Myles Garrett blockbuster shows Rams going for it again

Published 9:01 pm Monday, June 1, 2026

Five years after going all in to win a Super Bowl, the Los Angeles Rams are dusting off the same playbook, unabashedly living in the moment and worrying about the consequences later.

You might say they’re living on the edge.

Given the way things have played out during the Sean McVay era, why wouldn’t they?

It’s a bold strategy, underscored by Monday’s blockbuster trade for edge rusher Myles Garrett, the NFL’s reigning defensive player of the year. The last time the Rams went for it like this, confetti fell in their own house: L.A. defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.

The Super Bowl returns to SoFi Stadium in February. If McVay and the organization’s other powerbrokers have their way, the Rams will, too.

Any time an NFL team sacrifices future draft picks and finesses its salary cap to create the likelihood of “dead money” down the road, legions of naysayers rail against the strategy. They’re convinced that the team in question — typically, the one with a blue and yellow helmet — will pay for its recklessness and ultimately crash and burn, leading to years of dismal futility and regret.

Forgive the Rams if they’re not trembling with fear. They already have proof of concept. In the wake of their most recent hoisting of the Lombardi Trophy, they showed the football world that they could rebuild on the fly and get right back into contention.

When you trust your front office (headed by general manager Les Snead) to draft impact players in later rounds and you trust your coaches to teach and develop said players, it’s a game plan that makes perfect sense.

Welcome to “F Them Picks” 2.0.

Even before Monday’s massive move, the Rams were getting after it. After a narrow defeat to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game last January, McVay and Snead approached the 2026 season with the urgency of Sinatra before the impending cataclysmic event in “Paradise.”

So far this offseason, the Rams have locked up 38-year-old quarterback Matthew Stafford, who is coming off an MVP season; traded a 2026 first-round draft pick to the Kansas City Chiefs for two-time All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie; and signed another ex-Chiefs corner, Jaylen Watson, to a three-year, $51 million deal in free agency.

They also tried to trade for the Eagles’ star wide receiver, A.J. Brown, but couldn’t complete the deal.

Other than that, the Rams weren’t really that aggressive.

For what it’s worth, L.A. also pulled off the biggest surprise of the draft, using the 13th pick — acquired in a deft 2025 draft-night trade with the Atlanta Falcons— to secure its presumptive quarterback of the future, Ty Simpson.

Don’t be fooled, though: The Rams are very much staying in the present.

That’s even clearer after their trade for the 30-year-old Garrett, who had 23 sacks in 2025 to break the NFL’s single-season record. To get him, L.A. had to give up 25-year-old edge rusher Jared Verse and three draft picks, including next year’s first-rounder.

If things play out the way McVay and Snead envision, that first-round pick will end up being the 32nd and final pick of next spring’s first round.

On paper, the Rams look like the NFL’s best team. That said, a lot of things can happen to derail a presumptive championship run — beginning with injuries —and crowning them in June would be irresponsibly premature.

The thing is, even if this all blows up and the Rams don’t win it all, their strategy is totally defensible.

Let’s look at the way things played out last time. After parting with premium picks and plenty of cash to load up their roster with elite players like cornerback Jalen Ramsey, edge rusher Von Miller, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and Stafford, L.A. got the ultimate prize.

As the skeptics predicted, they quickly imploded; amid injuries to stars such as Stafford, wide receiver Cooper Kupp and defensive tackle Aaron Donald, the Rams went 5-12 in the season after their Super Bowl win, and McVay thought about stepping away to take a job in television.

McVay stayed, however, and the Rams, after a fairly dramatic roster turnover, got back to the postseason in 2023 … and 2024 … and 2025. They found a new crop of standouts via the draft, including: running back Kyren Williams (fifth round, 2022); pass rusher Byron Young (third round, 2023); defensive tackle Kobie Turner (third round, 2023); first-team All-Pro wide receiver Puka Nacua (fifth round, 2023); Verse (first round, 2024) and defensive tackle Braden Fiske (second round, 2024). And L.A. made some smart free-agent signings, too: wide receiver Davante Adams, linebacker Nate Landman and safety Kam Curl.

Yes, the Rams had to do some creative salary-cap juggling. Cap alarmists were aghast, but they shouldn’t have been. The cap rises every year, and there are plenty of accounting tricks to help delay or mitigate the consequences of shedding bloated contracts.

Yell about “dead money” all you like, but to people in good organizations, it just sounds like a bunch of whining.

Let’s ask the Denver Broncos, who, two years removed from the disastrous Russell Wilson trade and contract extension, cut the quarterback after the 2023 season and incurred $85 million in dead money. In 2024, with $53 million of that total counting against the cap (gasp!), they reached the playoffs for the first time in nine years.

Last season, Sean Payton guided the Broncos to the AFC’s No. 1 seed and reached the AFC Championship Game.

If you have a coach as smart and skilled as one of the Seans, you don’t run scared. And if you have a front office that finds first-team All-Pros in the fifth round, you take your chances on the next impending rebuild — and take some big swings while your star quarterback is in his late 30s.

On Monday, the Rams went out and raked like Shohei Ohtani with the tying run on first. L.A. landed a two-time NFL defensive player of the year who strikes fear into the hearts of opposing offensive players and play callers.

Conversely, McVay and Snead have no fear.

Why should they?