Key Points
- The Browns are trading reigning DPOY Myles Garrett to the Rams, per multiple reports June 1
- Cleveland receives edge rusher Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick and more picks still being finalized
- Closing after June 1 lets the Browns split Garrett's $41.09 million dead-cap hit across two seasons
- Garrett, who set the NFL single-season sack record with 23 in 2025, waived his no-trade clause
Cleveland is shipping the best defensive player in football to a Super Bowl contender — and timing it to the calendar.
The deal
The Browns have agreed to trade Myles Garrett — the reigning Defensive Player of the Year and a two-time winner — to the Los Angeles Rams, per reports from ESPN, CBS Sports and others on June 1. In return Cleveland gets edge rusher Jared Verse, the 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year and a two-time Pro Bowler, a 2027 first-round pick, and additional draft compensation still being finalized. Garrett waived the no-trade clause in his contract and agreed in March to a restructure that pushed his bonus payments into late summer, clearing the path for a deal.
Why the June 1 timing
The date is doing work. By completing the trade after 4 p.m. ET on June 1, the Browns can spread Garrett's $41.09 million dead-cap charge across the 2026 and 2027 seasons instead of absorbing all of it this year — the cap mechanism that turns trading a generational player from a one-season disaster into a managed rebuild. What Cleveland is giving up is not in dispute: Garrett set the NFL single-season sack record with 23 in 2025, the premier individual feat of an otherwise 3-13-1 season.
The Rams go all-in
For Los Angeles this is a win-now bet with a clock on it: the Super Bowl returns to the Rams' own SoFi Stadium on February 14, 2027, and the front office is loading up to chase it. Garrett has said the goal "was never to go from Cleveland to Canton" but to compete for and win a Super Bowl; the Rams just handed him the platform. Cleveland gets a 24-year-old building-block edge in Verse and a war chest of picks to restart around, while Los Angeles mortgages future firsts to put the league's best pass rusher next to its title window. Trading a record-setting talent in his prime is a white flag on the Browns' roster as it stands — and a declaration that the Rams' window is now.
Sources: CBS Sports, ESPN
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