Myles Garrett trade is simply the latest chapter in a decade-long Rams tradition
Since the Rams moved back to Los Angeles ahead of the 2016 season, no other team has disrespected their first-round picks quite like them.
Since 2016, the Rams have taken just three first-round picks while trading all of the rest of them. Those three were Jared Goff in 2016, Jared Verse in 2024 and Ty Simpson this past draft. As of Monday, only Ty Simpson is left on the team.
According to multiple media reports, the Los Angeles Rams traded Jared Verse in a deal that includes the Rams' 2027 1st round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick for (now former) Cleveland Browns star Myles Garrett.
Despite Verse's youth, superstar potential, and, perhaps most importantly, his rookie contract structure, the move is an obvious upgrade for the Rams, who go from a player in Verse who has had 12 total sacks over his two-season career to a player in Garrett who set the NFL record for sacks last season with 23.
Garrett's dominant season wasn't an anomaly either.
According to ESPN Research, since being drafted in 2017, Garrett is 1st in sacks, pressures, and tackles for loss. He is second in QB hits and third in forced fumbles. On the other side of the trade, while Jared Verse has definitely shown promise, as his 2024 NFL AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, 2024 All-Rookie Team, and 2025 NFL Top 100 ranking (53) demonstrate, he hasn't had nearly the production that Garrett has.
Throwing out career comparisons and focusing on just this season, Myles Garrett recorded 39 QB hits to go with his 23 sacks. Jared Verse had 27 QB hits to go with 7.5 sacks in 2025, according to Pro Football Reference.
Again, Verse is no slouch; his QB hits were good enough to rank 8th in the league. But Garrett ranked second. So the Rams undoubtedly got better, but the question is at what cost?
Rams history of trading first-round draft picks
The Los Angeles Rams have a long history of not placing a lot of value on their first-round picks, other than to use them as trade bait for an already established player.
The Rams traded up with Tennessee, using their 2017 first-rounder, to get the number 1 overall pick to select Jared Goff in 2016. In 2018, they traded their first-round pick for Brandin Cooks. After that, they traded their 2019 first-rounder to Atlanta to pick up more draft picks later in the draft.
After that, General Manager Les Snead started really getting trigger-happy.
The Rams traded their 2020 and 2021 first-rounders to Jacksonville for Jalen Ramsey, then turned around and traded their 2022 and 2023 first-rounders to Detroit for Matthew Stafford in a package that included their own former first-rounder, Jared Goff.
They kept their pick, number 19, in 2024 to take Jared Verse out of Florida State, then repeated their 2019 swap with Atlanta, except this time they traded their 2025 first-rounder for Atlanta's 2026 first-rounder.
They used their own first-rounder to trade for Trent McDuffie and used Atlanta's pick to take Ty Simpson in April's draft.
The strategy is not without its detractors, after all, they are trading away cheaper rookie contracts for more expensive veteran ones, but the tradeoff seems to work for the team, as they have made two Super Bowl appearances since 2016 and even won the Lombardi Trophy at Super Bowl LVI in 2022.
Which is why their 2026 first-round pick, Ty Simpson, is such a mystery.
For a decade, the team has traded the future for the present, letting go of picks and young talent to get the established veterans they coveted. But for some reason, they used their first-round pick this year on a player they don't expect to start for at least two more seasons.
Everything about the team is win now, except for this one glaring outlier.
At first, you might have argued that the team was turning over a new leaf and looking to build for the future after Matthew Stafford. But then they go and ship one of their best young players out to Cleveland. The Ty Simpson pick didn't make much sense at the time and makes even less sense now.
Granted, it could make a ton of sense in three years if the Rams win another Super Bowl, Matthew Stafford rides off into the retirementsunset, and hands the reins over to a guy who plays like a first-round pick.
But right now, with the team in a perpetual win-now mode, using an asset as valuable as a first-round pick on Ty Simpson seems foolish. They could've used the pick to trade for Myles Garrett ahead of this year's draft instead of trading a future one.
But it may not matter in the long run anyway. The Rams have positioned themselves as the team to beat not just in the NFC West or in the NFC, but the entire league. And they've done it without utilizing any of their own first-round picks for anything other than trade bait. Absolutely remarkable.
Related: Browns Finalizing Blockbuster Trade Involving Myles Garrett
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This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 3:07 PM.