. On March 30th, he planted his flag: he did not care what the Browns were saying, the show was on Myles Garrett trade watch.

The next clue came May 21st. The Browns were out at practice, and Garrett was not. Head coach Todd Monken admitted he had not even spoken to Garrett face to face, which set off a run of jokes about which Garrett he meant, before landing on the obvious one, the future first-ballot Hall of Famer and heartbeat of the defense.

Then came the day itself, and Rich's phone would not stop. The deal was happening, and it broke while the Browns were hosting a golf tournament, leaving their decision-makers to field questions between holes. Monken, asked whether he had been promised Garrett when he took the job, did not flinch. "I was never assured of anything when I took the job," he said, other than what his contract spelled out. The job is to coach whoever is in the building.

General manager Andrew Berry was careful but candid. "Nothing is final at this point," Berry said, confirming the team was in discussions on a potential transaction involving Garrett and hoping to close something within hours.

Rich offered a reason for the slow drip. He heard the Browns wanted to get through their golf tournament without the news swallowing the day, and the Rams wanted to reach Jared Verse to tell him personally before it leaked. Hence the cat-and-mouse on the fairway.

The history nagged at Rich. Garrett had stood at the Super Bowl a couple of years ago and said he no longer wanted to play for Cleveland, and the Browns did not move him then. They paid him instead, a market-setting 40 million dollars at the time. Rich thought that was the moment to trade him. The catch now is the no-trade clause Garrett signed into that deal, which meant this move required his blessing. He gave it gladly, headed somewhere he can finally chase the ring he asked for.

Which brings Rich to his actual verdict: the Browns did very well. Fans wanted multiple first-round picks, and to them Rich has a simple message. They are going to love Jared Verse. He is a spectacular, prideful young player who runs so hot that Sean McVay once had to tell him to tone it down as a rookie, when he was flying around and yelling at everybody. He was also born in Dayton, an Ohio kid coming home.

The math works, too. Cleveland now holds two first-rounders in next year's draft, even if one lands near 32, ammunition to package for a quarterback if Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson do not pan out. Rich would not bury Watson, who he thinks wants to prove he is still himself, and expects Sanders to get a real look. Keeping Garrett at 30, 31, 32, by contrast, would only have bought a first-round slot tumble and a shallow playoff run.

Rich does not pretend it will be painless. Garrett could go win a title in the house of the Rams and point to his ring finger the way Aaron Donald once did. Rich also repeated his favorite line about the new pairing: Garrett is the only player the Rams could have acquired who could make Aaron Donald look in the mirror and ask, "Do I look fat?"