It was just one game played in very unusual circumstances, but after watching Myles Garrett’s debut with his new team, the Cleveland Browns have to be feeling pretty good about the trade that sent him to the Los Angeles Rams. Garrett certainly isn’t feeling that way, as he admitted his performance against the San Francisco 49ers in Australia was one of the worst outings of his career.
After setting the NFL single-season sacks record last year, Garrett opened this campaign without a sack, a pressure, or a tackle in the Rams’ 27-7 loss. Afterward, the 30-year-old said he wasn’t 100 percent healthy, dealing with a knee injury that limited him during training camp.
Even with those caveats, which included a draining travel schedule, insider Tony Grossi is questioning why Garrett wanted to leave a Browns defensive system that was so beneficial to his career.
“Garrett looked like a fish out of water in that defensive system. The [Jim] Schwartz system, that’s what elevated him to a league record. I don’t know how Garrett didn’t question that from the moment he was traded,” Grossi said.
"Garrett looked like a fish out of water in that defensive system," – @TonyGrossi on Myles Garrett's Rams debut. pic.twitter.com/ajHO6LZITE
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) September 11, 2026
To be fair, Schwartz was gone from the Browns long before Garrett was traded, having resigned in February after he was passed over for the head coaching job that was given to Todd Monken. Garrett expressed his displeasure with that decision by sitting out all of the Browns’ offseason activities and reportedly never met Monken face-to-face.
That was likely a contributing factor to the Browns finally deciding to trade Garrett to the Rams in June, after holding on to him through the 2026 NFL Draft. There was a line of thinking that Garrett deserved better than what the Browns were able to provide around him and that such a great player deserved to compete for a Super Bowl championship before it was too late.
Now, Garrett is just another star on a team loaded with talent, rather than the unquestioned center of its universe. He is also facing much more exposure and scrutiny in Los Angeles than he ever got in Cleveland, and it remains to be seen how he responds to that.
As the two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Garrett certainly deserves a huge benefit of the doubt after one bad game, but if the downward trend continues, the discussion about the trade as it pertains to the Browns could be completely different a few weeks from now.
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