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

Browns fans who wanted a pile of first-round picks for Myles Garrett have a case. Rich just does not think it is a very good one.

"The Browns I think did very well here," Rich said on the show, and his argument starts with the player Cleveland got back rather than the picks it did not.

"You're going to really love Jared Verse," he told Browns fans. "He is a spectacular young player who is very prideful and will not at all sit here and genuflect in the direction of Myles Garrett."

Rich leaned on a story Sean McVay has told about Verse as a rookie. He showed up going so fast, yelling at everybody and "giving everybody the business," that McVay had to tell him to tone it down. That is the temperament Cleveland is getting, and Verse, born in Dayton, is an Ohio guy to boot.

"It's not like you didn't get anybody in return," Rich said.

The picks matter too. The Browns now hold two first-rounders in next year's draft. Rich conceded one of them might land at 32, but the pair gives Andrew Berry the ammunition to package for a quarterback if Cleveland decides it has not found one yet.

That is the real open question in Rich's view. He noted most people in Cleveland do not think Deshaun Watson is worth even a start this year, and he pushed back on that. "Deshaun Watson used to be Deshaun Watson," he said, and if Watson proves he still is, it will help the Browns. If Shedeur Sanders is the real thing, Rich expects him to get his shot this year as well.

Either way, the season becomes an audition. The quarterbacks on the roster get the chance to prove the draft arsenal Berry built for next year does not need to go toward a first-round quarterback. Rich was complimentary of the rest of Berry's draft work, calling the players he has added "really good," with one caveat.

"I just hope that Todd Monken's the real deal," Rich said. "To put it all together."

On Garrett himself, Rich was careful with his tenses. When he says Garrett "was" a tremendous pass rusher for Cleveland, he means only that Garrett is no longer a Brown. "Has nothing to do with his abilities right now," he said. But on the Browns, Rich argued, Garrett was "just going to ruin your draft status."

So when the Rams offer a first, other draft considerations and Jared Verse, the answer is simple. "You got to be like, 'Okay,'" Rich said. "That's better than not getting somebody like Jared Verse and more draft choices, wouldn't you think?"

For Browns fans still lamenting the deal, Rich called it a reading of the writing on the wall, a franchise choosing a direction without Myles Garrett. It is a direction he expected Cleveland to pick two years ago.