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The Los Angeles Rams' third-down defense was already elite last year. Adding Myles Garrett gives it a closer.
Los Angeles acquired Garrett from the Cleveland Browns in a blockbuster June trade, sending Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick for the two-time Defensive Player of the Year. It's the kind of move a team makes when it believes it's a piece away — and for the Rams' defense, that piece may be about closing out drives, not just getting to them.
Los Angeles was already excellent at creating long third downs last season, thanks to a first-down run defense that flipped from one of the league's worst in 2024 to one of its best. On third-and-long specifically, the Rams allowed the eighth-lowest conversion rate in the NFL at 36.3%.
On "Inside Football" with Trey Wingo, Rams general manager Les Snead acknowledged the gap between generating those situations and finishing them. Although Wingo noted that the Rams defense on average faced around 7.5 yards per third down, Snead noted that the team "didn't close" at some points later in the season.
Garrett should change that math.
"That's going to help," Snead said about how Garrett affects the third-down defense. "And then that's one of the things that even in probably some of those third downs down the stretch last year, we didn't — yeah, there were some times we didn't close it. We didn't have the close. Obviously bringing someone, you know, like Myles, he's going to be able to close it."
The Rams' scheme under defensive coordinator Chris Shula generated pressure at a top-five rate in 2025 (26.3%). But finishing plays — turning pressure into sacks and third-and-long into fourth down — is where even good defenses can leave production on the table. Garrett, who set the NFL's single-season sack record with 23 in 2025 and has hit double-digit sacks in eight consecutive seasons, is about as pure a closer as exists at the position.
For a Rams team that's aggressively retooled around a win-now timeline — also adding cornerback Trent McDuffie via trade and Jaylen Watson in free agency — the Garrett addition reads less like a luxury and more like the final piece to a defense that was already doing the hard part.
This is a defense to be feared on all three downs no matter the distance to the sticks.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Myles Garrett is more than a disrupter for Rams, he's a closer
Continue reading...
Los Angeles acquired Garrett from the Cleveland Browns in a blockbuster June trade, sending Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick, and a 2029 third-round pick for the two-time Defensive Player of the Year. It's the kind of move a team makes when it believes it's a piece away — and for the Rams' defense, that piece may be about closing out drives, not just getting to them.
Los Angeles was already excellent at creating long third downs last season, thanks to a first-down run defense that flipped from one of the league's worst in 2024 to one of its best. On third-and-long specifically, the Rams allowed the eighth-lowest conversion rate in the NFL at 36.3%.
On "Inside Football" with Trey Wingo, Rams general manager Les Snead acknowledged the gap between generating those situations and finishing them. Although Wingo noted that the Rams defense on average faced around 7.5 yards per third down, Snead noted that the team "didn't close" at some points later in the season.
Garrett should change that math.
"That's going to help," Snead said about how Garrett affects the third-down defense. "And then that's one of the things that even in probably some of those third downs down the stretch last year, we didn't — yeah, there were some times we didn't close it. We didn't have the close. Obviously bringing someone, you know, like Myles, he's going to be able to close it."
The Rams' scheme under defensive coordinator Chris Shula generated pressure at a top-five rate in 2025 (26.3%). But finishing plays — turning pressure into sacks and third-and-long into fourth down — is where even good defenses can leave production on the table. Garrett, who set the NFL's single-season sack record with 23 in 2025 and has hit double-digit sacks in eight consecutive seasons, is about as pure a closer as exists at the position.
For a Rams team that's aggressively retooled around a win-now timeline — also adding cornerback Trent McDuffie via trade and Jaylen Watson in free agency — the Garrett addition reads less like a luxury and more like the final piece to a defense that was already doing the hard part.
This is a defense to be feared on all three downs no matter the distance to the sticks.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Myles Garrett is more than a disrupter for Rams, he's a closer
Continue reading...
