Myles Garrett is coming to the Los Angeles Rams to do what everyone expects him to do: wreck quarterbacks. That part of the story is obvious. He owns the single-season sacks record and has spent his career piling up pressure at a rate of nearly one sack per game, so the pass rush is the headline attraction the moment he steps in.
But the Rams are not just handing him a job in the backfield and calling it a day. Garrett is replacing Jared Verse, and Verse’s value went well beyond chasing the passer.
Alongside Byron Young, he helped form one of the league’s better run-stopping edge pairings. ESPN’s edge run-stop win rate last season had Verse second at 35 percent and Young third at 32 percent.
That means Garrett’s assignment in Los Angeles is bigger than the sack totals and the splash plays. He has to keep the Rams from taking a step back against the run, too. Based on his track record, that should not be a problem.
Garrett has built his reputation on disruption, but the numbers show he brings plenty of force in run defense as well. In 2025, he posted the top PFF pass-rush grade in football at 93.3 and backed it up with the third-best run-defense grade at 82.5. He also led the league in tackles for loss in each of the last two seasons, including 33 last year, and he has finished with at least 17 TFLs every season since 2021.
The metrics don’t line up perfectly everywhere. Garrett doesn’t show up on ESPN’s Top 10 run-stop leaderboard, while Verse’s 62.0 PFF run-defense grade was well below average. Still, the broader picture is clear enough: both players have shown they can affect the game in both phases, and Los Angeles should feel secure with Garrett taking over on the edge.
That edge-setting has been a key part of the Rams’ defensive identity in recent years. Even with Byron Young becoming the first Ram with double-digit sacks since Aaron Donald in 2021, the pass rush has mostly worked as a group effort. No Rams defender has reached 15 sacks in a season since Donald’s franchise-record 20.5 in 2018.
Garrett will try to change that in 2026. The bigger question may be whether he can actually push past Donald’s franchise mark.
Either way, the Rams aren’t bringing him in to be just a pass-rush specialist. The sack totals will get the attention, the highlights will do their thing, and Chris Shula’s defense should keep rolling against the run, too. If Garrett’s history holds, the unit won’t just hold steady - it should get better.
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