The Los Angeles Rams may yet come to regret their trade for Myles Garrett.
The Athletic’s Daniel Popper listed Garrett among the “trending down” options in his article covering the “best and worst” 2026 offseason additions heading into Week 2.
“The Rams trading for Garrett was the biggest splash of the offseason. Garrett, however, looked shockingly human in the Rams’ loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Australia,” Popper wrote on September 16, noting the “injury explains a lot” about Garrett’s underwhelming Week 1 showing, adding, “Garrett was clearly not himself against the 49ers. Left tackle Trent Williams and right tackle Colton McKivitz were both very solid in one-on-one reps against Garrett.”
Popper noted Garrett’s postgame comments about not being healthy. He also noted that the reigning Defensive Player of the Year will miss the next four games. Garrett is going on injured reserve following an arthroscopic surgery on his knee to address the issue.
Popper called it a “disastrous start to Garrett’s Los Angeles chapter.”
However, the situation runs deeper for Garrett and the Rams. New details could go a long way to recontextualizing their blockbuster offseason trade.
Rams Get Bad News About Myles Garrett
“The Myles Garrett situation bears watching,” The Athletic’s Mike Sando wrote on September 14, noting the gravity of the trade and the fallout of the Rams star’s recent procedure and then adding that “delicate situations involving superstar players can test relationships between coaches, executives, doctors, trainers, the player and his representatives. In this case, those relationships are new.
“Some who played and worked with Garrett during his nine-year career in Cleveland described him as a supremely competitive game day force who does his own thing to get ready during the week. They saw the potential for tension in the way this game played out, and how Garrett spoke after the game.”
Then came the most damning part of Sano’s intel.
“When Myles said he needed to change and do whatever he needed to get himself ready, I took that as either he did not buy into what the team was doing, or there was another ailment going on,” an unnamed former Browns assistant said, per Sando. “It was probably a little bit of both.”
Garrett notably pushed back on the notion that he had learned anything new about his own body from the Rams’ training staff, saying he has never viewed it in that light.
The Rams also conveyed a message of confidence that he would be fine up until the opener.
It recently came to light that Garrett may have dealt with more significant issues than was previously made public on local radio in Cleveland. Sando’s intel from the former staffer seems to corroborate those claims.
That also raises another red flag for the Rams regarding Garrett. It is possible that Garrett built that wall between himself and the Browns’ staff over time.
However, the Rams and head coach Sean McVay must avoid a similar fate.
Sando noted that sleep experts he spoke with backed the Rams’ plans for travel in Week 1 in Australia. He also noted that their study did not account for people of Garrett’s size. For them, issues associated with long flights (namely, “fluid buildup” in their legs) can be worse.
Ex-Browns Staffer Sounds Alarm for Rams Amid ‘Disastrous’ Myles Garrett Situation