Los Angeles handed the Cleveland Browns defensive end Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-rounder, a 2029 third-rounder, and a restructured five-year, $208.2 million contract for Myles Garrett, and through two months of the 2026 season they got zero tackles, zero sacks, and 39 snaps in Australia out of it.
Now the reigning Defensive Player of the Year is off injured reserve for Sunday’s 1 p.m. ET kickoff against the Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium. Coach Sean McVay told reporters Friday that Garrett carries no injury designation and will play barring any setbacks. Everybody around the league wants to treat this activation like a warm medical update for a 4-4 team sitting third in the NFC West.
I look at this roster and see a superteam out of excuses. When you mortgage three years of premium draft capital and ship out a cornerstone pass rusher to pair a 23-sack single-season record holder with a freshly unretired Aaron Donald, hovering at .500 in November is an indictment. Garrett and Donald have combined for 236.5 career sacks, yet Garrett has been on injured reserve and Donald sat out the opener while Byron Young leads the club with 4.5 sacks.
“Glad to be back on the field with my teammates,” Garrett said Friday, per NFL.com. “Making an impact, feeling their presence and just integrating back with them again.”
Integrating back is polite locker-room talk for saving a pass rush that has spent two months doing cardio. My issue with the patience surrounding Los Angeles comes down to the weirdest statistical disconnect in football right now.
A 41 Percent Pressure Rate Without Finishing Is Empty Calories
The Rams rank third in the entire NFL in quarterback pressure percentage at 41.0 percent, yet they sit tied for 26th in the league with a pathetic 12 sacks through eight games. How does a defense live in the backfield on four out of every ten dropbacks and still let the quarterback escape intact almost every single time?
Without Garrett bending the edge at 6-foot-4 and 272 pounds, offenses have been able to slide their protection toward Donald on the interior while leaving tackles on islands they can actually survive. Quarterbacks see the interior push, climb or bail out of the pocket through clean edge lanes, and throw the ball away before anyone can close. Even Donald is still hunting for his first sack of the season after unretiring late and missing the opener in Australia.
“I think the offenses really have to pick their poison,” Garrett told ESPN ahead of his first snap alongside Donald. “Who’s going to be freed up this play? And I think either of us are pretty good at winning one-on-one, so we’ll have some fun.”
Garrett is right about the math, and that is exactly why the grace period ends at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday. An offensive coordinator cannot chip Garrett with a tight end AND slide the center-guard combo to Donald without leaving three receivers to run into a five-man coverage shell. One of those two Hall of Fame talents is getting a true one-on-one block on every passing down in Landover. If a 30-year-old pass rusher with 125.5 career sacks and six straight 12-sack seasons is healthy enough to clear the injury report after arthroscopic left knee surgery in mid-September, he turns those 41.0 percent pressures into drive-killing turf meetings immediately.
The Injury Shield Dies the Second Garrett Steps on the Grass
The front office apologists in Los Angeles have a ready-made defense for why this preseason juggernaut is stuck at 4-4: the injury report looks like a hospital ward. That argument holds some water when you read the names on the shelf, because wideout Davante Adams and defensive tackles Kobie Turner and Poona Ford are all on injured reserve, Puka Nacua has already missed two games, and cornerback Jaylen Watson landed on IR on Saturday with a season-ending shoulder injury.
Here is why I refuse to give the Rams a pass on the health card anymore. Despite all those missing bodies, Los Angeles still ranks top five in the league in both offensive and defensive yardage, sitting fifth in yards allowed at roughly 301.1 per game, 10th in points scored, and 12th in points allowed. This roster has been moving the ball and limiting yardage all autumn… they have just lacked the knockout punch on third down to put opponents away.
“I’ve got a good team around me, got a great family, blessed to be in a great place with great weather, so I’m happy to be back and make the most of my time off and the rest of the time I got,” Garrett said, via the team’s official site.
Enjoy the sunshine, because the bill for June 1 is due right now. Losing Watson for the year removes one of the prized offseason secondary additions alongside Trent McDuffie, which means the back end cannot hold coverage for four seconds waiting on coverage sacks anymore. My expectation for a $208.2 million defensive weapon returning against a struggling Washington squad is total, immediate carnage.
If Garrett and Donald play four quarters together on Sunday and the Rams still walk out of Maryland with fewer than four sacks against a sub-.500 Commanders team, every executive who signed off on sending Jared Verse and three draft picks to Cleveland deserves to have their office keys confiscated at the airport.
