Rams Could Have Early Case of Buyer's Remorse After Myles Garrett Injury

The Los Angeles Rams have been no strangers to taking risks throughout the Les Snead and Sean McVay era. They have been known for making big trades and moves that other teams are hesitant to make.For the most part, they’ve benefited because they’ve been willing to take those risks.

Without trading for Matthew Stafford, the Rams don’t win the Super Bowl in 2021. The Rams may have traded draft capital for only half a season of Von Miller, but that move paid off in the postseason. Jalen Ramsey was a crucial piece in the Rams' secondary as he was the ultimate chess piece.

This is a front office that has always looked at how the risk can benefit the team rather than running away from the negative outcome. For the most part, that mindset has paid off. Not many would want the Rams to take a different approach.

Rams Have Never Been Afraid of Taking Risks

Earlier this offseason, the Baltimore Ravens traded their 14th overall pick and first-round pick next year for Maxx Crosby from the Las Vegas Raiders. While the trade package was all agreed to, it eventually fell through after Crosby completed his physical in Baltimore due to some concerns in his left knee.

Three months later, the Rams traded for edge rusher Myles Garrett. Before playing a single snap, the Rams had to manage knee swelling in Garrett’s knee and hold him out of practice. While McVay was adamant that the Rams were simply erring on the side of caution, there was always the chance that Garrett’s injury was something more. That appears to have been the case, as Garrett was placed on injured reserve on Sunday and is set to undergo arthroscopic surgery.

Rams standout Myles Garrett will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his knee and will be placed on injured reserve sidelining him a minimum of four games, as @TomPelissero reported.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 13, 2026

It makes sense that the Rams and Garrett would want to avoid surgery. However, this seems like a posisbility that should have been known a month ago. Given Garrett didn't participate throughout much of training camp, could the team have come to the conclusion that he knee wasn't responding like it should have before he was forced to miss a month of the season.

This is a team that has downplayed injuries in the past. The Rams were never fully transparent about Todd Gurley’s knee injury in 2018. When Matthew Stafford was managing elbow soreness in 2022, the Rams downplayed that situation as well as his back injury last offseason.

Myles Garrett's Knee Issues Raise More Questions

It’s fair to wonder how much the Cleveland Browns potentially knew about Garrett’s knee, despite him winning the Defensive Player of the Year in 2025. Garrett participated in the final days of OTAs, but he first experienced knee soreness heading into the second week of training camp. Ever since then, Garrett has been in and out of practice. He hadn’t participated in consecutive days of practice since the beginning of training camp until the lead-up to Week 1.

Following the game, it’s worth wondering if Garrett should have been active at all. Garrett immediately noted that he had been feeling pain and didn’t feel like himself. That raises questions about whether the Rams did enough due diligence when it came to Garrett or maybe they did and simply didn’t care, considering the type of player he’d been throughout his career.

If the Rams were to get the opportunity to make the trade again, they likely would 10 times out of 10. While the injury is especially concerning given the Rams had to give up a promising young pass rusher in Jared Verse, it’s the risk they took. While the Ravens may have backed out of the Crosby trade in March, the Rams saw the Garrett trade through.

Maxx Crosby will play today for the #Raiders, ending a rollercoaster offseason. And that's because after the nixed #Ravens trade, Crosby told interested teams -- including the #Rams -- he did not want to be traded.

Story: https://t.co/LujBrWsByB https://t.co/LujBrWsByB
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 13, 2026

Rams Still Have Time for Myles Garrett Gamble to Pay Off

This isn’t to call the Garrett trade a failure. The Rams will hope that it’s simply a bump in the road and that they get Garrett back healthy once he returns from injured reserve following his surgery. Still, that doesn’t make anything that has happened leading up to this point less concerning.

The Rams have never been afraid of taking the big swing that other teams are unwilling to make.They weren’t going to pass on the chance of trading for Garrett because of what might go wrong. Other big swings that the front office has made came with risks as well. However, without those swings, the Rams likely don’t experience some of the successes of the McVay era. Taking risks also means occasionally experiencing the downside. These are the things you simply can't predict.

This isn’t how the Rams wanted the Myles Garrett era to start by any means. However, it’s where things currently stand. The Rams will hope that when Garrett returns to action, he’s still the player they believed he was when they traded for him.

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