MYLES GARRETT TRADE FREEZES BYRON YOUNG'S $145M

The Rams traded for the best defensive player alive on Monday, and the first person who should be nervous plays the same position. Los Angeles acquired Myles Garrett from Cleveland on June 1, 2026, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, and lined him up next to Byron Young on the same defense. That is the headline. The fine print is where Young lives now. Here is the take. Garrett makes the Rams a Super Bowl defense. He also just froze Byron Young's payday, and the freeze might cost Young more than the trade cost Los Angeles. ## $160 Million and a First Round Pick The Rams gave up real assets. Per ESPN's Adam Schefter and NFL Network, Los Angeles sent EDGE Jared Verse, the 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year, plus multiple draft picks including a first round selection, to Cleveland for Garrett. Garrett stays on the $160 million extension, four years, that he signed with the Browns last offseason, so the Rams inherit the contract instead of opening a new negotiation. That is the price of the reigning DPOY: your best young pass rusher, your first round pick, and one of the largest cap hits in football. The Rams looked at that bill and signed for it without flinching. This front office traded picks for Matthew Stafford and won a ring doing it. The mantra has not changed, and it is the same all in posture running through [the league's other title chasers this spring](/quick/wembanyama-spurs-thunder-western-conference-finals-2026-m8k3r7nx). ## Byron Young Was Next in Line for $145 Million Byron Young was supposed to be the one getting paid this summer. ESPN's Dan Graziano projected back in January that the former Tennessee EDGE would land a $145 million extension over four years, with $72 million guaranteed. Young earned the projection. He has 27.5 sacks in three NFL seasons, including 12 last year, and he enters his fourth season still on his rookie deal. Then the math changed. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that Los Angeles is "giving early impressions it won't extend 2027 FAs Puka Nacua, Byron Young, Kobie Turner, Steve Avila this summer." Garrett's $160 million does not leave room for a $145 million running mate at the same position, not this offseason. The trade did not just add a star. It moved Young to the back of the line. ## Garrett Draws the Double Team. Young Gets the One on One. On the field, this is the best thing that has ever happened to Byron Young. An offense cannot double Myles Garrett and Byron Young on the same snap, and it will always choose to double Garrett. That leaves Young against backup tackles and clean rushing lanes he has never seen at this volume. Aaron Donald did this for every Rams edge rusher who lined up beside him. The interior wrecked the protection and the outside numbers climbed. If Young posted 12 sacks while offenses planned for him, he could flirt with 15 or 16 while they account for Garrett. A contract year with that kind of help is the best possible audition. ## A Contract Year Is Leverage, and It Just Flipped Here is the cold part. A contract year helps the team, not the player. Young now has to produce at a career best level just to get back to the number he was already projected for, and he has to do it while absorbing every snap of injury risk that comes with playing defensive end. One torn ACL in October and the $145 million projection becomes a single season audition next spring. The counter is fair. Young could bet on himself, post 16 sacks next to Garrett, and price himself even higher in 2027 free agency when the cap jumps again. That has happened before. But leverage is about who can walk away, and right now the Rams can and Young cannot. Money is leverage in every sport; ask the Real Madrid players who just learned that [a 500,000 euro fine is a power move, not an accounting line](/quick/real-madrid-valverde-tchouameni-fined-500000-disciplinary-clasico-2026-p4k9m3nr). ## SoFi Stadium, February 2027 None of this is an accident. Super Bowl LXI is at SoFi Stadium in February 2027, and the Rams built this roster to be the home team in that building when it matters. Trading Verse and a first for Garrett is the move of a franchise that has decided the title window is now. For Byron Young, the prediction is simple. He will have the best statistical season of his career, and he will play it underpaid relative to what he is worth. If the Rams win in their own building in February, he will not care. If they do not, the $145 million he did not get this summer becomes the most expensive double team in football.